Home Made Potato Chips

[claire797]

Claire,

In this case

Plain potato, not soaked -- right off the bin -- Excellent. Cooked at 350 for 6 minutes and had just the right amount of crispness.

did you rinse them in cold water first? Or just slice and fry?

I rinsed the dirt off them in luke-warm water, peeled them and sliced them. No soaking. The non-soaked potatoes seemed to do a lot better.

After I posted last night, I went back and made another batch. This time, I fried the chips at 325 for about 10-12 minutes. Low and slow heat seems to be the way to go, because the potatoes crisped up and browned at about the same rate.

I also tossed this new batch in Worcestire sauce. Man, that was good!

[t2contra]

Those wonderful chips, how I wish I could make them myself. Has anyone any home-made recipe for them?

thomas

[Shalmanese]

Pringles are made from a paste of potato starch, extruded into a shape and then dehydrated and powdered IIRC. Probably not practical at home. Lays style chips are easy as long as you have a mandolin. Just set it to the thinnest setting and slice. Rinse in cold water and then place between two paper towels to absorb the moisture. A quick dip into 375F oil (tallow is preferred if you can get it, otherwise, canola oil) until they are crisp and then place on some more paper towels and sprinkle with a little fleur de sel.

[jackal10]

You can make Pringle style but its a lot of work. You can use a method similar to my Prawn Crackers http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=63405, but use potato starch (and no prawns)

I think the original get their shape from drying on heated rollers before frying - they starch slurry is basically printed onto the roller, The composition of the starch is such that you don't get much expansion on frying.

[Steven Blaski]

Those wonderful chips, how I wish I could make them myself. Has anyone any home-made recipe for them?

thomas

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Jacques Pépin (in "Simple and Healthy Cooking") has a recipe for making potato chips in the microwave. Here's how he does it:

Cut 3 potatoes into 1/16" slices; wash them in cool water; pat dry. Place potatoes in one layer -- only 10 to 15 slices at a time -- on a waffled microwave tray and nuke on high for 5 minutes or till crisp. Remove slices and repeat. Serves 6. He serves them with salsa cruda.

I've never tried it -- but Jacques is pretty reliable.

[AlainV]

"You can make Pringle style but its a lot of work. You can use a method similar to my Prawn Crackers http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=63405, but use potato starch (and no prawns)

I think the original get their shape from drying on heated rollers before frying - they starch slurry is basically printed onto the roller, The composition of the starch is such that you don't get much expansion on frying."

jackal10, I just read your prawn crackers thread and would be very interested to get the recipe of your potato variation

Alain

Edited November 1, 2005 by AlainV (log)

[jsmeeker]

I've made potato chips (American terminology here) before and was hoping to get some additional tips from this topic.

My method is what I thought was fairly simple. Take a Russet potato (I have no idea if they are late season or not. It's just whatever the grocery stores sell). Slice it thin with a V-slicer. Rinse and soak in a lot of water. I put the sliced potatoes in a container and fill with water. Then dump it out. Then fill it again. and dump it out.. Then fill it again. I keep rinsing them until the water runs pretty clear.. Then I dry them by laying some out in a single layer on towels, with a more paper towels on top.

I heat regular canola oil to 350 and fry them until a golden brown. This is the point at which they get crispy. I wish I had taken a photo of them to post here. I'll do that next time. But they are brown, but not what I would call burned. Then are light and crisp, and don't feel greasy to me. But these aren't exactly like most store bought chips. Those are usually yellow when crisp.

What goals are people trying to achieve here? are you trying to make them look like the commercial chips? I.e. yellow? Or are you just trying to get them crisp without BURNING?

What I get from this topic so far is that the more sugar in the potatoes, the darker they get. That makes sense to me. Is it possible I am OVER rinsing my potatoes? Does having too little starch make them more brown? I'm not even sure if them getting brown is a bad thing. Really, I think these are pretty good. I've had chips similar to this in a nice hotel bar. if I explored the soak in acidic acid, would that help them stay more yellow when they finally crisp up?

Wonder what McGee says on this? I oughta check it out.

[Lisa Shock]

I make powder-fine salt (like commercial popcorn salt) by putting a good flavorful salt (so many to choose from!) in the blender and letting it go for a few minutes. I find it gives more even coverage, and a more professional appearance.

I occasionally add dry herbs/spices to the salt in the blender.

[Talat_kas]

Potato chips i usually make at home and for making it crispy i cut very thin slices and wash them. Boil for 2 mins, dry them completely and fry in very very hot oil. The chips are very crispy and tasty.

[jsmeeker]

I make powder-fine salt (like commercial popcorn salt) by putting a good flavorful salt (so many to choose from!) in the blender and letting it go for a few minutes. I find it gives more even coverage, and a more professional appearance.

I occasionally add dry herbs/spices to the salt in the blender.

←

I used popcorn salt, mixed with some ancho chili pepper, to season my chips. Worked well.

[Lisa Shock]

In terms of the pale yellow color vs brown, I have seen commercial brown chips. Some of the small companies like Kettle Chips sell a very brown product.

I decided to research how potato variety affects chips and found an interesting page from OSU Potato Variety Development Program.

Looks like the big commercial chip producers tend to use round white varieties of potatoes. Some small producers use Russets, and this might explain the color differences. I have never seen the varieties they list as giving good chip color for sale in a store.

When I lived in Santa Fe, we used to get a variety of red potato from Colorado that had a thick ugly skin and very white flesh. Those made very delicious chips. -And were really good for other things like potato salad...

[Okbrewer]

I've been making chips lately using small purple potatoes. I think they are a bit more starchy than russets and they are, well, purple! I slice on my mandoline into a pot of water and soak and then rinse, and then dry in layers on paper towels. I heat peanut oil to 375F in my cast iron dutch oven and then fry in batches. I put Kosher salt in my spice mill (blade coffee mill) and create a fine salt. I place cooling rack upside down on a sheet pan covered in newspaper and when the potatoes are fried I put them on the inverted rack to drain and salt. When cool, I put them into a brown paper bag.

Bob R in OKC

[KennethT]

I've been making chips lately using small purple potatoes.  I think they are a bit more starchy than russets and they are, well, purple!  I slice on my mandoline into a pot of water and soak and then rinse, and then dry in layers on paper towels.  I heat peanut oil to 375F in my cast iron dutch oven and then fry in batches.  I put Kosher salt in my spice mill (blade coffee mill) and create a fine salt.  I place cooling rack upside down on a sheet pan covered in newspaper and when the potatoes are fried I put them on the inverted rack to drain and salt.  When cool, I put them into a brown paper bag.

Bob R in OKC

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hey Bob - what's the purpose of the upside down cooling rack? If you want them to drain, wouldn't you want the cooling rack the normal way? Or do they slide through the bars??

[Anna N]

. . .

hey Bob - what's the purpose of the upside down cooling rack?  If you want them to drain, wouldn't you want the cooling rack the normal way?  Or do they slide through the bars??

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I believe this is Alton Brown's preferred method of draining the oil from fried foods.

[Shalmanese]

While there's lots of love given to the french fry, I think the humble potato chip is the best deep fried potato dish for the home kitchen. Unlike the fry, potato chips can be done in a single fry that takes less than 5 minutes. And while it's hard to best restaurants & fast food chains who put a lot of pride into perfecting their french fry, a properly fried potato chip is easily miles ahead of the store bought version.

However, while lots of sites will give you a single recipe for potato chips but it's hard to find any in depth discussion about them.

Do you deep fry or oven fry or even microwave fry? Starchy, Waxy or All Purpose Potatoes? Mandoline or hand cut? Washed or unwashed? If you wash, how carefully do you dry? What oil temp do you prefer to fry at? How done do you like them? What do you like to season them with after they come out of the fryer?

I've always preferred starchy potatoes, hand cut so there's some variation in the thickness of slices. I've not found any great benefit to washing and not washing makes the logistics of it so much easier.

My technique for frying is somewhat unconventional. I'll heat the oil up to 375F in a pan on high heat and then deliberately overload the frying to bring the temp all the way down to around 250F or so. While constantly swirling the oil to make sure the slices don't stick together, I'll let the temp start slowly climbing while I start to cut the next batch of potatoes (this is where not washing helps). Once I start hearing the sizzle die down, I know that all the moisture has been cooked out of the potatoes and, if I timed it right, this happens just as the oil has climbed back up to 350F and just started the brown the edges of the chips. If you time it right, you can get this down to a repeatable process that significantly simplifies the frying process.

While I enjoy the variation in textures of hand cut, homemade chips, I think my favorite texture chips are the ones which are crisp on the outside and just a tiny nugget of soft potato in the middle. That's something you'll never get with commercial chips.

Seasoning is salt & pepper, ground fine in a spice grinder and then some sort of spice mix on top. Last night, we did plain, sumac, curry powder, cumin/ancho & soy/lemon (both powdered).

One intriguing tip I've noticed researching potato chip recipes today was to brine the chips in vinegar for a few hours before frying for natural salt & vinegar chips.

[Ader1]

I have just been looking at the forum on people's favorite potato chips. It got me thinking about trying to make some myself at home. Has anybody here tried making chips themselves. What equipment is required? I suppose you would require a slicer of some sort. I like mine pretty thin. Then how would would one infuse them with flavor? Oven baked or fried? I have to admit I prefer the fried varieties. So, how would would go about making them?

[Panaderia Canadiense]

I make both potato and plantain chips on a fairly regular basis, and fry both. Here's what I do:

Start by getting yourself either a good, long-bladed veggie peeler or a mandoline - depending on how thick you like your chips cut, one or the other will be the ideal tool (the peeler cuts very thin chips, and the mandoline is adjustable for variable thicknesses. The other bonus with a mandoline is that you can cut shoestrings without a lot of effort.) Now peel (or don't) your potatoes and either use the peeler to take off the chips (cut a thin slice off the end of the potato and then just run the peeler across that - you'll "peel" off thin chips) or use the mandoline to do it. If you want very crispy chips, don't rinse the starch off.

Then (if you're like me and prefer a shallow-oil fry) you need some sort of frying vessel with enough space in it for about 1" of oil and another 1" or so of chips. And of course some fat of some sort. That will come down to personal preference - commercial chips are often fried in either canola or palm oil, but at home I often use sunflower instead, and when I'm feeling really decadent, I use bacon, duck or chicken fat. Get your fat good and hot.

If you want to start infusing flavour at the frying stage (which is not how it's done commercially) you can add things to your fat before you start frying the chips. Onions work fairly well, as do spices (cinnamon, black pepper, etc.) Commercial chips dust the fried product with flavouring powders.

Then, working in small amounts, add the potatoes to the oil (a slice at a time if possible, which will prevent them from sticking to one another. When I'm using the peeler to make the chips, I just peel chips right into the oil). Fry until they reach the desired level of golden crunchiness, then remove them with a wire spoon and drain them on paper towelling. Repeat until you're out of potatoes.

Now you can also add flavours - make up a spice powder that you like and dust the chips with it, then toss them in a plastic bag (the way you would for coating chicken or other things in panko) to even out the flavour distribution. And voila!

Once you're experienced, the whole shmoo should take about half an hour to 45 minutes. Save your oil, too - if it's not too burnt you can reuse it in the next batch of chips.

[Lisa Shock]

I like to use my wok to make them. The shape of the pan means that less oil is used, and I get a wide surface area.

[Ader1]

Thank you for that Panaderia Camadiense. That's given me a few ideas. Thank you too Lisa for your suggestion. I'll have a go at this in the next few weeks.

[Lora]

If you have a dehydrator, these are pretty fun to play around with:

http://www.joyfulabode.com/2012/06/24/homemade-baked-lays-potato-chipsbut-better/

[kleinebre]

A few tricks I've found to help when making potato chips / crisps at home:
- Slice as thinly as possible... no surprise there. If your knife skills are such that you can slice thinner with a knife than with a mandolin, use a knife.

- Boil the sliced chips in water with a bit of vinegar - 1 tbsp per litre of water. There are two reasons for this: 1. It will help set the pectin of the potato, which prevents the slices from falling apart, and 2. It helps them crisp up (I don't recall if I ever found the scientific explanation... Your best bet is looking up Kenji Lopez-Alt 's McDonald's fries recipe)
- The chips will have soaked up some water, you might think that's good because it will expand and turn to steam when deep frying, forming tiny bubbles. But it will also prevent the chips from warming up. You want to dry the chips off best you can before frying them. Fry them at relatively low temperature (130C) initially to drive off moisture. You can take them to 180C/350F afterwards, but they will colour very quickly at those temperatures. I suggest staying a bit lower, about 160C/310F.

For the vinegar you'll probably want to use plain white distilled/spirit vinegar. In addition to helping the potato slices stay together while boiling, the added acidity should help slow the chips browning. Non-white vinegars are likely to stain your crisps as they're coloured with caramel/sugars which will turn dark at frying temperatures.

[ChrisTaylor]

Dry the chips carefully before frying. Saves making an oily mess.

[liuzhou]

I also use the wok. I also vary the thickness. Sometimes I like them as thin as I can get; other times I prefer them more chunky. Usually, I just salt them.

Apart from that I would only repeat what has already been said - dry the critters before frying them.

[Plantes Vertes]

To flavour your chips, use pharmaceutical grade maltodextrin (get it from ebay). It absorbs oils and turns them into a dry edible powder which can be sprinkled on food.

All you have to do to obtain a certain flavour, say parsley, is make an infusion of parsley in oil, then add maltodextrin to the oil a bit at a time until you obtain a dry powder; sieve the powder and use immediately or store it in an airtight container (the flavours will degrade over time).

You can use any fat; oil, butter, lard...

Be careful not to let the unused maltodextrin get wet.

[catdaddy]

If you have a dehydrator, these are pretty fun to play around with:

http://www.joyfulabode.com/2012/06/24/homemade-baked-lays-potato-chipsbut-better/

Wow, those chips look great.