Fifth Grade
Worksheets
America's Number One Snack
Potato Chips Invented
Reading Comprehension for August 24
How do you like to eat potato chips? Do you like them with a sandwich? On the other hand, maybe you crunch on them as a snack. What flavors do you like? There's quite a variety to choose from. You can have sour cream, barbecue, cheese, or salt and vinegar. You can get your chips baked, ruffled, or kettle cooked. For fifty years, this salty, crunchy snack was America's number one snack food.
In 1990, 1.5 billion pounds of potatoes ended up as potato chips. That's right! It takes many potatoes to make all those chips. Approximately eleven percent of the potatoes grown in America become potato chips. In addition, it takes about 10,000 pounds of potatoes to become 3,500 pounds of chips. So how did we get potato chips? It all started at Moon Lake Lodge in Saratoga Springs, New York.
Moon Lake Lodge was a vacation haven for the wealthy. In the kitchen, the head cook was George Crum. On a summer day in 1853, one of the customers sent George's fried potatoes back to the kitchen. It seems the customer thought they were too thick, too soggy, and not salty enough. This angered Mr. Crum. He decided he would make a new, thinner batch. When the customer received the new fried potatoes, he refused them again. George was furious. In response, George Crum sliced potatoes so thin that the customer wouldn't be able to eat them with a fork. He also dumped lots of salt on the thin, crunchy chips. When the new batch reached the customer, he was delighted. George Crum's accidental invention (named "Saratoga Chips") became a favorite in Saratoga Springs and across New England.
