It sounds like a contradiction – the idea of a healthful chip, yet each year there’s a national quest to find the perfect chip that tastes great but is not meant to blow-out your gut-circumference.

Trust me, Googling the word ‘potato chip’ will make your eyes spin in different directions with the sheer volume of information. You won’t believe so much can be written about deep-fried spud cuttings.

So much history since this humble tuber vege was shipped from South America in 1536 to land in boiling hot European oil; so many names for the same chip; so many shapes; so many cooking theories; and so many condiment sauces. In one variation or another, chips are the most popular vegetable side order on the planet. As a nation, Kiwis pig out on seven million serves of chips per week as food outlets, from roller-door takeaways to the country’s finest eateries, pump out ‘chups’ as fast as their deep-fat fryers will cope.

This makes the Kiwi-inspired ‘Best Chip Shop Competition’ all the more interesting. Running for some years, this competition is organised by the sensibly named ‘Chip Group’ and sponsored by big name business with an interest in making chips or making equipment to make chips, such as Goodman Fielder, Burns & Ferrall, McCain Foods, Moffat, and Mr Chips. Also involved is the The Heart Foundation, out to trim the fat from our collective cardiovascular plumbing by encouraging chips that combine health and flavour.

The aim of a ‘good’ chip in these days of a State entrusted with looking after our collective health, is a chip that gets crisp without absorbing huge quantities of the fat it is cooked in. Chip-making competitors in the Best Chip Shop Competition are registered online, while the chip-munching judging public are encouraged to text their vote over the months of August and September. After that, 15 regional finalists are selected from six regions across the country and the national winner announced in November.

After voting closes on October 1, the top ranking chipperies in each region are visited by an anonymous judge looking for chip freshness and colour, shop cleanliness and service. Greasy chips are the ultimate sin to those in charge of the nation’s waistline, so samples are sent to a laboratory to check their fat content. Only those containing fat levels of less than, or equal to, 11 percent make the grade.

According to the Heart Foundation, the average chip fat content (around seven percent) gets lower every year.

Bang your chips

The Chip Groups’ industry standards poster (sent to participant chip makers) recommends straight-cut, thick chips (at least 13mm thick) to reduce fat content, and to ‘bang or shake’ the chip basket vigorously “twice” before hanging the chip basket for at least 20 seconds. The National Heart Foundation also recommends high oleic sunflower oil and other blends containing this oil for commercial deep-frying. “Cottonseed and rice bran oils are also good choices [however] your entry in the competition will not be penalised for using other frying medium.”

Which is just as well, as every good spud cook from Rick Stein to the late Julia Child and even my dear Mum will tell you - the best chips are cooked in beef dripping. The Belgians, inventors of the double-fried fries, typically used horse or beef fat to make those famous ‘straw fries’ that became so popular with fast food outlets, and even fine dining restaurants back in the 1990s.

To prove my point, in 2007 a family owned chip shop, Lyttelton Fisheries, took out the Best Chip Shop title using beef fat and after scoring a chip fat content of 3.72 percent. This score was not only half the national average, but the lowest fat percentage recorded in the history of the competition's grand finals.

That’s because it’s all about technique and following rules about cooking times, temperatures, drainage and oil maintenance and the size (thick) of the chips.

A large volume of the world’s fries bubble away in vats of cost-effective canola oil, but it’s the densely saturated fats that are more solid at room temperature that produce the crispiest and tastiest fries. While canola oil only contains about six percent saturated fat, corn oil, peanut oil (a favourite with UK chipperies), and olive oil are about 15 percent saturated, while palm oil, butter, and lard are closer to 50 percent.

Frying temperature also plays a huge part in deciding whether your chip is snap sharp to bite or as limp as a wet willy on a cold day.

Cook books on chip making are few and far between, but every professional chip cook I’ve talked to, turns the thermostat between 180 and 190 degrees Celsius, particularly if using frozen chips. The Professional Chef (the culinary bible in the US - the home of fast food) recommends a heat between 350F and 375F (177C to 191C) for thick-cut chips.

The tallow master

The Mangonui Fish Shop on the top of the North Island is ‘world’ famous for its deep-fried seafood. Operator Alan Wright says he has tried a number of different vegetable oils over the years before going back to beef lard. The tallow lasts a lot longer, he says, because it is not absorbed by the chips as much as vegetable oil.

His kitchen also turns up the vat heat between 180C and 190C, and Wright makes no secret of using Mr Chips’Agria chips, frozen and straight into the vat, no pre-cooking. “They have a floury soft centre and a lovely yellow colour. Someone even accused me of dying my chips.”

Never use the same oil for cooking meats such as sausages, he says. Don’t crowd the vat and after banging/shaking the basket, leave it to drain for “at least two minutes”.

Crossing cultural taste boundaries

Spuds are the most popular tuber vegetable grown in the world. You might think most then are grown in the west, but 80 percent of the world’s crop is now from Asia, particularly China. ‘Would you like fries with your Peking Duck?’

The fat chip, as opposed to crisps and shoestring/straw fries (pommes allumettes), was popular in France/Belgium way back in the 18^th century. Thomas Jefferson, the same Tom that wrote the American Declaration of Independence and features on the US$10 bill, is said to have taken the chip bowl to the US after serving in France as an ambassador between 1785-89. The English didn’t seriously pick up the commercial chip craze until the 1860s. See what happens when you Google ‘chip’?

What differentiates chip-eating cultures to this day are the condiments thrown on top. In Belgium its mayonnaise, in the UK malt vinegar and salt, in the US it is ketchup or gravy, in Germany it is curry sauce, in Australasia – tomato sauce.

And toppings are getting innovative – engaging different sea salts, grated cheeses, chilies, truffle oil, smoked paprika mayo, and herbs such as rosemary. An interesting Middle East meets ‘Coro Street’ trend began in the UK halfway through this decade of stuffing chips into Pitta bread. As Amy Winehouse croons in You Know I’m no Good  - “Run out to meet you, chips and pitta.”

Rehab for chip addicts?

Winter 2009

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