METHODS OF MANUFACTURING POTATO CHIPS. ae: 
first-class chips by methods as simple as possible, equally applica- 
ble at home or in a factory. The following methods were tried: 
(1) Following the recipe given ebove. 
(2) Washing in cold water, which was then shaken off; not dried. 
(83) Washing in cold water; dipping in hot water; not dried. 
(4) Washing in cold water; dried between towels. 
(5) Washing in cold water, dipping in hot and again in cold water; not 
dried. 
(6) Washing in cold salt water and then in clear, cold running water; 
dipping in hot water; then in cold water and dried. 
(7) Soaking in cold water for 24 hours; dipping in hot water; again in cold 
water; dried. 
(8) Not washed or dried; fried as soon as sliced. 
(9) Not washed; dried before frying. 
(10) Dipping in hot water immediately after slicing; then in cold; drained 
but not dried. 
Some of these methods produced good chips. Certain others, 
notably Nos. 8, 9, and 10, resulted in a feinede poor product, soggy 
and uneven. There was no apparent advantage from the use of the 
salt-water bath in No. 6. Nor was it found that the hot-water bath 
was at all essential to producing crisp, nongreasy, high-grade chips. 
Cutting the potatoes into thin, even slices with an accurate vegetable 
slicer, soaking them thoroughly in clear, cold water after an initial 
bath of cold running water, and frying them in a clean, high-grade 
fat at a high temperature were cmd to be the three essentials in 
producing crisp, high-quality chips. 
FATS USED IN THE EXPERIMENTAL WORK. 
Deep-fat frying to the minds of many housekeepers means frying 
in lard, and many cookbook recipes for potato chips specify the use 
of lard. Pure leaf lard, therefore, headed the list of fats which were 
experimented with. Then came various lardlike derivatives of cot- 
tonseed oil, half a dozen standard brands of cottonseed oil, several 
samples of peanut oil, coconut oil, and a mixture of lard and beef 
suet. 
The most satisfactory frying medium was found to be a high- 
grade cottonseed oil, and this was adopted as the standard in sub- 
sequent cooking tests. Good cottonseed oil was clear and bland and 
practically flavorless. It proved to be the most economical fat, both 
because of a lower initial cost and a minimum of waste in cooking; 
and a comparison of chips fried in the different fats demonstrated 
its superiority in behavior during cooking and in the flavor of the 
finished product. Both the lard and the lard and suet mixture im- 
parted a flavor or aftertaste that was unpleasant to some pecple and 
left a cloudy coating on the chips that made them less attractive 
than the clear yellow-brown gloss of chips fried in oil. All the vege- 
