- I have an idea.
Let's skip all of research,
all of talking to people,
all the deconstructing,
taking measurements, and I--
- [Producer] And action.
- No, no, seriously, this is a real thing.
I have an idea.
Let's just skip all that front matter,
and can I just try it
and see if I nail it?
- [Producer] No.
- It'll be the fastest
episode I've ever done.
- [Producer] No.
- I just think I know how to do this.
- [Producer] No.
- It's pretty easy.
[upbeat jazzy music]
[laughing]
Hey everyone, I'm Claire.
I'm in the BA Test Kitchen, and today
I'm making gourmet Ruffles.
I think potato chips are
truly one of the most
satisfying foods in the world, ever.
But Ruffles, I find
particularly appealing.
Ruffles potato chips are
a ridged potato chip.
This wavy pattern.
Ruffles have ridges, as
the catchphrase says.
They're just extremely
crisp, and very light also.
Just all that texture from
the ridges, and the crispiness
is like, these are an extremely
satisfying thing to eat.
Also Gaby told me that this
is her secret favorite snack
in the whole world, so I want
Gaby to come try them with me.
Gabriela!
I just got a smell from the bag.
- It's just like crack.
They have crack.
That's what it is.
It's like crack for your brain.
- [laughs] I think crack
is crack for your brain.
- [Gaby] Yeah.
- [Claire] So this is
sour cream and onion.
- Here we go.
Oh my god.
- Oh yeah.
- You can't go wrong.
I know you're gonna nail this one so well.
- Thanks, Gaby.
- I know.
- All-dressed flavor.
Number one flavor in Canada?
What does all-dressed mean?
Salty, savory, and sweet at the same time.
Oh my god, they smell amazing.
- Good?
Let me see.
Ooh.
Vinegar, or something.
- It's like vinegar, barbecue.
- Okay.
- These are so good.
- You just made up my
full afternoon, just like.
- [Claire] This may be
the greatest potato chip
I've ever had.
- I was just in Canada
and I ate a lot of these.
- I'm sorry, I lived
in Canada for one year.
How did I not know about this?
I didn't really go out much.
It was very cold.
I feel ill right now from eating these
but they are so good.
This is seriously the best
thing I've ever eaten.
They're so good.
Double crunch?
What does that mean?
They already made them gourmet.
Wow, zesty cheddar.
So full.
Not my favorite, this flavor.
I think the cheese flavor
is so overwhelming.
I don't feel great now.
I just ate a lot of potato chips
in a very short period of time.
They're so good.
- And when you're going through this
are you thinking to yourself
how is a Ruffle not a Pringle?
Or how is it?
- I think that's an interesting question,
because Pringle was a potato crisp.
- [Carla] Right.
- [Claire] Not a potato chip,
so it was like potato composite.
This I think is actual potato.
- Am I meant to believe
this is a slice of a potato?
- I believe you are.
- What's the quintessential?
- I think original.
Or sour cream and onion.
- Original?
Sour cream and onion's really good.
- So we could do what I did for,
at least in terms of flavoring.
- Yeah, right.
- What I did for Pringles,
which was like--
- Right.
- Make the base chip, then
have the different powder coatings.
I'd love to attempt this somehow,
because it can't be that hard.
It's like powdered distilled white vinegar
plus chili powder plus sugar,
you know to get that barbecue flavor.
- [Carla] Yeah, right.
- I think the smartest thing,
I just wanna focus on
getting, in this case,
100% of this challenge is,
okay, 95% of this challenge is texture.
So I wanna focus first
and foremost on achieving
a crispy, light chip,
you know, barely golden, not brown.
And then once I achieve that I can think
about flavoring them,
because the flavoring
happens after they're cooked.
I think this one's cut and dry.
We might have something
before the end of the day,
and by the way, it's three p.m.
I'm trying it as a new strategy.
Radical confidence.
[chuckling] See what happens.
There's no point in
measuring individual chips
because they're all different sizes.
What that indicates is
that they're all sliced
from different sized potatoes,
so they're actually made
from potatoes, I think.
Although in general this feels like maybe
a good average size.
It's a little tiny bit
browned around the edge
but in general it's a very uniform
kind of yellowish color.
I just want to measure the ridges.
What was that thing in school
where you had like, measuring
wavelengths, you know?
And it was like, this is the wavelength,
like the length of the wave, right?
And this is, there's a
word for what this is.
So this is the wavelength,
this is the crest.
This is the ...
amplitude, there we go.
That's a word.
This is the crest, this is the trough,
this is the wavelength.
I can't believe how much Gourmet Makes
makes me think about my
high school science classes.
One wavelength is four centimeters.
I mean four millimeters.
Okay.
The amplitude is
one centimeter, I mean millimeter.
Sorry.
The whole chip is really,
I mean absurdly thin.
When you think about it.
This is the worst ruler.
I can't see anything.
It's really only
like a millimeter thick.
So, just extremely, extremely thin.
So because it puffs in the oil,
so if it's one millimeter
thick after frying,
it has to be even less than
that before it goes into the oil
and it's just gonna be very hard,
not only to get it that
thin, but to get it even.
To have the ridges be
even all the way across.
I need like laser cut potato chips.
Do they have that?
Get me a laser.
Oh yeah, my favorite part.
Reading the ingredients.
[upbeat jazzy music]
This is a real different ingredient list
than like Hot Pockets.
Potatoes, vegetable oil,
parenthesis, sunflower, corn
and or canola oil, closed
parenthesis, and salt.
Pretty brief.
I appreciate the purity of the product.
I love this Gourmet Makes more and more
with every minute.
Did I read that one?
To be clear, that was the ingredient list
for original Ruffles.
This is the [speaking foreign language].
The ingredients here are
potatoes, vegetable oil,
sunflower, corn and or canola oil,
all-dressed seasoning,
parenthesis, maltodextrin,
brackets, made from corn,
sugar sodium diacetate, salt,
dextrose, torula yeast,
monosodium glutamate, spices,
sodium acetate, garlic
powder, onion powder,
sunflower oil, malic
acid, paprika extracts,
and natural flavors.
I felt better about this before.
I'm particularly put
off by sodium diacetate,
and also torula yeast,
which I've never heard of,
but the point is, at their base level,
Ruffles are potato, salt, and oil.
I feel good about that.
Time to go over to the
computer to do some research.
What are these called?
Ruffles potato chips.
[laughing]
The product is named as
an analogy to the ruffle,
a strip of fabric sometimes
gathered, creating folds.
Thanks for that really helpful definition
of what a ruffle is.
Let's look up all-dressed.
It's a potato chip
flavor popular in Canada.
The flavor combines
the potato chip flavors
of barbecue, ketchup,
sour cream and onion,
and salt and vinegar.
Fascinating.
What a great idea.
Brilliant.
How Frito-Lay makes potato chips.
Feels like a jackpot.
- [Man] We make about 150
million pounds a year.
- [Claire] Wow.
- [Man] We make Lays, Ruffles, Fritos--
- I'm sorry, 150 million pounds a year?
[laughing]
That's so many potatoes.
Okay, so we saw that.
There's actually a lot here,
but I don't see anything
in particular about ridged.
So this is a How It's Made video.
Wait, so that's another important point.
The reason why potato chips out of a bag
are not brown, is
because all of the starch
is washed off.
It's the sugars and
starches that start to brown
in the oil when they're
fried, so in every case
that we've seen of a video in a factory.
The potatoes are washed,
so all the starches
are rinsed off the surface,
and that's why they fry very pale
and they don't get really brown.
I don't think there's a
really complicated code
to crack here.
It's just like making
some of the potato chips,
which is great.
What a refreshing change
for Gourmet Makes.
What I'm really interested
in is getting our hands
on a crinkle slicer, and I
think the biggest challenge
will be to get even slices
that are the thickness
that I want, which is
to say very, very thin.
The videos that we watched confirmed
what I kind of knew
going in, which is that
there was just a few steps when it comes
to making potato chips.
Basically, it's slicing,
rinsing, cooking, slash frying.
And then seasoning.
So in potato land, there's
two main types of potatoes.
There's waxy potatoes,
and starchy potatoes.
These are Yukon Golds, a waxy variety.
And then Idaho russets, a starchy variety.
The waxier ones tend
to be a little slicker
and have, jeez.
[laughing]
- [Producer] You gotta get it now.
- It's really, it went all the way under.
Where did it go?
Oh wait, I can get it.
I'm afraid to reach my hand under here.
I got it.
Ooh, who knows what's
been under that oven?
All right, I gotta get rid of this.
[laughing]
It's amazing, just standing here
holding a potato.
[upbeat jazzy music]
So, I'll probably do some side by side
while we're waiting for the slicer,
I'm just gonna peel one of each and get it
in some water.
Potato browns very
quickly when you peel it
but if you hold it in water,
it stop the browning process.
And maybe I'll get some oil going
on the stove and just bring it up to temp.
This is just vegetable oil.
Potatoes are peeled, oil is almost at 360.
Gaby has our much needed tool.
- Yes.
Here you go.
- Very exciting.
Thank you.
- Yeah.
- So this is actually, so this is the--
- Like a mandoline.
- A mandoline.
This thing is got a lot of moving parts.
- That's a Cadillac of a mandoline.
Yes.
- But the whole point
is that this has a blade
that snaps in that makes ridges.
This is a crinkle cutter,
so it's like when you make,
have you ever seen the
carrots on the platter
that have the little ridges in it,
or like the stir fry?
It is a wider overall bigger wavelength
than the Ruffles.
Mandoline actually scares me a little bit.
My idea is to slice a
flat surface so that I can
basically have it hit up against the side.
Let me try a little thicker.
All right, so I got a slice.
It's pretty even.
It's also pretty thick.
Let me see if I go faster
if it gets a little bit thinner.
[laughing]
Not what I was hoping for.
[upbeat jazzy music]
That was Yukon Gold.
I got basically two semi-usable slices.
Let me try, jeez.
Slippery.
Let me try the russet.
I need a sharper blade.
Oh.
Like that one's not bad.
Oh god.
My oil.
Got pretty hot.
No worries.
We'll let that cool down.
All right.
I think I should just go
over to the fryer and start
just doing some test batches.
Just gonna start kind of piece by piece.
That's the Yukon, and the
other ones are russet.
The oil's pretty hot.
It's 390.
I'm just gonna season it
with a little bit of salt
and I wanna bring them back over to taste.
Ooh.
Not crisp at all.
Ooh, also kind of flabby.
Flabby.
Crisp.
I'm gonna taste this one.
Wow.
Okay.
In terms of the thickness,
it's really actually not bad.
I think they look very close in thickness.
I'm getting some of
that caramelized flavor
from the browning starches,
and I don't want that.
I don't want that kind of toasty quality,
I want just sort of blank fried potato.
Overall, this is not bad.
How bad could it be?
It's fried potato with salt.
I think I'm gonna fall
back on this article.
I remember reading on
the Serious Eats website
a long time ago by Ken G. Lopez
all about this topic, about
trying to not get color
on your potato chips when you fry them.
He's saying that in all of his tests,
just rinsing the slices weren't enough
to remove all the starches,
that the potato cells
really hold onto the starch.
So he boils the spice in
vinegar spiked boiling water
then he drains and fries them.
So that's the way I wanna try.
And so he's also using russet potatoes,
and I found that those
are easier to slice anyway
so I'm happy to stick with those.
This is distilled white vinegar.
I got one so far.
It's not bad.
[upbeat jazzy music]
Very unclear what's
happening from slice to slice
that's making some work and some not work.
They look very translucent.
So I'm gonna cook them
a little bit longer.
Hopefully they get crisp
all the way through.
Even though I know I shouldn't say it,
feeling pretty confident.
It's doing what I expected.
That's usually, that's
the confidence booster
is when the thing turns out
the way I think and hope
it's gonna turn out.
I wasn't timing it, but that
was maybe two minutes or so
in the oil.
First of all, they are
almost entirely translucent
which is a little bit weird.
They kind of remind me of like shrimp,
those shrimp crackers.
They just seem like they fried up thinner
than the last batch.
So it was very effective in
terms of preventing color.
Very crisp.
It's interesting.
Because they're so thin, it
almost immediately dissolves
and all you kind of taste is oil.
You don't even get a lot of potato.
It's like you're eating air.
So I think that this
method is really effective,
but now it means I have to
slice the potatoes thicker.
But I think this is a very
productive line of inquiry,
and I think I'm gonna nail it tomorrow.
[upbeat jazzy music]
The one and only time I think
ever finished in two days
was I think Oreos.
This would even be one and a half days
because I started
yesterday in the afternoon.
I'm ready to set a record.
Oh yeah, Pop Rocks was two days,
but that was more just like we ended
because I gave up.
My one question though,
and I wish Brad were here,
but Brad's on vacation.
Can I sharpen this blade at all?
I'm just concerned that
it's tearing up the flesh of the potato
as I slice, and just making it really hard
to get a precise cut
and an even thickness.
So we have this mandoline
with the crinkle cutter blade.
- Have you used one of those
like since culinary school?
Remember when you did like--
- Yeah.
- The waffle.
- Right. Yes, exactly.
No.
The answer is no.
- No.
- So I'm wondering if
there is a way to sharpen.
- Maybe, ooh, Dremel tool.
A Dremel too, like [buzzes] remember?
Didn't you guys use one once?
- I don't know what that is.
- A Dremel with a little.
- What's a Dremel?
Is that a made up word?
That doesn't sound real.
- You need like the
little ceramic [buzzing].
- Yeah, yeah.
I don't know what you're talking about
but that sounds good.
- It's almost like a dental thing
but like, for like not teeth.
- Sounds great.
There's a hardware store
on Chambers Street.
We should call them.
- Yeah, see if they have a Dremel tool.
- Okay.
- I will say--
- It worked great.
- Nothing against OXO's mandoline here
because it seems like
they really went for it
and everything, but the
one you get at school,
you know?
That crazy steel French mandoline.
- Yeah.
- Like the waffler is
definitely sharp, robust.
- Really?
- Oh yeah.
- But the crinkle cut,
because crinkle cutters
are pretty dull.
But I am remembering culinary school
where we did the waffle
cut fries or chips,
and yes it seemed sharper.
Can I borrow your goggles?
- Yeah, for sure.
- Okay.
[laughing]
To make flying pieces of metal.
- This is definitely a job
for the old safety goggles.
- Yeah.
- All right.
- All right.
- I can't wait.
- Okay.
- New day, sun's out.
- Thanks, Chris.
Who needs Brad?`
- Yes, who needs Brad
- I can do this myself with your help.
Yeah.
Hi, I have a question.
Do you sell Dremel rotary tools?
- [Man] Dremel rotary ...
Yeah, we have some Dremel rotary tools.
- Great, and do you
sell the grinding stone
accessories as well?
- [Man] Yes, we have like the whole kit.
- Oh, perfect.
Okay, thanks very much.
I have a new plan,
but it's really two plans
in case one of them fails.
One idea is to do what Chris said,
well both of them really are Chris' ideas.
One is get the Dremel
tool, the rotary tool
to try to sharpen this ourselves
which is because that seems
like not something I
would be very good at.
I'm gonna head your bets
and also get that mandoline
that Chris was talking about
that we both used in culinary school,
which is kind of a professional
model you don't see a lot.
So we're gonna run out and get that too.
That comes with many different blades,
including a little ruffled crinkle cutter.
We're basically spending more in one day
than we have in the entire
season of Gourmet Makes
combined on these two items.
But I think it's a good plan.
[upbeat jazzy music]
Amazing timing.
That was so fast.
Thanks Tyrene.
Hey Chris.
- Yeah!
- See what I'm saying?
- Yup.
- Like that guy?
- Yup.
[buzzing]
- Right?
Just the tip.
- Yup.
- You know?
- Let's open it up and see.
- [Chris] Yeah!
- Yes!
Okay.
- We have a vice.
- [gasping] It's perfect.
It's perfect.
- [Chris] Right?
- [Claire] It's perfect.
- I think that's it.
- Really?
That's it?
- I mean, if you have
to read the instructions
then it's too complicated.
- Totally.
[upbeat jazzy music]
Oh my god.
[whimpers]
Wait, Chris.
I think it is working.
Feel that, and then feel next to it.
- Oh yeah.
- That's thinner.
- You've removed metal for sure.
- Yes.
Okay, this is really not that hard.
How much pressure you
think I have to apply?
- It might be more than you think.
- Because I'm not applying any.
- Right.
- Just like touching it to it.
- I would like get in there.
- Oh god, okay.
- Like, we might need to see some sparks.
- I really don't like the noise.
This, I hate this noise.
It's horrible.
This noise.
But Chris, feel this.
- Oh, god yeah.
You're throwing metal.
That's like--
- Am I breathing in it?
Do we have a bandana?
[upbeat jazzy music]
All right, let's try it.
It feels definitely sharper.
So let me rinse this off
and give it a little wash,
and then I'm gonna try
slicing some potatoes on it.
[upbeat jazzy music]
Not bad.
All right, these are definitely coming out
better than yesterday.
Now I'm getting sort of three good
to every one bad.
All right, these all look really good.
I have maybe a dozen
or a dozen and a half usable slices here.
Before I make any more,
I should probably, I
wanna boil and fry them
so I can kind of gauge thickness.
In addition to this, I want
to try the other mandoline
that just got here, so I can see about,
I mean so I can see
about overall sharpness
and size of the ridges,
because obviously the ridges
that I'm making are bigger and wider
than the ridges on ruffles.
[upbeat jazzy music]
All right.
Here are my chips.
They are almost translucent,
but they basically become
kind of see-through.
And what's good is you can see
lots of air bubbles in there
which means they're very crisp,
but I think they're
also a bit too delicate.
I mean, that's pretty crispy.
This is about the same as
what I was getting last night
after that last test where I boiled them.
Kind of want to try the other mandoline,
just to see if I get ridges like this
that are just tighter.
So we have this other mandoline
as a second option.
And this, ooh, okay and another tool.
So interesting.
So this is, wow.
This is like a crinkle cutter knife,
which I am kind of into because I think
I could really control the thickness.
So this is not, this
blade is a little bit more
of a zigzag rather than an even wave,
but I sort of feel like the ruffles
are more of a zigzag.
I don't know what I'm expecting
as far as results.
Ooh, this is maybe harder than I thought.
I think the shape of the ridges is nice
but this is going to be very challenging
to cut parallel.
I didn't really line it up very well,
which is why I have like
an accordion basically.
So let me just try a few more.
All right, I'm not
playing with this anymore.
Let's see what this guy looks like.
Oh yeah.
Look at that cutter.
Hello?
It's like, maybe this is what they use
to make Ruffles.
It practically fits on there.
All right.
This is the style of
mandoline that, as Chris said,
I used in culinary
school and he used also.
And this is pretty sharp.
This is a pretty sharp edge.
It's like, it was fun
sharpening that thing,
but I think we got it.
I just want to see how it cuts.
How easily it cuts, what kind
of thickness I'm getting.
The main issue I'm having
with this mandoline
is I like having that runway
to really make sure I'm
applying even pressure
before I get to the blade
and kind of luge down the surface.
So, and here, I don't really
have an ability to do that
because of this.
Maybe I can adjust it a little better.
I don't know if that was,
oh my god.
No.
Hold on, I just did
something so dangerous.
I took this piece off
and wondered to myself
what was this doing there
and realized it was
covering up these things.
So I suppose that was there for a reason.
Mandolines are feared
in the kitchen, I think.
And for good reason.
You can really, really do some damage
with a mandoline.
But like anything, it
just takes a little bit
of practice and common sense.
Ow. Mother [beeping].
Ow.
Okay, so I just adjusted it
to try to make it a little bit thicker.
I think, yeah so I'm gonna
start with the straight cut.
[upbeat jazzy music]
All right.
These look really, really good.
The thickness is great of these.
They're really even.
Their ridges look great.
I have three main variables
that I've identified so far.
One, the thickness of the potato slice.
Two, the length of time that I boil,
and three, the oil test.
So I wanna do a couple of tests
where I play around with
each of those variables
and see what yields the best results.
And the first test is going
to be boiling two minutes
and then into 320 oil,
and then I'll make adjustments
for the further tests
if I need to.
[upbeat jazzy music]
Okay.
These are coming out.
They're not as translucent as before.
They're not quite as
opaque as the original.
The ridge size, I think, looks great.
Very spot on.
The translucency really comes from just
the amount of air that's in there.
And I think that maybe that's
still from boiling too much.
These taste really good.
Maybe a gourmet Ruffle is a
lighter, more translucent,
more delicate potato chip.
I wanna try another test where
I boil them for one minute
and see how that affects
the texture overall.
[shrieking]
No!
I'll save it, I'll save it.
[upbeat jazzy music]
This to me looks more opaque
than the previous versions.
Think it actually could
be a tiny bit thicker,
and I think that the one minute plunge
into the boiling water
was a good adjustment.
And I think 325 is a good temperature
because I'm getting a
minimal amount of color
but not too much browning.
I think the ridges are really good.
There's kind of a ring
just inside the edge
of the chip, and there's
kind of the same thing
happening here, if you can see that.
That's a good sign.
I think that was a really good test.
I'm getting a little bit
closer incrementally.
I think for the very first time ever
I'm actually changing
one variable at a time.
Just going to do the same test.
One minute blanch, into the 325 oil,
and I'm hoping that's
going to be the sweet spot.
Oh damn, okay.
[upbeat jazzy music]
So actually these were in the fryer
for three minutes total.
Crispy.
Wow.
I think these are very successful.
Good color, great texture,
crisp all the way through.
A nice, pretty even, golden color.
So good.
Delicious.
I'm just gonna make more.
[upbeat jazzy music]
So at this stage,
I'm blanching in batches,
so I'm just gonna throw
in a couple handfuls.
This is insane, but I might
trim off that flat side
just so that they look a
little bit more regular
in terms of shape.
So, while I focus on the next step
which is making the
powders to flavor them,
I wanna put these in the
oven that I set to dehydrate
to really dry out, and make
sure they stay really crispy.
I'm putting them in a lower temperature
so that they don't burn,
Because we all know what
happened on Doritos.
It was very upsetting.
[emotional piano music]
Did they get too dark, do you think?
I checked on them one minute
ago and they were fine.
Oh no.
I'm not remaking them.
[sighs] It was going so well.
Something had to happen.
I'm not going to make
the mistake I made before
and burn them at the last minute.
While the chips are dehydrating,
I'm gonna focus on the powders
so I can create a couple
different flavors of chips.
Thank you.
So I was thinking that the flavors will be
sour cream and onion, plain of course,
and then all-dressed,
which was such a discovery,
and a very cravable flavor.
I'm gonna start with sour cream and onion.
So we have some dried chives.
We also have powdered sour cream
which is a very cool ingredient.
Some onion powder.
This flavor is good to go.
Salt and vinegar is really just
vinegar powder, the
salt's already on there.
Next is all-dressed, so
I'm doing a combination
of smoked paprika and sweet paprika,
some garlic powder, some chili
powder, and ground mustard,
a pinch of cayenne, just
for a tiny bit of heat,
and also some black pepper.
This flavor's also sweet,
so I wanna add some powdered sugar,
because it's finer than white sugar.
Now I'm adding a little
bit of tomato powder.
Going to add some of my
sour cream and onion,
some of the distilled
white vinegar powder.
My goal with the all-dressed seasoning
is to nail it.
I want to try to exactly replicate
or get as close as I can to the original
because I truly don't
think that can be improved
I think that's good.
Just for ease of sprinkling,
I put just the plain white vinegar powder
in its own container, and
now I have my three flavors.
Sour cream and onion,
all-dressed, and salt and vinegar.
And now I wanna check on the chips.
Hopefully they haven't burnt to a crisp.
Just the crisp part.
I mean, they feel pretty crispy.
Very crispy.
I feel good.
I think I'm ready to coat them.
I think I'll use a little
sieve to dust them.
[upbeat jazzy music]
So this is sour cream and onion.
And now, I think salt and vinegar.
And now the rest of these
will be all-dressed.
I think I'm done.
What else is there to do?
Besides taste?
I almost feel bad that it was not
that I didn't work harder.
It just wasn't that hard.
It's just a potato chip.
I guess I shouldn't feel bad.
They look very similar to the original.
- [Producer] Are you proud of these?
- I'm very proud of them.
I'm proud of them, but I
would have been more proud
if I had worked harder.
It's kind of like easy
come easy go, you know?
But I did make a lot.
This is a record in terms of yield
for a Gourmet Makes.
I think to make a potato
chip more complicated
than it is, is a mistake.
So I think that this was
I think I troubleshot
this one appropriately
and put in the correct amount of effort.
The all-dressed, theirs is better.
What is your favorite
flavor of potato chip?
- Sour cream and onion.
- [Claire] Okay.
I think you should try one of these then.
- Which are?
- Sour cream and onion.
- Those are delicious.
- There's three ingredients.
- It's the perfect food.
- Potato, salt, and oil.
- Is this the flavor I'm thinking of?
- All-dressed?
- Yes.
- Yup.
- And I'm all dressed for you!
Look!
These shorts!
- These are sour cream and onion.
Do you want to try--
- I wish you can smell them.
- This is your favorite flavor.
- Yes.
Sour cream and onion.
- I want you to try that one.
I picked that one for you.
- I'm gonna go whole thing.
I usually go like,
lady like.
- Yeah.
- Oh my god.
It tastes the same.
- Sour cream and onion?
- Even better.
- Oh Andy, you don't have to smell it.
- Oh come on.
- Just eat a potato chip.
- I won't pull a Chris.
- All right, Chris.
- Oh my god, Claire.
- The crunching sound
is making me feel good.
This is salt and vinegar.
- You could make a little baby
like a mini taco.
[laughing]
Okay I'm going in.
- Good job with the barbecue.
- Actually, it's all-dressed,
which is very barbecue-forward.
- Oh.
- But it's a combination
of all the flavors.
- This is new one.
I didn't.
- These are great.
- The shape is so perfect.
It's really perfect.
- Yeah.
- All I just used potato.
- This is a 100% nail.
- Thank you.
- 100%.
- Always what I want to hear.
- But better because it's fresh and yum.
- Oh, I like that one.
- That one's a winner.
- Yeah, I think our of
every single Gourmet Makes
that I've done, this has been the easiest.
I guess said another way,
it's been the smallest amount
of trial and error.
It was like right off the bat I made
something reasonably
close, and it was just
lots of really minute
tweaks, and that was it.
Oh, I don't want a
challenge for the next one.
Let's just do more like this.
I'm perfectly fine.
We can all be here half the amount of time
it normally takes.
Is it better to not work that hard
and not be that satisfied,
or to work really hard, be exhausted,
and somewhat more satisfied?
I don't know.
Basically, there's no way to win
on this show.
[laughing]
[upbeat jazzy music]
Here's how you make gourmet Ruffles.
Peel several large russet potatoes
and store submerged in a bowl
of room temperature water.
Get a mandoline with
a crinkle cutter blade
and adjust the thickness
to a couple of millimeters.
Shave off a thin lengthwise
piece from one side
of the potato to make a flat cut side.
Up end the potato, press the cut side
against the side of the mandoline,
and rapidly glide the
potato across the blade
aligning each time to
make even, ruffled slices.
Store the slices in water as you work.
Working in batches, cook the slices
in rapidly boiling water for one minute.
Transfer to a towel-lined
baking sheet with a spider.
Pat dry, cut around
the edges with scissors
to round off the flat side,
and fry in 325 degree
Fahrenheit vegetable oil
for three minutes until golden
around the edges and crispy.
Transfer to a paper towel lined tray
and season generously with kosher salt.
Place on a rack and dehydrate
until completely crisp.
For the sour cream and onion flavor,
combine sour cream powder, onion powder,
and milled dried chives to taste.
For the salt and vinegar,
just use distilled
white vinegar powder.
For all-dressed, combine sweet paprika,
smoked paprika, chili
powder, ground mustard,
cayenne, onion powder,
black pepper, tomato powder,
powdered white vinegar, powdered sugar,
and the sour cream and onion mixed taste.
Dust the chips generously on both sides
with the flavored powder of choice.
They're good.
- This was an easy one, right?
- It was easy.
- Yeah.
It's nice.
She got a break.
- Next time, give me a challenge.
- Yeah.
Oh, she wants more challenge!
- [Producer] You heard it here.
- No, no, no!
- Wait, what's the next one?
- What's next?
- [beeping] Oh my god,
it's gonna be impossible.
- Are you gonna make some with Coca-Cola?
- [Claire] Yes.
- Yay!
- Also I love [beeping].
- My mom [beeping].
- [Producer] Yeah.
