National Potato Chip Day

The potato chip is a popular snack in Western countries. It's made from deep-fried, thin potato slices. Salt is added and sometimes other flavorings. At first, however, potato chips were made in homes. A recipe for them appears in William Kitchiner's 1822 cookbook, which became a best-seller in England and the United States. The 1824 edition of Mary Randolph's Virgina Housewife and N.K.M. Lee's Cook's Own Book (1832) include a recipe for potato chips and cite Kitchiner.

Legend has it that George Crum, a cook at Moon's Lake house in Saratoga Springs, New York, had an unhappy customer who kept sending his fried potatoes back saying they were too thick. Finally Crum sliced them razor-thin, fried them crispy, salted them, and sent them out. The customer loved them, and they became called "Saratoga Chips."

It wasn't until the 20th century that the potato chip became mass-produced for buyers to eat at home. New England's Tri-Sum Potato Chips, originally the Leominster Potato Chip company, and Ohio-based Mike-Sell's Potato Chip Company were two of the early ones founded in 1908 and 1910. At first, the chips sold in markers were scooped out of bins or sold in tins. Laura Scudder of Monterey Park, California, started sending sheets of wax paper home with her workers for them to seal them into bags with a hot iron. Packaging them in bags with air helped prevent crumbling. When cellophane was invented, this method took off.

The potato chip market has expanded through the years. In 2006, over 16 billion dollars of potato chips were sold. So, let's have a few chips today to celebrate National Potato Chip Day, which happens every March 14.

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