The Science Behind Salt and Vinegar Chips | Serious Eats-Salt and Vinegar Chips

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salt and vinegar chips

Salt and Vinegar Chips

I have found a very educational information about how salt and vinegar chips are made.

It’s not as easy as you thing because there is a lot of science and technology involved in their  elaboration. In this  article you will learn about how the salt and vinegar chips  are processed from start to finish.

This excellent article from Serious Eats  will show you all the science needed to produce those chips we enjoy so much.

Read on and next time  you eat them you  can impress your  friends  by showing off  your newly acquired knowledge.

Despite what the image above may suggest, salt and vinegar chips are not made by pouring salt and vinegar into a bag of potato chips (I know, what a bummer). Before vinegar (and it’s brow-sweating acetic acid) can be added to a chip, it needs to be processed into a dry foodstuff that will stick to, and more importantly not sog out, a potato chip.

How do chip companies do it? Well, many use a process that involves spraying a thin layer of vinegar onto maltodextrin (a light, slightly sweet, flavorless powder derived from starch) or other modified food starch. Maltodextrin’s porous structure absorbs a great deal of vinegar flavor, and the mixture can then be dried into a robust powder. Alternatively, many use sodium diacetate, a 1:1 ratio of sodium acetate and acetic acid, which provides salt and vinegar flavor in a dry mixture.

Salt and Vinegar Chips

Salt and vinegar chips were first produced in the 1950s (thanks Tayto brand!) and it’s easy to assume that these dry vinegar technologies were born out of the same era—the one that delivered us boxed cake mixes and Cheeze Whiz. In reality, the method of combining starch and vinegar and letting it dry is actually really old. No, I mean really old. Here’s a home recipe for dry vinegar from The English Housewife: Containing the Inward and Outward Virtues Which Ought to be in a Complete Woman, published in 1615!

Salt and Vinegar Chips

via The Science Behind Salt and Vinegar Chips | Serious Eats.