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Cut, stamped or CNC milled?
I reckon they cut them with a crinkly set of cutters.
precision water jets? 😉
Are we talking real made-from-wafers-of-actual-potato, or 'potato based snack'? 😉
just ordinary crisps, cooked standing on their edges
The crisps in question are McCoy's (steak flavour). But we'd be interested to know of any and all production methods for crinkle crisps/snacks.
The potato is mashed up into a paste then forced through a die to create the crinkle effect before frying and seasoning. Same process for everything from dog food to rice crispies.
[i]The potato is mashed up into a paste then forced through a die to create the crinkle effect[/i]
That explains why they're not as nice as normal crisps.
They train an army of worker ants to walk across a normal crisp in thin lines, eventually their little feet create grooves! and that is how McCoys are born.
I have some McCoys for Lunch, so will be inspecting them.
craigxxl - Member
The potato is mashed up into a paste then forced through a die to create the crinkle effect before frying and seasoning. Same process for everything from dog food to rice crispies.
This was my original thought, but I thought that McCoys had 'natural potato' features on them. Not so sure now. I will check later upon consumption.
They get a slice of potato and then the minature Red Arrows fly across it with blades attached to the underneath of the fuselages. Slice is turned over - minature Red Arrows head back over it. And so on.
Obvious really n'est ce pas?
Try to imagine a tool thats a cross between a set of lady's crimping irons and a George Foreman grill.
Same process for everything from dog food to rice crispies.
Rice are pressure heated rice not formed rice.
My previous employer made Rice Crispies for Asda as well as the much smaller ones and bsicuits pieces for Cadburys and they were all made using extruded die process. The same company also made dog food and meat free products similar to Quorn using the same process but different ingredients.
If you think they cook individual grains of rice until they explode how do they mix all the extra ingredients into them and where do they grow chocolate flavoured rice for Coco Pops?
craigxxl - Member
My previous employer made Rice Crispies for Asda as well as the much smaller ones and bsicuits pieces for Cadburys and they were all made using extruded die process. The same company also made dog food and meat free products similar to Quorn using the same process but different ingredients.
If you think they cook individual grains of rice until they explode how do they mix all the extra ingredients into them and where do they grow chocolate flavoured rice for Coco Pops?
Mmmmmmmmmm! I used to work at the Spiller's pet food plant in Southall. Seeing the 'meaty chunks' of Felix being squeezed out on the stainless belt ready for cooking was a sight to behold. You get a slab of meat about a cm thick and 1.5m wide coming out the other end, prior to it going through the cutting process. Nom Nom Nom!!
I always wondered where they grew chocolate rice. And Mushroom rice for that matter...... 😉
Normally looks like when the cat extrudes it out it's back passage after consuming it. For some reason meat free products have never taken my fancy I wonder if it's because I've seen them being made.
Surely crinkle crisps are made by grannies carefully folding thin slices of spud in fan shapes?
My previous employer made Rice Crispies for Asda as well as the much smaller ones and bsicuits pieces for Cadburys and they were all made using extruded die process.
how would you extrude puffed rice?
I think Seabrooks just slice the potato crinkly. A proper potato crisp.
Puffed rice is different and cooked in the same ways as wheat and corns so that the natural water content is heated until it becomes steam and the pressure bursts the kernal. Any flavours are then coatings on the outside of the kernal before cooking.
I think Seabrooks just slice the potato crinkly. A proper potato crisp.
Some do use blades but they are expensive as they wear rapidly so bigger companies use water jets to cut but the crinkle shape is hard to produce using water cutting.
It's midday. It's lunch time. I shall shortly be opening my McCoys crisps.
Stand By......
More than likely crinkle blades. We use similar for grating cheese except the cutter is slightly diferent to create strands rather than chips. It's basically a converted potato slicer.
McCoys look to me to be cut via some method, rather than forming of mashed potato ingredients through an extruder.....
reasons for thinking this:
- many different sizes, but still a 'whole crisp'.
- the skin appears to be left on.
- you can see imperfections in the crisps & areas of varying translucency that I don't think would be present with an extruded pulp (would be more consistent)
- very consistent thickness & 'tight angles'. With an extruded mush, I would expect some sagging of the form in cross section, while it cooked, while a cut potato would retain it's cross-sectional shape better.
- different texture of crisps while eating, implying variations in the potato that wouldn't be present if it was an extruded mush. Pringles on the other hand are very consistent in terms of bite & feel whereas these feel more 'home made' than 'factory processed'.
I was gonna take some pics, but couldn't be bothered.
Stumpy - Jesus - go for a walk - get out and enjoy the sunshine....
do McCoys say 'crisps' on the packaging?
if they do then it's a sliced potato.
anything else (mainly reconstituted) can't be called a 'crisp' and is called a 'snack' - e.g. quavers, wotsits, pringles, etc. (some are potato based, some wheat, some rice, etc.)
derek_starship - Member
Stumpy - Jesus - go for a walk - get out and enjoy the sunshine....
I'm not Jesus.
Although I did go for a nice walk on the lake this lunchtime.
D_S - it was supposed to be tongue in cheek, or something. Next time I'll go & stick them on the Tesa Visio optical measurement system downstairs and take some snaps for you. 😀
Crinkle blade on a rotary cutter. Vertical feed of spud into blade - slicy slicy.
McCoys are different from a lot of crisp makers in that they flavour crisps on the packing end, not at the cooking end. So there's less flavour loss on conveyors etc.
And I've been to many crisp companies who have blackened mountains of peeled potatoes in a waste area. I thought they went to animal feed, but they are bleached and turned to powered mash.
Ug.
Puffed rice is different and cooked in the same ways as wheat and corns so that the natural water content is heated until it becomes steam and the pressure bursts the kernal. Any flavours are then coatings on the outside of the kernal before cooking.
Well that's the way I seen them make Rice Crispies on Jamie's Food factory, oh look pressured heated cooking like I said. But not you tell me Rice Crispie is different using extruded process, so which one is it?
Oops Jimmy's
Drac - Moderator
Oops Jimmy'sThat's puffed rice not rice crispies which I'd mentioned as made using an extruded die process.
This is the [url= http://www.brecksfood.com/cereal.html?#crispies ]company[/url] that I used to work at that made rice crispies NOT puffed rice.

