Potato Chips

19th Century Potato Chip recipes and instructions are listed below:

Potato Chips.—In order to have Potato Chips in perfection great attention mnst be paid to five points. 1. The slices must be of exactly equal thickness, not one thick and the next thin. 2. They must be carefully drained from the water. 3. There must be plenty of fat to fry them in. 4. The fat must not be too hot, although it must be hot enough. 5. The chips must be perfectly drained from the fat. Clarified beef suet is much the best frying medium for Potatoes.
Wash and peel the Potatoes and slice them exactly onesixteenth of an inch thick. Put them for fifteen minutes into a basin of cold water. Drain off the water, and spread the Potatoes on a cloth to get quite dry. Wipe them, and lay ready a sheet of clean blotting-paper. Melt plenty of clarified beef suet in the frying-pan, for the Potato slices must be completely covered. Be most careful in testing the heat of the fat with a sippet of bread. If the fat fizzes freely and does not smoke drop in the Potato slices at once, and let them, so to speak, boil in it. Do not leave them, but keep turning and moving them about. The moment the Potatoes are a rich golden colour lift them out, and let them drain for a minute or two on the blotting-paper. When dry serve in a very hot dish (metal if possible), sprinkling them with a little salt.
Nothing is better than crisp golden Potato Chips, and few things are more distasteful than the dark, leathery appearance which Chips too often present when badly cooked.
Mrs. Roundell's Practical Cookery Book ©1898

Fillet Steaks with Potato Chips.
Trim the fillet as for roasting, cut it into slices half an inch thick, pepper and salt lightly, and allow them to stand for an hour or two. Put a little butter into the frying-pan, fry the fillets, first on one side, then on the other, dish them up nicely in the centre of a dish, and put round potato chips prepared as follows :—Peel fine kidney potatoes, cut them in very thin round slices of an equal size (that which is not used for the chips can be either fried or boiled for the family dinner), lay them in a cloth to dry, and fry in the wire basket in good fat. Dripping will answer, but the best frying fat is clarified pot skimmings ; next to this beef-suet melted down with an equal quantity of lard. Oil is the best of all for frying potatoes, but is expensive, and requires some care in the use. Put only enough chips to cover the bottom of your basket; when you take them out, throw them on paper before the fire to absorb any grease, and repeat the process until you have enough chips. They can, if preferred, be fried without the basket, and taken out of the fat with a skimmer.
Source: Little Dinners ©1876

FRIED POTATOES.
"Potato Chips or Fried Slices of Potato!"
INGREDIENTS.

1 lb. of Potatoes
Salt
The use of 1lb. of clarified fat or lard for frying.
Time required, about eight minutes for either.
Now we will show you how to dress Potatoes.
For Potato Chips—

1. We wash the potatoes well in cold water, and scrub them clean with a scrubbing-brush.
2. We take a sharp knife, peel them, and carefully cut out the eyes and any black specks about them.
3. We must now peel the potatoes very thinly in ribbons, and twist them into fancy shapes.
4. We take a saucepan and put in it one pottnd and a half of clarified fat or lard.
5. We put the saucepan on the fire to heat the fat. We must test the heat of it with a piece of bread (see Lesson on "Frying").
6. We take a frying-basket and put the ribbons of potato in it.
7. When the fat is quite hot we put in the frying-basket with the potatoes for about six minutes.
8. We place a piece of whitey-brown paper on a plate.
9. When the chips are done, they should be quite crisp and of a pale brown colour. We turn them out on to the paper, to drain off the grease, and sprinkle over them a little salt.
10. We serve them on a hot dish.

For Fried Slices of Potato—
1. We take the potatoes, wash them clean, and peel them with a sharp knife.
2. We put the potatoes on a board, and cut them in slices, about one-eighth of an inch in thickness.
3. We take a saucepan and put in it one and a half pound of clarified dripping or lard.
4. We take a frying-basket and place in it the sliced potatoes.
5. We put the saucepan on the fire to warm the fat.
6. When the fat is warm, but not very hot, wc place in the frying-basket with the slices of potatoes, and let them boil in the fat, until they are quite tender.
N. B.—We should take out a piece of potato and press it between the thumb and finger, to feel that it is quite tender.
7. We must now take out the frying-basket with the potatoes and place it on a plate.
8. We leave the fat on the fire to heat.
9. When the fat is quite hot, we place in the fryingbasket with the potatoes for about two minutes.
10. We put a piece of whitey-brown paper on a plate.
11. When the potatoes are fried, they should be a pale brown; we turn them out on to the paper to drain off the grease. .
12. We should sprinkle a little salt over them.
13. For serving we arrange them on a hot dish.
Now it is finished.
Source: The Official Handbook for the National Training School of Cookery ©1877