Healthier bags of flavour

ISN’T it fascinating how dissimilar siblings can be - in everything from personality traits to their taste in food? Growing up, my mum always tried to feed us healthily but when we were taken out for high tea, dinner or Sunday lunch my younger sister and elder brother would always order fizzy drinks - a treat, because we weren’t allowed them at home - while my elder sister and I (the two "goody-two-shoes" of the family) stuck to fruit juice or milk.

Crisps were the same: I was never a crisp fan; even when they came in those bags with a nifty little navy sachet of salt which you shook into the packet yourself... I just wasn’t fussed. Again, we never had them at home so I guess I never developed a taste for them. A recent report published by the market research company Key Note earlier this year shows that I was - and still am - very much in the minority when it comes to my indifference to Britain’s favourite snack.

The report found that Brits eat a massive 10 billion packets of crisps a year. That equates to a hefty 7.2 kg a year or almost three bags of crisps a week per person, and the statistic is increasing by 3 per cent a year - no wonder Britain has an obesity problem, considering the fat content of crisps. Think of those svelte Europeans who, on average, eat a more respectable 1kg per person per year.

It seems to be another sign of British preoccupation with the potato - think of our love affair with chips - but there’s little potato goodness left in a crisp once the big brand crisp makers have finished with them. A growing band of artisan crisp producers are another breed entirely, but more on that later.

In order to get a uniform golden disc of wafer-thin potato, the potato is peeled and the slices are washed and blanched to remove any starch before being transferred to the deep fryer. This process also strips the wholesome tattie of its nutrients, not to mention taste; cue the salt and flavourings.

The amount of salt used varies between brands, as does saturated fat content. A single pack can contain as much as 35 per cent of your daily intake of salt - and 50 per cent of the fat. Artificial flavourings are rarely used in mass-market brand crisps, but the majority do tend to contain flavour enhancers - including monosodium glutamate and hydrolyzed vegetable protein.

Key Note’s findings show it’s happy days and soaring sales for the crisp manufacturer - but it’s not all doom and gloom for consumers on the health front, either. Hand-cut or kettle-fried crisps offer a slightly more healthy, albeit considerably more pricey, alternative to the "high street" potato crisp.

These designer crisps are not exactly new - the Kettle brand of crisps has been available here since the late 1980s - but there is an increasing number of artisan players in this particular segment of the crisp market. Leading brands include Burts Hand Fried Potato Chips and Tyrrells, both companies boasting the accomplishment of having their tasty boutique crisps stocked in delis and upmarket food halls up and down the country.

The competition between the artisan players now appears to focus on who can come up with the most innovative flavour. Burts, who are based in Devon, offer delights such as Chilli Lemon, while Tyrrells - who are Herefordshire potato farmers - have Thai Curry and Coriander. Tyrrells and Burts have also diversified into the latest hot potato in the crisp market: hand fried vegetable crisps.

Parsnip crisps seem to be all the rage just now, and Tyrrells do a lip-smackingly good bag of mixed root vegetable crisps, which include beetroot, carrot and parsnip - now, these I really like. The company has even ventured into the fruit crisp market - hand fried apple crisps with cinnamon anyone?

Meanwhile, in Scotland, there’s an artisan crisp maker doing something truly boutique. Nick Paul of The Crisp Hut in Edinburgh makes crisps to order at a full calendar of events across the UK.

The morning that I speak to him, Paul is getting ready to take his fully-equipped trailer to the Perth Races. The events he attends range from farmers’ markets and National Trust for Scotland functions to gala days - he has even been asked to do weddings.

Paul’s varied CV includes spells selling kitchens, working for a short-haul travel company and setting up and running a serviced apartment block in Edinburgh. His entrepreneurial eye lit on the idea of The Crisp Hut four years ago, after seeing a similar operation in Spain.

"It was while my wife and I were on holiday that we saw a man with a cart and a big vat of hot oil, making crisps and I thought that it was something that would work back home," explains Paul. The Crisp Hut is rather more sophisticated than the Spanish prototype, although it emulates the concept by offering completely fresh and unadulterated hand-made crisps.

So what are Paul’s secrets to making perfect crisps? "I only use fresh seasonal potatoes such as Maris Pipers and Golden Wonders, supplied by Knowes Farm in Haddington, and they need to have good dry matter content - in other words, floury rather than waxy." He washes the potatoes, leaving the skin on, before hand slicing them for each customer and cooking in sunflower oil at temperatures in excess of 190ºC (higher than any domestic fryer can achieve) for up to two minutes.

The hot crisps are then seasoned with the flavour of your choice, which range from salt, garlic and coriander to basil and cheddar, then popped into a bag. "I guarantee the customer a good quality potato, properly cooked," Paul says proudly. He points out that a potato has seven times as much Vitamin C (essential for healthy skin) as an orange, as much fibre (needed for good digestive health) as three slices of wholemeal bread and, because Paul leaves the skin on, you also get your fill of potassium (essential to control the balance of fluids in the body) and vitamin E (which protects the cell membranes), which is found just under the skin.

"It’s a healthy alternative to traditional fast food," he says, "and handmade crisps have such a lovely mouth-feel and texture. In fact, I often have customers telling me that this is the way they remember crisps tasting."

Paul’s enthusiasm for his product is evident as he goes on to explain that the reason proper handmade crisps are often darker in the centre is due to the natural sugar content in a fresh potato. "The sugar is concentrated in the middle while the mineral content is close to the skin, which is why a good crisp is lighter towards the edge." Mass-produced crisps are peeled and blanched so they are uniformly pale all over, and they tend to be made from potatoes that have been in storage for several months. Paul uses potatoes that are no more than a few weeks old.

At £2 per 170g bag, Paul’s crisps may, on the surface, seem pricey but the quality and old-fashioned taste of his truly artisan product is definitely worth a little splurge. And if the queues at the Edinburgh Farmers’ Market on a Saturday are anything to go by, the city’s foodies seem to agree.

BEST FOR CRISPS

• The Crisp Hut: information at www.crisphut.com- visiting the Fife Show, Musselburgh Races and Traquair House Fair.

• Tyrells Chips online www.tyrrellspotatochips co.uk

• Burts Chips online www.burtschips.com