Posted on 04/05/2006 4:31:22 PM PDT by NYer
MALTA -- George Crum's name doesn't mean much to most people, even though his invention probably is eaten in the millions daily.
Crum is credited with discovering the potato chip, slicing potatoes so thin they couldn't be picked up with a fork, then frying them.
Crum supposedly created the chips spitefully in 1853, after a patron at Moon's Lake House didn't like his thick french fries. Now chips are eaten worldwide.
That's what brought a crew from the German television show "Talents and Patents" to Malta and Saratoga Springs on Tuesday.
"It's the story of very basic things: glue, ballpoints. Nobody knows they have a huge invention when they invent it," said Tilman Achtnich, the show's director.
Achtnich, cameraman Wolfgang Breuning, soundman Andreas Wetter and producer Marika Gutmann explored Crum's haunts with Malta historian Teri Ulrich and Saratoga Springs historian Mary Ann Fitzgerald. A native of the Saratoga Springs area, Crum was of African-American and Native American descent.
The German television crew tracked Crum's story from Moon's Lake House on Crescent Avenue in Saratoga Springs, where he cut his first chips, to his roadhouse on Malta Avenue Extension. They also stopped at Malta Ridge and Greenridge cemeteries and the Stadium Cafe, where chips are still made the Crum way.
The crew is shaping a story to tell audiences on television in Stuttgart. Besides Crum, they'll show a German with a collection of more than 1,000 potato chip bags. There's also the professor who studies the sounds people make as they crunch potato chips. Another is investigating acrylamide, a potentially cancerous substance created when potatoes and other foods are cooked at high temperatures.
Crum might not be the originator of the Saratoga chip, as the potato chip was first called. The honor may go to his sister, Kate Wicks. "There's the Kate Wicks version and the George Crum version," Fitzgerald said of who first dipped a thin potato into boiling lard.
"We weren't there when it happened. No one was there documenting it," Fitzgerald said.
Historians, however, agree that Moon's Lake House was the spot where it occurred. The potato chip caught on quickly in the Northeast, and its popularity exploded nationwide in the early 20th century.
Chips aren't what lured customers to Crum's roadhouse, which was in the middle of 40 acres he owned on either side of Malta Avenue Extension. Ulrich said Crum's fish and meats were what people were after, not the potatoes, when they ate in his restaurant.
As for Crum, Ulrich said, "He was a ladies man, a woodsman, a chef."
The television crew will wrap up filming today at Stadium Cafe, where owner Joe Shea will demonstrate how to cook real Saratoga chips. The 30-minute program will air June 4 in Germany.
Copy of an historic photograph of George "Crum" Speck and his sister-in-law "Aunt" Kate Weeks on the steps of Moon's Lake House at Saratoga Lake, N.Y., where George was a cook. (John D'Annibale / Times Union)
Is "Malta" here the country or a town in New York (state)? Never heard of a town named Malta before.
Malta, New York is a common vacation destination for people from Paris, Texas.
"If you're not Herrs, I'm Frito-Lay."
Are you serious?
kidding
But there is a Paris, Texas and a Liverpool, Texas.
There is also a Liverpool, New York (outside of Syracuse), a Rome, New York, and you can end your trip at Valhalla, New York!
I've lived 22 of my 30 years in New York, but only ventured north of West Point twice in my life (once to Cooperstown, and years later through upstate to Montreal).
My grandmother, who somewhat resembled Aunt Kate always called potato chips "Saratoga chips". Now I know why.
Valhalla is a little farther than I care to travel right now.
And a Troy, don't forget Troy NY...
And Egypt, Mexico, Chili, Italy, Holland, Greece
And Parma, Florida, Phoenix, Caledonia, ......
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