Martin’s Potato Chips is also a family business. Nestled along U.S. 30, one of the country’s earliest federal highways, Martin’s is a 170-employee snack factory whose chief, Butch Potter, has worked the chip lines since his parents bought the business when he was 10. “I’ve seen people eat a pound of potato chips,” says Potter, whose brand has been served aboard Air Force One during both the Clinton and Bush administrations. In Pennsylvania, snacks, apparently, are a uniter, not a divider.
Pennsylvania Snack Facts:
· Americans eat two pounds of pretzels per person per year. Central Pennsylvanians eat three times as many.
· In pastures not far from its snack factory, Herr Foods raises Angus cattle—often feeding them “steer party mix,” a hodgepodge of chips and other crunchy savories that the company says “do not meet our quality specifications.”
· The low-water-content spuds used to make America’s favorite snack are called “chipping potatoes.”
· If you tour a snack factory, try to get a sample of a warm potato chip just off the frying-and-salting line. It’s crisp on the outside, still slightly soft in the middle, and it tastes buttery and melts in your mouth.
· Both Utz and Herr’s sell a potato chip flavored with the spices used to season crab meat. (Often referred to as “crab chips,” these snacks contain no actual crab.)
· Kettle-cooked chips are fried for a longer period in cooler oil to produce that crunchier, nuttier, more substantial taste and texture.
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