OK, I'll be Andy Rooney: Pringles (This is for Suich)

Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Pringles

OK, first of all, Pringles aren't 'potato chips'.
Look at the can.
No where does it say 'potato chips'.

Yes, potatoes are involved.
Somewhat.
The FDA terms them potato snacks "a brand of potato and wheat based snacks".

They were developed by Procter & Gamble.
Later sold to Diamond Foods of California for 2.35 BILLION dollars.
Yearly sales top 1 BILLION U.S. dollars.
One Billion Dollars for "a brand of potato and wheat based snacks".
America?
You're crazy.

There are several theories behind the origin of the name "Pringles". One theory refers to Mr. Mark Pringle, who filed a US Patent 2,286,644 titled "Method and Apparatus for Processing Potatoes" on March 5, 1937. Mr. Pringle's work was cited by Procter & Gamble in filing their own patent for improving the taste of dehydrated processed potatoes. Another theory suggested two Procter advertising employees lived on Pringle Drive in Cincinnati, and the name paired well with potato.

From the Pringles.com website: P&G chose the Pringles name from a Cincinnati telephone book, having been inspired by Pringle Drive in Finneytown, Ohio, due to its pleasing sound.

P&G wanted to create a perfect chip to address consumer complaints about broken and stale chips, and air in the bags. The task was assigned to chemist Fredric Baur, who, from 1956 to 1958, created Pringles’ saddle shape from fried dough, and the can to go with it. Mr. Baur could not figure out how to make the chips taste good, though, and he eventually was pulled off the Pringles job to work on another brand. In the mid-1960s, another P&G researcher, Alexander Liepa, restarted Mr. Baur’s work, and set out to improve on the Pringles taste, which he succeeded in doing. While Mr. Baur was the true inventor of the Pringles crisp, according to the patent Pringles was invented by Alexander Liepa of Montgomery, Ohio. Gene Wolfe, a mechanical engineer-cum-author known for science fiction and fantasy novels, developed the machine that cooks them. Their consistent saddle shape is mathematically known as a hyperbolic paraboloid. Their design is reportedly aided by supercomputers.

Pringles have only about 42% potato content, the remainder being wheat starch and flours (potato, corn, and rice) mixed with vegetable oils and an emulsifier. Contrary to a popular misconception, Pringles crisps are fried, not baked.

They were originally known as "Pringles Newfangled Potato Chips", but other snack manufacturers objected, saying Pringles failed to meet the definition of a potato "chip". The US Food and Drug Administration weighed in on the matter, and in 1975, they ruled Pringles could only use the word "chip" in their product name within the following phrase: "potato chips made from dried potatoes". Faced with such an unpalatable appellation, Pringles eventually opted to rename their product potato "crisps" instead of chips. However, this later led to other issues in the United Kingdom, where the term potato "crisps" refers to the product Americans call potato "chips".

Enjoy your Pringles.
But don't call them potato chips.
They aren't.

Remember the fluted paper insert they came in back in the 70's? They made KILLER candle molds. Now they just shove them in a can and most of them are broken. They are thinner and don't even taste that great now. But they are good for scooping up bean dip!

- Andy Rooney
(or words to that effect)
:-)

Thanks, trof!

:hi:

:)

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Some of the flavored ones are actually pretty tasty.
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As I've grocery shopped by bus OFTEN over the years, big bags of potato chips
took up too much precious volume in what I could carry home -- and the Pringles
tubes were extremely compact comparatively.
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Now, they're WAY too high in sodium (though I do sometimes indulge in a can as
a "sodium splurge").
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Salt & Vinegar Pringles are pretty good (though they don't have the inner-lining-
of-the-mouth-destroying capability of the TRULY orgasmic S&V chips) and they're
not as high up in the Pringles sodium hierarchy as you might think.
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When I saw how it was made it kind of freaked me - may have been a thread in the lounge about a year ago.

packaging. I don't like all the broken pieces of potato chips that you get in a bag. Also, with Pringles you know you are getting an entire can - unlike half a bag when you think you are buying a big bag.

I haven't eaten them for years.

But I do love potato chips :)