UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



| BULLETIN No. 1055 



Contribution from the Bureau of Plant Industry 

 WM. A. TAYLOR, Chief 



jyjf'^su 



Washington, D. C. 



May 10, 1922 



METHODS OF MANUFACTURING POTATO CHIPS. 



By Margaret Coxxok Vosbxjby, Scientific Assistant, Office of Horticultural and 

 Pamological Investigations. 



CONTENTS. 



Page. 



Introduction 1 



Experimental methods of making po- 

 tato chips 2 



Fats used in the experimental work_ 3 

 Standard method of making chips for 



the tests 6 



Handling the fat in making chips 7 



Equipment 9 



Selecting potatoes for chips 11 



Causes of failure in making chips 12 



Score card used in these tests 13 



Comparative adaptability of varieties 



for making chips 14 



Loss in peeling and quantity of chips 



obtained 16 



Summary 19 



INTRODUCTION. 



Potatoes are a universal food and share honors with bread as the 

 ' : staff of life." There is only one style, however, in which cooked 

 potatoes are now distributed in commercial quantities over long dis- 

 tances in a condition to keep for a considerable time. Crisp, golden 

 potato chips command a ready market in all seasons, and there are 

 firm- which supply markets a thousand miles away. Moreover, it is 

 not difficult to prepare them at home with ordinary household equip- 

 ment if a few fundamental rules are observed. 



Beginning in L914, there has been conducted each winter a series 

 of cooking experiments designed to test the culinary value of a large 

 number of the most promising of the seedling tubers developed in 

 the potato-breeding project of the Office of Horticultural and Pomo- 

 logical Investigations of the Bureau of Plant [ndustry. United 

 States Departinenf of Agriculture. During the first three years a 

 Bpecial study was made of methods of making potato chips and flic 

 value of the different eedlings for thai purpose. 



The fir-t year's work. l!»l 1 L5, was largely experimental, methods 

 of procedure being developed and standardized. The tests were 

 continued and amplified during 191S L6 and L916 IT. No effort was 

 -l 



