The Many-Splendored Potato, a Marvel of Convenience
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dextran is not over. Clinical dextran saline for intravenous injection) were is stockpiled for use in national emer- valued at $2 million. gencies, both civilian and military. It Clinical dextran does not replace the has become a standard item in many blood bank. Many patients still must civilian hospitals in the United States. have blood transfusions. But dextran The Vietnam conflict again brought can tide them over until the blood can quantities of dextran onto the battle- be administered. fields. During 1967, total civilian and So—He might have died military purchases of clinical dextran But he lives (6 percent solution in physiological Because of dextran. The Many-Splendored Potato, A Marvel of Convenience BERNARD FEINBERG 0^2¿/MERLE L. WEAVER There is one field in which Other processed foods which were al- the average Russian does better than ready prepared, cooked, and flavored, the average American—eating pota- and therefore provided convenience, toes. The Russian eats over 400 pounds pushed potatoes out of the shopping a year, the American little more than basket of Americans. 100. Back in 1910, we were pretty The only processed potato product good potato eaters; we ate about 180 readily available in the supermarket pounds per person. However, by 1952, up until about 1950 was potato chips. this had dropped to about 100 pounds. Potato chips still qualify as the ideal One reason for this drop in potato convenience food because they can be consumption was the growing concern eaten directly from the bag. Chips of the public with calorie intake and remain one of the most popular proc- the mistaken belief that potatoes are essed potato products. Indeed, until high in calories. It is unfortunate that 1965 when frozen french fries produc- potatoes acquired this undeserved rep- tion topped 1.5 billion pounds, chips utation. It is not the potato, but the were the most important processed added butter, gravy, or the absorbed potato product. frying oil which account for most of Beginning around 1950, a variety of the calories in our favorite styles of new processed potato products began cooked potatoes. to appear on the market. Another reason for the decline in potato consumption was growing com- petition from other starchy foods like BERNARD FEINBERG is Assistant to the Director rice and macaroni. Just as important at the Western Utilization Research and Develop- was the fact that American housewives ment Division, Agricultural Research Service, became time-conscious and impatient Albany, Calif. with the task of food preparation. MERLE L. WEAVER is Head of Potato Investiga- Peeling, cutting, boiling, and frying tions at the Western Utilization Research and potatoes just took too much time. Development Division. 317 They included instant mashed pota- of the 1.5 billion pounds of frozen po- toes, dehydrated potato slices au gratin, tato products—primarily frozen french frozen french fries, and many other fries—packed in 1966 were used in products. restaurants. Per capita consumption of potatoes The Department of Defense has long began to climb from its low point in recognized the advantages of dehy- 1952. Fresh potato consumption, how- drated foods from the standpoint of ever, has continued to decline so that convenience, shipping weight, stabil- in 1966 we consumed only 65 pounds ity, etc. In 1966, Defense purchased of fresh potatoes per person. Fortu- some 22 million pounds of dehydrated nately for the potatogrower, another potatoes. The savings in transporta- 45 pounds or so were consumed in the tion and storage alone from the use of form of processed potatoes. It is esti- dehydrated potatoes are evident in the mated that by 1970, 50 percent of the fact that 22 million pounds of dehy- potatoes we eat will be consumed in drated potatoes are the equivalent of some processed form. 179 million pounds of fresh potatoes. With the high cost of labor today, And unlike his father in World War II, restaurants are just as interested in today's fighting man finds mashed po- "convenience" foods as the housewife. tatoes made from dehydrated products More than two-thirds of all mashed a most acceptable item. potatoes served in restaurants are now That potato processing is big busi- made from dehydrated potato flakes ness is illustrated by just one plant in or granules. And more than two-thirds Idaho which makes frozen french fries. Processed Potato Products Frozen Products French fries, regular and Au gratin Dumplings crinkle cut Delmonico Knishes Patties Scalloped Blintzes Shredded Dutch potato salad Pirogen Diced Small whole potatoes Hashed in cream Hash brown Vegetable stew mix Soup Mashed Ro£isted Potatoes and peas in Whipped Cottage fried cream sauce Stuffed baked Boiled Dehydrofrozen: Diced Rissole Pancakes Dehydrated Products Instant mashed: Granules, flakes, "buds" Diced, for preparing hash brown potatoes, general purpose dishes, and for remanufacture in canned hash and stews Slices, chiplets, shreds, for preparing salad, hash brown, casserole, and other general purpose dishes Scalloped; salad mix; pancake mix; cream of potato soup; au gratin Flour, for potato bread, doughnuts, crackers, and other specialty baked goods and breading material Starch Regular and chemically modified potato starches for use in paper manufacture, textile sizing, and food processing Potato Chip Products Regular and crinkle-sliced chips; shoestring or julienne; barbecue-, cheese-, onion-, and smoke-flavored chips; dip chips; crackers Prepeeled Products (for fresh delivery to the restaurant trade) Whole potatoes; hash brown; oil blanched; salad; french fry cuts Canned Products Whole potatoes; stew; soup; sliced potatoes; shoestring potatoes; salad (American and German style); potato pancakes; hash; chowder; au gratin; strained (baby food) 318 Each working day this plant processes Dehydrofrozen potatoes, based on a the equivalent of a trainload of 100 process developed at USDA's Western cars of potatoes and a 10,000-gallon Utilization Research and Develop- tank car of vegetable oil. ment Division, are made by precook- Food processors have found the ing potato cubes or slices, evaporating potato a most versatile raw material, sufficient water to reduce their weight adaptable to a wide variety of prod- by 50 percent, and freezing. The re- ucts. The accompanying table is only sulting product is a potato chunk both a partial list of processed potato prod- larger and quicker cooking than that ucts available today. Most can be which can be made by conventional found in the supermarket, but some dehydration. Yet it still retains the are used only by restaurants or by advantages of weight reduction. manufacturers making items such as Newest of the many varied forms of beef stew or corned beef hash. processed potato is the extruded french The diversity of products made from fry. This ingenious product is made the potato is equaled by the diversity from a dry mix of dehydrated potato of processing equipment. Potato cubes granules with added starch, vegetable have been experimentally shot from gum, and flavoring and is designed specially designed guns so that after primarily for restaurants or hamburger drying they cook much faster than stands. The mix can be packed either conventionally dried cubes. The pieces in a metal can or in a paper bag and of potatoes are first dried in hot air to held without refrigeration. To use the about 25 percent moisture, then loaded mix, the cook adds sufficient water to into the gun where they are quickly make a dough which is placed into a heated to a temperature that super- cylinder and extruded into noodlelike heats the moisture in the piece above ribbons with the same general cross its atmospheric boiling point. When section as conventional french fried the pressure is suddenly released, the potatoes. A knife cuts the ribbons to pieces explode from the gun and steam the desired length, and they fall into escapes from the pieces and leaves a hot fat to become french fries within porous texture. 2 minutes. After final drying in a hot-air oven, The development of instant, dry the dry, porous cubes can now rapidly potato flakes ofl'ers an excellent ex- reabsorb moisture during cooking. ample of the path that a U.S. Depart- Several potato chippers are using ment of Agriculture development can microwaves, a kind of high frequency follow from the laboratory to indus- energy much like TV and FM radio trial use. For the past 17 years, USD A waves, but at higher frequencies, to has sponsored a series of National make a better potato chip. Potato Utilization Conferences at vari- The chips are taken from the con- ous potato-growing areas around the ventional fryer just as they begin to country. These conferences are at- develop a golden brown color. Since tended by growers, processors, distrib- they are not dry and crisp enough at utors, and others interested in the this stage, the drying is completed by growth of the potato industry. evaporating the remaining moisture During the Sixth National Potato with microwave energy. Utilization Conference held at Cornell This technique permits the use of University, Ithaca, N.Y., in 1954, potatoes which would make objec- USDA's Eastern Utilization Research tionably dark-colored chips if cooked and Development Division announced to dryness in the conventional fryer. development of a method for making Microwaves selectively heat water by potato flakes by drum-drying mashed molecular agitation throughout the potatoes. In this process, the potatoes chip, not just at the surface. In micro- are first cooked and cooled under care- wave drying, the chip does not get hot fully controlled conditions and then enough for further browning. spread onto a heated drum. The dried 319 Freshly-harvested potatoes at a processing plant in Presque Isle, Maine. potatoes come off the drum in a thin even as late as the Korean war.