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Fried Potatoes
Shadow Potatoes (Saratoga Chips) Wash and pare potatoes. Slice thinly (using vegetable slicer) into a bowl of cold water. Let stand two hours, changing water twice. Drain, plunge in a kettle of boiling water, and boil one minute. Drain again, and cover with cold water. Take from water and dry between towels.
Fry in deep fat until light brown, keeping in motion with a skimmer. Drain on brown paper and sprinkle with salt.
Fannie Farmer's method for potato chips is longer than most modern ones, and the extra steps are what give a pale, glassy, non-greasy chip. The soaking and the blanch are the whole point.
- The hinge: get them bone dryWet slices drop the fat temperature and steam rather than crisp, and they spit dangerously. Blot between towels until the surfaces feel dry to the touch before anything goes near the fat.
- Why soak two hoursChanging the water twice pulls surface starch off the slices so they fry separate instead of gluing into clumps, and it leaches sugars that would otherwise brown the chips before they crisp.
- The one-minute boilA brief blanch firms the surface of the slices before frying. Modern chip recipes generally skip it; expect a somewhat denser chip if you do.
- "Vegetable slicer"A mandoline. The book gives no thickness, only "thinly"; something in the region of 1/16 inch suits. A sharp knife works but uneven slices cook unevenly; use the guard.
- Deep fat temperatureThe book gives no temperature here, judging fat by how fast a test crumb browns. Around 350-375F answers. Fry in small handfuls so the temperature does not crash, and keep them moving as directed or they weld together.
- Fat to usePeriod frying fats were beef fat, lard and the vegetable shortenings then on sale. Any neutral oil with a high smoke point does the same job; peanut and refined sunflower are closest in behavior.
- Draining"Brown paper" means unprinted kraft or a grocery bag. Paper towels or a wire rack are cleaner; salt while still hot so it sticks.
The parenthetical name ties this to Saratoga Springs, New York, where the thin fried potato is traditionally said to have been created at a resort restaurant in the 1850s, supposedly to spite a guest who complained his potatoes were cut too thick. The story is folklore rather than documented fact, but "Saratoga chips" appears to have been a commercial term in use by the 1880s, sold in tins and barrels well before the potato chip became a national snack industry. "Shadow potatoes" is another descriptive name, for slices cut thin enough to see light through. Farmer includes it among fried potatoes as a straightforward kitchen preparation rather than a bought good.