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Some context: I'm not a cook, hardly even a good amateur, this considered:

I would like to know if it is possible to, with everyday cooking accessories, make some home-made potatoes that are as similar to the Pringles potatoes.

The resemblance should be in the:

  • Consistency/hardness/texture *
  • Taste
  • Shape
  • (and in that order)

Of course any home-made recipe would be appreciated if it helps to prove the point (and useful for me) but I'm mainly interested in wether it is possible to imitate the potatoes without resorting to industrial accessories.

Thanks in advance!

* Sorry for the plain english (again, I'm not a cook) please feel free to edit or comment if something is confusing! (tags included)

Aaronut
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Trufa
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3 Answers3

10

Yes it IS possible to create a "pringles" like product using just a few simple items that you probably already have in your home. I will post the ingredients after I list the few items you need.

First you will need a mixing bowl, a measuring cup, measuring spoons, and a pasta maker (to help flatten the dough). If you do not have a pasta making machine, do not fret, you can still roll these by hand with a rolling pin, but it is a DIFFICULT task to get them this enough. After you have the dough rolled out, and your shapes cut you have 2 options for cooking them; Flash Frying, or baking. While frying will result in a more authentic taste and texture, and is much faster, baking is also acceptable and will limit the amount of fat and cholesterol you consume. With that being said, here is your list of ingredients.

1 Cup Warm Water

1/4 tsp salt

1 Cup Instant mashed potatos

1 Cup Rice flour

1 Table spoon Corn Starch

1/4 tsp baking powder

Dissolve salt in a mixing bowl with the warm water. Add remaining ingredients and mix into a STIFF ball. Turn the ball out onto a cutting board and cut in half. Roll each half of dough through the pasta machine on it's LOWEST or Thinnest setting. If you do NOT have a pasta machinem then get out your rolling pin and put the dough pieces between 2 sheets of cling wrap and roll to as thin as you possibly can. The cling wrap will make rolling easier, and will keep the dough from sticking to your pin and rolling surface. (Try this when rolling out pie dough also, it works GREAT) Cut the dough into circles using a small buscuit cutter, or the cap from a can of cooking spray. Cook according to your desired cooking method mentioned below.

If frying the chips you will need peanut oil heated to 375 degrees and flash fry for 10-15 seconds. If Baking, pre-heat your oven to 450, line a cookie sheet with parchment and bake for 2-3 minutes, chips will be completely crisp when cooled.

Craig D
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9

Short answer is no.

If you were a cook/food scientist we could cover a lot of the ways you could combine potatoes and starches and then layer on forms, but really, most people would rather just make homemade potato chips with a potato, a mandolin slicer and some hot oil.

If you want Pringles, they are generally cheap and available. No need to duplicate in the kitchen.

This description should give you an idea of how difficult it would be in the home

The relevant portion from the article...

For producing Pringles, new machinery and techniques were required involving mixing of rice flour, potato flakes, water and other ingredients. When smooth dough is made, it is cut in to thin round pieces, placed in baking trays are then fried very quickly in a machine. Seasoning is also quickly added before the chips are sent to a stacking machine that packs the chips in distinctive Pringles containers.

Doug Johnson-Cookloose
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  • Thank for your answer but, in my case, not cheap, not available, and just thought it would be fun to do/replicate. Just in case the question came out wrong, I wanted to "replicate" them for the fun of it, it should't be anything professional, but again thanks for your answer. – Trufa Jan 12 '11 at 01:04
  • Understood. The problem is that you said you aren't much of a cook and while potato chips are do-able, something like Pringles which is made with dehydrated potatoes and other starches, then formed and fried, would be VERY difficult...and probably not that much fun. You'll be much more impressive if you just make fresh potato chips (or crisps for the Brits) maybe with a seasoned salt than duplicating a rather bland commercial product. – Doug Johnson-Cookloose Jan 12 '11 at 01:54
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    Just try frying homemade potato chips ( properly) and you see that it's not THAT easy. Actually, thats not correct, it IS easy, but its a lot more work than non-cooks realize. it's all the tools and the cleanup thats a pain in the home kitchen. – Chef Jan 12 '11 at 07:05
  • Thanks for the update, I guess my incompetence lead to arrogance :) I though it would be a matter of frying it more hot or witha different oil or something, thanks again!! – Trufa Jan 12 '11 at 13:42
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    Not arrogance, or you wouldn't have asked the question. It actually led to humility...as cooking is wont to do. If you were arrogant you would have just figured you knew what you were doing and went and burned down the kitchen. – Doug Johnson-Cookloose Jan 13 '11 at 03:17
6

Apparently Pringles aren't very potatoey. According to Wikipedia:

Pringles have only about 42% potato content, with the remainder being wheat starch and flours (potato, corn, and rice) mixed with vegetable oils and an emulsifier.

So most likely, you'll be looking at mixing those dried potato flakes with flour and water, forming them into chips and deep frying them (or maybe they're baked). I doubt you'll be able to mimic them very well though without a lot of experimentation.

Brendan Long
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    +1. pringles actually [went to court](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7490346.stm) to argue that their product did not contain enough potato to be considered a 'crisp' (or 'potato chip' if you are that way inclined) and were in fact cakes. this was in an attempt to avoid some tax I think. Made me want to stop eating them though. – Sam Holder Jan 12 '11 at 11:23
  • Their extreme thinness, texture and taste didn't make you want to stop eating them before? – Chad Jan 12 '11 at 13:10
  • Thanks, yep, unfortunately that doesn't seem like somthing I can do at home! :( – Trufa Jan 12 '11 at 13:44