Abstract

Potato chips having hardbite texture and flavor characteristics of kettle-fried potato chips are produced in an apparatus comprising a fry kettle with cooking oil circulation and heat transfer means. Production efficiency is greatly increased over conventional batch preparation of kettle-style chips; batch size is significantly increased and total fry time is advantageously decreased. In certain embodiments the batchwise preparation process includes the step of selecting texture-setting potato slice dehydration rate conditions for at least a segment of the frying time, which ends before the moisture content of the slices is reduced to about 45% by weight or less. Selecting appropriate dehydration rate conditions enables the production of potato chips of a variety of textural characteristics over varying cooking oil time/temperature profiles. After introducing a batch of potato slices into a kettle of frying oil, the potato slices are fried during the texture-setting time segment while controlling the frying to achieve the selected dehydration rate conditions. After the texture-setting time segment, the moisture content of the slices is further reduced by continuing to fry the slices in the oil to achieve a moisture content in the slices of about 2% by weight or less. Temperature may be controlled via a programmable control system.