Mechanical Engineer

Talk to this guy.nairck

That's CR4, all right--The Credibles.

I wonder if 500°C superheated steam could cook potato chips crisply. There already are baked potato chips, but most people don't like them as well as the deep-fried ones.

solar comes to mind.

You may be better off microwaving the chips. Spray a thin film of flavoured oil for taste. Steaming will not give a crisp product.

Slice them very thin and bake them in an extremely hot oven very quickly. Using any sort of water, i.e. boiling water, steam, etc. would make them soggy and extract the starch from the potato. Result would be similar to eating soggy cardboard.

What you are describing would make boiled potatoes that have been cooked in a pressure cooker. Not quite the delicious crunch of a tasty potato chip.

Good Luck, Old Salt

Problem with this is, if there is any water on the chip. it evaporates and creaqts a micro laminate layer of steam that insolate the chip from higher temperature.

What you then do is make a convection oven, and create air flow to break up this boundry layer so that the heat can get to and cook the product the product

You will not get the taste of chips which are only dried but not fried.

Just make an experiment in oven put two potato chips . One with thin layer of edible oil and another without oil . Compare both with really fried chip. You will get the difference.

Technology always relates to its commercial success. If potato chips taste is not good then its flop show.

You can dry the chips after frying to remove oil. This can be used for marketting purpose also. Oil free potato chips !!

The bad health results maybe from the type of oils used. Some oil have positive results. Look into Virgin Coconut oil for frying. Some of the health issues have to do processing of the oils. Hydrogenated oils have health issues.

The media stance on saturated fats being bad for you is hype for the vegetable oil processors. They started this scare back in the 40's & 50's to get people to switch. Not all saturated fats are bad for you.

I am all in for Virgin Coconut Oil...

But I have come to know that its not that good on the palate...

But.. sigh..

We are considering the detrimental effects of saturated fats...

So please go ahead with nairck's suggestion..

Obviously too much of anything can be unhealthy, but good oils and fats in the appropriate quantities are a NECESSARY part of a healthy balanced diet.

I frequently cook all types of seafood, meats, and vegetables (potatoes included) in a small hot air convection oven. A thin coating of olive oil and a nice dose of low sodium seasoning provides very tasty and relatively healthy results.

Look up "hot air frying" on google for more ideas.

Steaming machine having 200 degree celcius .Circulate steam through the chips jacket.After few minutes it will become fried.The taste will not good.The chips made, in coconut oil with minimum temperature process is of good quality ,tasty, and healthy food.Laying on cotton sheet the oil residue can be minimised

I agree with the others that you cannot make a chip by steaming. Baking is a better choice, but you will need to use oil and salt to make the product palatable.

There are some very good rice crackers on the market which are very low in calories and fat but still tasty. The secret is, they are baked plain and crisp, and then coated with a thin layer of seasoned oil on the outside - enough to taste but not enough to add much calories. They are thicker than a potato chip though. Potato chips are necessarily quite thin, so it is harder to get an optimal ratio of seasoning oil to chip.

Perhaps the solution would be to invent a potato cracker that can be baked crisp at the ideal thickness, and evenly coated and flavored, for those who want their calories exactly counted. It would take more processing time, obviously, to prepare crackers, and take longer to bake as well.

If you're going to cater to the "health conscious" market, you should consider the present trends though, and get up to date on the concerns about acrylamide produced by all high temperature cooking methods in starchy food especially potato. Acrylamide is being studied now because of the carcinogenic effects found in lab animals and will probably be a bigger public concern than the fat content, when the human data makes press in a year or two. No matter what they say though, a lot of people will still want potato chips (me too), and will still eat em. Here's some information about vacuum frying as a method of making low acrylamide potato chips, and which even works best (lowest acrylamide) with the fastest frying time. That might be a good basis for a 'healthier chips' marketing plan that picks up market share because it's trendy and keeps it because its tasty.