Chips

In Britain a chip is a piece of potato cut lengthwise and square to make a straight sided stick shape, deep fried and served when slightly crispy on the outside and soft in the middle.


They may be made at home from raw potatoes and cooked in a chip pan or, nowadays, they may be bought as pre-cut potatoes, glazed lightly with oil which can be cooked in the oven.


Fish and chips is a traditional 'take-away' dish from 'chip-shops' in the UK.


Elsewhere they may be termed French fries and they are fairly common in restaurants in France, where they are called pommes frites. In Britain the term French Fries tends to be used in ‘posh’ restaurants to mean a chip or elsewhere to mean a thinner cut form of stick.


In the US a chip is a finely sliced piece of potato – cut in a cross section so as to be round. This is then deep fried until crisp.


They are usually made commercially and supplied in a sealed bag.


In Britain these are known as crisps. The first British potato crisps were manufactured by a man named Carter in 1913. He allegedly discovered them in France. In 1920 Smiths, a family business, began the first commercial production in Britain. Mrs Smith washed, cut and fried the potatoes in a garage in North London. Frank Smith packaged them in greaseproof paper bags and sold them from his pony and trap. A twist of blue paper with salt in it was provided to flavour the crisps. By then end of 1921 the Smiths had moved to larger premises and employed 12 staff .