The History of Chips

Two hundred and eighty years of chips

Although chips are most readily associated with England, in fact the French invented the chip in the mid 1700s calling them pomme fritte.
They are first recorded in Britain in the Shilling Cookery Book by Mr Soyer (a famous chef of the time at the Reform Club in London) published in 1854. In that book the recipe calls for the potatoes to be sliced rather than cut into the chip sticks were are now familiar with.

Chips are closely associated with the British delicacy of fish and chips. Fried fish had been around much longer than chips but within years of the invention of the chip, fish and chip shops were opening in London and the north of England.

The frozen chip was a 1960s invention. Although they have steadily improved over the years they are still not a patch on a bowl of properly cooked chips. Indeed, their main claim to fame appears to be their low levels of fat, a consideration which would offend the true chip lover!

Fast food shops were the main reason for the popularity of chips in the USA. McDonalds call them fries and the name has stuck. McDonalds has spent millions of dollars perfecting the frying process, they even store the potatoes for a couple of weeks before using them for their fries. This storage time allows the natural sugars in the potatoes to turn to starch which encourages a longer cooking time.

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THE HISTORY OF CHIPS