I’ll bet you didn’t know that the potato chip was invented 161 years ago in 1853.

A guest at the Saratoga Springs, New York resort did not like the resort’s french fries and chef George Crum decided to get back at the complainer.

He made really bad fries that were too crisp to eat with a fork. The guest liked the brown, paper-thin potatoes and soon potato chips were a specialty.

It wasn’t until 1895 that the first potato chips were sold in grocery stores and in the early years of the 20th century dozens of potato chip factories were opened.

By the late 1950s potato chips became known as North America’s No. 1 snack food.

In the 1950s entertaining became less formal and more an informal buffet was served. Chips were served with cheese or other dips and drinks. This made a necessity for a bowl to accommodate the chips and the dips. The chip dip set was created which could be used not only for chips and dip but for salads, floral centerpieces and seafood snacks.

The first chip dip dishes came from Corning. In 1950 a set called Turquoise Eyes combined two mixing bowls. A bracket support was clipped to the lower dish with the upper dish suspended over the lower bowl. The balloons pattern was added in 1958 and Golden Scroll in 1959. In the 1950s this was a very popular wedding gift.

Dips are used to add flavor and texture to food. Instead of applying the sauce to the food, the food is dipped into the sauce. Dips were commonly called finger foods or appetizers to be eaten with the fingers.

Dips are made of a variety of ingredients including sour cream, milk, yogurt, mayonnaise, soft cheese or beans. Spreads can be thinned to make a dip. Alton Brown suggested that a dip is defined on its ability to “maintain contact with its transport mechanism (chip) over three feet of white carpet.”

Favorite items to be dipped beside chips were crackers, cut-up raw vegetables, seafood and cubed pieces of meat or bread.

The most popular dip in the Midwestern United States is the French Onion dip.

This can be attributed to the Lipton Company, which promoted its dried onion soup mix as an addition to sour cream.  Today other parts of the country have their favorites dips. But thanks to the 1950s, we have one of our favorite snacks in many flavors with many items to be dipped.

 

Jo-Ann Boepple works at the Edwardsburg Area History Museum.