great article on chips/crisp flavours

[wargarden]

So long, salt and vinegar: how crisp flavours went from simple to sensational
https://www.theguardian.com/food/2020/j ... ensational

[Seatallan]

Yes, saw that one. Do you know, I still love salt & vinegar crisps (and cheese & onion is still my favorite flavour).

Having said that, friend found some 'truffle & champagne' flavoured crisps in M&S at Christmas which she bought for New Years Eve and they were seriously moreish!!

[KC2]

Yes, saw that one. Do you know, I still love salt & vinegar crisps (and cheese & onion is still my favorite flavour).

Having said that, friend found some 'truffle & champagne' flavoured crisps in M&S at Christmas which she bought for New Years Eve and they were seriously moreish!!

A friend brought us a packet of truffle crisps, without the champagne, from Waitrose, part of their Christmas range, and they were surprisingly good! I was somewhat sceptical until I'd actually tried them and then I found it hard to stop!

[Gruney]

I've tried loads, but the plain ones are still my favourites.

[liketocook]

Ready salted are my favourite by far, after that paprika and then the ones with black pepper. I'm not keen on any cheese and onion type ones though unless in an "emergency" . For a crisp sandwich though it has to be prawn cocktail ideally made with slices from a "Mother's Pride Plain Loaf" and lots of butter .

[earthmaiden]

Ready salted for me too or, the original Smiths with the blue twist of salt because you could add it to your own taste. I remember when cheese & onion was introduced by Golden Wonder and then salt & vinegar. It's amazing to see all the flavours and styles of frying which have been introduced since then. When I was small, people didn't really snack and crisps were served as part of a meal or on a picnic. My grandmother always warmed them before serving as part of a meal, even with salad.

There used to be a Smiths crisp factory in Gt. Yarmouth. If you drove by when they were frying, the smell was out of this world .

[StokeySue]

I absolutely loathe salt and vinegar crisps, vinegar (or non-brewed condiment, essentially 1 molar acetic acid) on chip shop chips (fries) is pretty disgusting but sodium acetate on crisps is just Sodium acetate does not taste like real vinegar to me.

When I used to go to work lunches we used to get big bowls of Russian Roulette crisps on the buffet — about 3 different flavours randomly mixed. Why? Why would a supposedly professional caterer ever do that? Nobody ate them.

[earthmaiden]

How weird- and disappointing!

I like vinegar on chips and chip shop vinegar always seems better than adding it at home. I have always wondered what the difference was.

[StokeySue]

I suspect the difference between adding vinegar in the shop and later is largely the temperature of the chip?

[Gruney]

I have always wondered what the difference was.

Probably watered down a bit.

[earthmaiden]

Yes, I think you are right Gruney. Even if you cook chips at home and add vinegar whilst they are piping hot it isn't quite the same.

[Prettykiwicrazy]

I absolutely love loads of salt and vinegar on my chips . I’d say salt and vinegar are one of my favourites though I do like a really good quality ready salted crisp . Same as I love pretty much all cake but I think an excellently made Victoria sponge is hard to beat

[Herbidacious]

Roast potato flavoured crisps amused me...

I am not a fan of crisps. The flavour often disappoints and seems to disappears after you've eaten a few anyway. As a child I preferred corn based 'snacks', but we weren't allowed that sort of thing much. (Budget rather than health concerns, I think. Or maybe my mother just didn't like them.)

I do rather like those lime and mini chilli phppodums that you can get at the moment, but again not crisps per se.

I am now tempted to try sousing some ready salted crisps (my worst flavour, hyusband's fave) with vinegar.

I have some truffly M&S ones in the cupboard, bought for Christmas.

[PatsyMFagan]

I've tried loads, but the plain ones are still my favourites.

Mine too ... on another thread I mention penny packets of broken crisps .. I would buy these on the way home from school in the early '60's ... only plain then and still, as far as I am concerned, the ONLY flavour My favourite brand being Kettles lightly salted.

edited to add : iirc, the first flavoured crisps were roast chicken ? It could just be my age though

[suffolk]

I seem to remember Oxo flavour crisps from way back ...?

[Seatallan]

I seem to remember Oxo flavour crisps from way back ...?

Me too! They were lovely!

[suffolk]

They were indeed Seatallen

[StokeySue]

Hedgehog flavour crisps?

I quite liked them (they were vegetarian iirc)

I never understand why we can’t have good paprika flavoured crisps in the UK, some of the continental ones are really nice

[Meganthemog]

Does anyone remember the tins of Smiths crisps in the grocer shops in the 50s/60s? They would weigh out the desired amount and put them into a brown paper bag. A weekend treat when I was little - having a bag of your own with a blue paper twist of salt was the height of decadence

[suffolk]

I sort of remember seeing the tins ...

[StokeySue]

I remember the tins but I don't remember crisps being sold loose, always in wax paper bags with a little blue twist of salt in, the tins were used to keep them fresh as the bags weren't impermeable to water vapour. There were a couple in my grandfather's pub

The Smith's Crisps factory was quite near us, the smell was pretty noticeable when you went past. You always knew which of your friends had got holiday jobs there, the miasma clung to them. I never worked there, it really wasn't feasible from our house using public transport.