Interesting potato facts

Morning Glory

Morning Glory

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In case you hadn't noticed yet, potatoes are the ingredient for The CookingBites Recipe Challenge!

A few interesting things about potatoes:
  • In 2010, Chris Voigt, the executive director of the Washington State Potato Commission, tried a crazy experiment: 2 months of eating only potatoes. At first, he ate only when he felt hungry, and lost 12 lb in 3 weeks. To get enough calories, he then increased his intake to 20 potatoes a day… and he said he’d never felt so stuffed. Despite apparently meeting his calorie needs, Voigt lost 9 more pounds throughout the rest of the experiment. Not only that, his blood measures (such as cholesterol, triglycerides, and blood glucose) improved.
  • Potatoes contain trace amounts of naturally occurring temazepam and diazepam (aka Valium) along with L-tyrosine (a precursor to dopamine). I wonder if this is why they feature so often in comfort food?
  • Early Spanish chroniclers — who misused the Indian word batata (sweet potato) as the name for the potato — noted the importance of the tuber to the Incan Empire. The Incas had learned to preserve the potato for storage by dehydrating and mashing potatoes into a substance called chuñu. Chuñu could be stored in a room for up to 10 years, providing excellent insurance against possible crop failures. It sounds like the Incas invented 'Smash'!
  • The Incas measured their units of time by how long it took to cook a potato.
  • China is the world’s leading producer of potatoes, growing 22% of all potatoes. Production continues to rise, owing to increases in both land devoted to potato production and yield per hectare. Most potato production occurs in the northern and southwest regions of the country. The processing of coarse starch is the most important component of the potato processing industry in China.
If anyone can shed further light on this last point I'd be interested. What are the Chinese doing with all these potatoes (they are not exported in a large numbers)? I know very few Chinese dishes containing potatoes - and none that require potato starch.

Sources: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11540-008-9121-2; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweet_potato; http://www.history-magazine.com/potato.html
 
toddhicks209 said:
Another interesting fact about the potato chip is that it was invented by a black man. I found that out this past black history month.
Click to expand...
Which sort of potaoe chip though?
Speck(Crum) and his sister Kate Wicks, like other Native American or mixed-race people of that era, were variously described as "Indian," "Mulatto," "Black," or just "Colored," depending on the snap judgement of the census taker.
 
China has limited imports of potato starch(Used liked corn starch) since 2013. Limiting what comes in means they'll have to produce their own.

Spelling corrected in edit
 
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I think all our imported potatoes here are from China. All the boxes in which I've seen them have Chinese script on the sides. It is said that the strain was originally brought over from Holland.

There are more younger Thais eating potatoes here than 20 years ago. Unfortunately it is generally in the form of chips or more often those stringy things sold at McDonald's/KFC. Potato crisps are also becoming more and more popular.
 
classic33 said:
Which sort of potaoe chip though?
Speck(Crum) and his sister Kate Wicks, like other Native American or mixed-race people of that era, were variously described as "Indian," "Mulatto," "Black," or just "Colored," depending on the snap judgement of the census taker.
Click to expand...

To clarify, we are talking about what are known as 'crisps' in the UK.
 
classic33 said:
An apt name though
Click to expand...

Speck was born in 1822 to a Black father and Native American mother of the Huron tribe. Speck, also known as George Crum, took on the name because his father was a jockey known by that moniker. https://blackamericaweb.com/2016/04...act-george-speck-inventor-of-the-potato-chip/
Click to expand...


classic33 said:
Bit of difference in his wives though.
Click to expand...
I don't think the second photo on the webpage is his wife - 'Kate' was his sister, I think. But who knows?
 
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