Would it be possible to invent primitive potato chips in a medieval setting? Would they sell well if a merchant tried selling them?
People fried potatoes as early as the 17th century in Europe. And theoretically, all the materials are there. Cast iron cookware, liquid fat or oil, thinly sliced potatoes, a heat source. That's all you need.
>>48004971
Medieval peasants were afraid of eating potatoes, but historical accuracy is one of the absolute worst things you can have in an RP setting.
>>48005062
That's because they looked like nightshade which was deadly.
>>48005081
They are nightshade and they're still deadly unless you store them just so.
>>48004971
No, because potatoes wouldn't exist in a medieval setting.
>>48005201
Like clockwork.
>>48005062
Nigga, potatoes weren't a thing in Medieval Europe.
DOTS.
Are there cheap potatoes, oil and salt available? Then yes.
(I think a decent heat source can be taken for granted.)
Couldn't you just do it with radish (if you don't want to trigger >>48005251)? That's like the potato before the potato, right?
>>48005290
Depends on how many radishes a potato is worth.
I'd say five radishes.
>>48005175
They're only deadly if they're green m8. That's via sunlight exposure, the prevention of which doesn't exactly require cutting edge storage methods.
Anyway, speaking of potatoes, here is a joke:
>An Englishman decided to visit Ireland in the midst of the Famines
>Everywhere he looked, he saw starving villagers
>Coming upon a man devouring his own boots, the Englishman asked, "Why are your people starving? Ireland is surrounded by water! You could make use of the bounty of the sea."
>The Irishman replied, "Wait, are you telling me there are potatoes in the ocean?"
>>48005251
Just because it's a medieval setting doesn't mean that it has to be purely European. Nothing says his setting can't have potatos.
>>48004971
Yes, and, it's bar food. Of course it would sell.
Barkeeps might even have the girls go round and put down the salty snacks for free to get people thirsty.
(Thirsty for liquid I mean, not that liquid either you lecherous bastard.)
>>48005325
So...a medieval hooters?
>>48005330
No, a medieval tavern.
>>48005467
So a medieval hooters.
>>48005312
>>48005290
I don't care a lick about a medieval setting having them.
I was just bothered by saying real medieval peasants were scared of them.
>>48005304
You have yourself a deal.
>>48005990
>He didn't get the joke.
>>48005081
>>48005175
That's tomatoes dum dums.
>>48006497
Tomatoes and potatoes grow on the same family of plants, dum dum, that's why pomatoes are a thing.
>>48005308
Wasn't the Irish famine actually caused by Britain being dicks
>>48006504
that joke sucked, man
>>48006614
Pretty much. You can pretty safely assume that any time history says something awful happened to the Irish, it was ultimately the fault of England being assholes.
>>48004971
>Vegetable crisps fried in sunflower oil
>Beetroot, carrot, turnip and possibly Cassava crisps.
Absolutely delicious, m'lord.
>>48006614
This. British tax collectors would take the Irish's tomatos, onions ect. and leave them the potatoes to live on.
>>48004971
Yes and no; potatoes, corn and sunflowers came from the Americas so would not be possible till after their discovery.
But! if you are willing to use alternatives then you could make crisps from common root vegetables of the time such as beetroot, carrot and turnip (which are sold today as vegetable crisps) and fry them in either animal tallow or possibly in rape oil.
>>48006839
Hmm, beetroot crisps sound like it'd be amazing.
>>48006855
They are, they are very sweet with a moist earthy taste. Absolutely fantastic.
>>48006614
Thats a kind of sweeping statement that ultimately holds water in almost all scenario's asked.
Did you stub your toe? You and that wall wouldn't have existed in all likelihood without brits being dickbags.
Did coffee burn your tongue? Brits had a big trade that helped coffee research boom into what it is today and no doubt the very beans you drink are from a family made or identified using that knowledge.
It's brits being dickbags all the way down.
>>48006717
What joke?
>>48006614
>Ireland was a food exporter during the famines
>LaughingEnglish.GodSaveTheQueen
>>48005330
>>48005467
>>48005490
I think there's a term for this... it's either a tautology or pleonasm.
>>48007079
It's a conflation. Hooters may be a tavern/pub, but not all tavern's/pub's are a Hooters and its an over-simplification to suggest that.
>>48004971
Kettle cooked chips. All you need are potatoes, a ready source of oil like olives, and good cookware (I.e. not stone pots)
>>48006975
That is, technically, true.
They were also a food importer.
In fact, during the Famine, they imported more food than they exported.
After 1846, the Irish made up a collapse in domestic production by cutting back on food exports and non-food uses and increasing food imports. If the Irish had been able to close themselves off to trade, the Irish would have had even less than they were able to buy on the world market after 1846.
During the famine, trade accommodated part of the food deficit on the island. The repeal of the Corn Laws allowed the Irish to import at world prices. The Irish food export balance fell markedly. By 1847, the Irish were not exporting any cereal but oats.
[See graph in next post]
The trouble was that the trade could not turn around rapidly enough. The potato failed in 1845 and 1846, but the corn did not arrive until 1847. Still, there was enough food to reduce the suffering, even if there was not enough to extinguish it.
There’s something intuitively appealing about the idea that the Irish starved because the English extracted their grains. That’s what Drèze and Sen suggest, after all:
>English consumers attract[ed] food away, through the market mechanism, from famine-stricken Ireland to rich England, with ship after ship sailing down the river Shannon with various types of food.
It’s an appealing story, but it isn’t true. Cormac Ó Gráda:
>On the eve of the famine the potato harvest yielded about twelve to fifteen million tons annually, half of which went to human consumption. Thus the 430,000 tons of grain exported in 1846 and 1847 must be set against a shortfall of about twenty million tons of potatoes in those same years. Allowing the exported grain four times the calorific value of potatoes, the exported grain would still have filled only about one-seventh of the gap left by the potatoes in these two crucial years.
That’s the dark secret: there was never enough wheat to feed the Irish.
>>48007275
Here's the graph I left out. Damn one-image-per-post limit.
>>48005290
Turnips would work better really as they're a big starchy ball of starch.
>>48006614
Nah, m8 it was the Irish Lords who would rather export food to England than save it for the Irish
>>48004971
If I remember my trivia, crisps (or chips for you fucking disgusting colonials luv u bbys) they were invented by a guy trying to insult someone.
>>48008531
It is widely held that they were invented by a chef angrily responding to a patron's complaint that some fried potatoes were cut too thick by using a peeler to shave strips of potato directly into a hot pan, producing a fried potato that was nearly 100% surface.
Allegedly, said potatoes were a huge hit with the customer and rapidly garnered attention as a fad food.
The story, however, is probably untrue. slicing a potato thin enough to produce chips, cooking them enough to almost fully dehydrate, and then drying them is a simple but very time and labor consuming process.It was only after chips could be made by mechanical methods, coupled with new food storage technologies, that chips proper could become popular.
>>48008959
That's not entirely true, there are mentions of shaving a potato and deep frying the slices in a 18th century cookbook, i think it was mentioned in a Jas Townsend and sons episode some time back. They might not have been sold in stores, but they were still popular, especially since they really only used cheap ingredients.
>>48007285
>>48007275
You could have just stitched them together in paint, that's what I always do.
