moisture before they’re desiccated and done,
in 3–4 minutes. The texture is therefore
delicately crisp and fine-grained. Most
packaged chips have this texture because
they’re made in a continuous processor whose
oil temperature stays high. On the other hand,
cooking at an initially low and slowly
increasing temperature, beginning around
250ºF/120ºC and reaching 350ºF/175ºC in 8–
10 minutes, gives the starch granules time to
absorb water, exude dissolved starch into the
potato cell walls, and reinforce and glue them
together. The result is a much harder,
crunchier chip. This is the texture created by
“kettle frying,” or cooking the slices by the
batch in a vessel like an ordinary pot. The
temperature of the preheated kettle drops
immediately when a batch of cold potatoes is
dumped in, so the potatoes cook in oil whose
temperature starts low and rises slowly as the
potatoes’ moisture is cooked out and the
heater catches up.
barry
(Barry)
#1