The Walker's factory in Liecester produces millions of bags of crisps every day. From salt and vinegar to prawn cocktail, you can browse the nation's favourite snack to your heart's content. But it might be interesting to know how this popular snack started out. Middle investigated the pages of legend to give you a truthful answer...
The American Way
George Speck was the son of a horse jockey, but instead of taking on his father's talent he decided to become a chef, and became pretty good at cooking. He set up a resteraunt in Saratoga Springs, and from miles around the shop's special, Moon's Fried Potatoes, became famous. This is where the elements of legend come in. The story goes that baron Cornelius Vanderbilt walked into the store and asked for some chips. Our friend George made them exactly according to the recipe, but Cornelius said they were too thick. George made them thinner, but still the idiotic baron claimed they were too thick. Much to his delight, George decided to annoy corny Cornelius by making them so thin you could barely eat them. Well, the baron obviously could eat them because the story goes that he loved them, making these new 'crisps' a treat for everyone.
But Is A British Doctor The Real Inventor Of Crisps? (Yes)
Another story states that crisps date back to at least 1817 invented by the aptly named doctor and chef William Kitchiner. In his first cookbook, the Cook's Oracle, one of the recipes, named 'potatoes fried in slices', sounds unmistakeably like today's crisps. Later volumes referred to them as 'fried potatoes in slices or shavings'.
William might have published the first official crisp recipe, but that doesn't mean he invented them. As peasant food in the Middle Ages, potato slices have surely been around for centuries. These two clashing tales of crisps might have both been true.
Again another interesting blog. Love how there's two versions of how the crisp came into being. When I was young there were only plain crisps which came with a blue packet of salt. If you wanted vinegar flavour you just put ordinary vinegar on them . We never envisaged there would be other flavours.