THE BATTLE OF THE CRISPS

crisps:

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In THE BATTLE OF THE TOMATOES, beefsteak and cherry tomatoes jointly won with heirloom tomatoes coming third in the poll.

It's now the turn of crisps to do battle! I perhaps should say, especially to American readers, that it's the turn of the chips to do battle. In this strange Transatlantic English-speaking world, my crisps are chips to Americans and their chips are fries to me.

For this poll, I'm just including potato-based snacks not corn-based or rice-based snacks. The poll is not about how thinly sliced potato-based snacks are made, whether baked, fried or kettle-cooked, and nor about the shape of the crisps, whether round, crinkle-cut/grooved/ridged, hooped or even bugled! The poll is all about the flavour of the crisps/chips.

The Museum of the Crisps website claims that the first crisp recipe was known in 1817 from a recipe in William Kitchiner's book, The Cook's Oracle and Housekeeper's Manual (which isn't quite the same as the first crisp made), that the first commercial crisp company. the American Mikesell's Potato Chip Company, was founded in1910, that England's Smiths company founded in 1920 first seasoned crisps (presumably with salt), that the first flavoured crisp, barbecue, was marketed in 1954, and that well over 1,300 recipes of flavoured crisps have been recorded.

Given that any food or drink can be used to flavour a crisp/chip, it wasn't easy to settle on my 20 poll options. But one thing I've learnt from compiling this poll is that Brits seem to take the flavour of their crisps a little more seriously than Americans take their chips even though America consumes the most crisps/chips per head of population in the world. France comes second followed by Britain. Why do the French always beat the British?!

My favourite crisps are cheese and chive, cheese and onion, mature Cheddar cheese, ready salted, and salt and vinegar crisps, with smoky bacon crisps being my most favourite crisps - see photo below. Though smoky bacon crisps are my favourite flavour of crisps, I very much doubt whether there's any smoked bacon used in the flavouring of the crisps. But I suspect that's true for nearly all mass-produced crisps.

Walkers smoky bacon crisps:

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Though there are many flavours of crisps I've not eaten, I'd give most a whirl except for kangaroo, liquorice and most seafood/shellfish-flavoured crisps. Of the flavours I've sampled, my least favourite crisps are prawn cocktail and roast chicken. But by some margin my least favourite crisps were Peter Lucas's crisps. At school, on opening a bag of crisps, Peter Lucas would spit on his crisps so he didn't have to share them. Also he used to inflate frogs by blowing air through a straw inserted into the frog's anus! I still wonder what happened to Peter Lucas and whether he flourished in the world after school. I suspect not.

What are your most and least favourite crisps?
Do you like like your crisps fried (whether deep or air-fried), kettle-cooked or baked?
What is your favourite brand of crisps?

I like baked crisps the best for taste as well as health reasons.

When it comes to crisp brands, I'm a Walkers man. In the 1970s, Walkers 'revolutionised' the British crisp market by selling its crisps in air-tight bags meaning its crisps were crisper than its rivals. Walkers crisps account for nearly 60 per cent of the crisps sold in Britain. Its crisp factory in the English county of Leicestershire is the largest crisp production plant in the world. Walkers are now owned by the American company PepsiCo which also markets Frito-Lay crisps in America and the rest of the world (excluding Britain).

Below is a poll where you can anonymously select your most favourite crisps. Unfortunately only one pick is allowed in the poll.

A poll on this site can only have 20 answer options. And I know very few read what comes next especially if it's long but here goes! I only mention these crisps not included as poll options solely to act as a prompt to vote other, otherwise those 19 options I list will be somewhat prioritised in the poll. Unfortunately there was no room for apple, sage and thyme, bacon and brown sauce, bacon and cheese, bacon and maple syrup, bacon and tomato, baked beans, banana, basil, beef, beef and horseradish, beef burger (including cheeseburger), beer, bell pepper/pepper (eg green, red and yellow pepper), Bloody Mary, BLT (bacon, lettuce and tomato), blueberry, Bovril, brown sauce (eg HP sauce), Brussels sprout, butter, butter and soy sauce, candy cane, caviar, celery, cheese and bacon, cheese and black pepper, cheese and chive (including cream cheese and chive), cheese and ham, cheese and horseradish, cheese and jalapeño, cheese and mustard, cheese and port, cheese and tomato, cherry blossom, chicken and herbs, chicken tikka masala, chilli/chili and cheese, chilli/chili and chocolate, chilli/chili con carne, chocolate, chorizo, chutney/pickle/relish (eg Branston pickle), coffee, cola, consommé, corn/corn on the cob/maize/sweetcorn, corned/corn beef, Cornish pasty, crab, cranberry, cucumber, cucumber and dill, curry (including chip shop curry), dill, dill and chive, duck, duck and hoisin/plum sauce, egg and bacon, egg and chips/fries, English breakfast/fry up, fennel, fish and chips/fries, fried egg, gammon and pineapple, garlic, garlic plum, gin and tonic, ginger, goose, gravy, haggis, ham, ham and cheese, ham and mustard, honey, honey mustard, horseradish/wasabi, hot and sour soup, hot dog and ketchup, hot dog and mustard, hummus, jacket potato, kangaroo, kebab/kabob, KFC, lamb, lamb and mint, lamb tikka masala, lasagne, leek and onion, lemon, lemon tea, lime/limon, liquorice/licorice, lobster, macaroni cheese (aka mac and cheese), mango, margarita, Marmite, mince pie, mushroom, mussels, mustard, negroni, octopus, olive, olive oil, oregano, Oxo, oyster, paella, passion fruit, pastrami, pepper (eg black pepper, green pepper and white pepper), pepperoni, pesto, pheasant, Philly cheesesteak, pigs in blankets, pizza, plum, pork (including hog roast, pork belly and pulled pork), pork and apple (including wild boar and apple), poutine, prawn/shrimp, prosciutto, pumpkin pie, ranch, raspberry, Reggae Reggae, ribs, roast pork and creamy mustard sauce, rosemary, rosemary and sea salt, rosemary and thyme, sage and onion, salami, salmon (including smoked salmon), salsa, salt and pepper, sausage, sausage and brown sauce, sausage and mustard, sausage and tomato, scallop, seaweed (including norishio), sour cream, sour cream and chive, soy sauce, spaghetti bolognese, squid, sriracha, steak and ale, steak and onion, stew, surf 'n' turf, sweet and sour, sweet chilli, sweet chilli and red pepper, sweet chilli and sour cream, takoyaki, teriyaki, three bird roast, truffle, turkey and bacon, turkey and gravy, turkey and stuffing, tzatziki, Vegemite, venison, venison and red wine, wasabi and ginger, wasabi and soy sauce, wedding cake, Welsh rarebit (fancy cheese on toast), whisky/whiskey, wine, Worcester/Worcestershire sauce, yakitori and yogurt/yoghurt as poll options.

I think salted crisps will just win the poll, but barbecue, cheese and sour cream, salt and vinegar, and sour cream and onion may feature strongly.

I want to thank @EnigmaInitiative for her helpful advice in compiling this poll. Obviously, any mistakes with the poll are my mistakes.

Please see the first comment below to see what has won each battle of the food and drinks so far.

Walkers crisp factory:

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