CRISPS
Serves 4
The UK crisp and snack market is worth El billion a year and crisp
sales continue to rise at 7% a year. Last year, according to the Snack,
Nut and Crisp Federation, we crunched our way through five million six
hundred packets. That means we average around 30 lb (13 kg) per head a
year.
It may help you to resist the enormous choice of crisp styles and
flavours now on sale when I tell you that the wholesale and retail
profit on a packet of crisps is approximately half the packet price.
Also interesting is the fact that the Chancellor of the Exchequer
considers crisps a luxury item so they are VAT rated. There is no VAT
on smoked salmon and caviare.
If you make your own crisps it will cost you 2p to make the equivalent
number of crisps in a 30 g packet.
There are nearly 550 calories in a 4 oz (110 g) portion of crisps;
that's more than double the calories in the same quantity of chips.
Home-made crisps are also called game chips and are a traditional
accompaniment to game; in which case their French name is en Bard, in
America they are chips.
-
Peel the potatoes and, using a sharp
knife or mandoline, cut the potatoes into wafer-thin slices.
-
Put immediately into a big bowl of cold
water.
-
Swirl around to get all the starch out
and dry in a cloth.
-
Cook in small batches in very hot oil
(375F/190C) for 2 minutes.
-
Drain and serve on a doily sprinkled with
salt.
-
Uneaten crisps can be kept in an
air-tight tin.
|