Fun Facts
- A potato is about 80% water and 20% solid
- The most popularly consumed potato variety in the U.S. is the Russet Burbank
- Thinly sliced and fried potatoes were first created in Saratoga, New York and “Saratoga Crunch Chips” are what we now call potato chips
- Potatoes are grown in all 50 states and in 125 countries
- An 8 oz. baked potato has 110 calories
- The average American eats 124 pounds of potatoes per year — Germans eat more than 200 pounds per year
- Potato chips are the number one snack food in the world
- The Irish Potato Famine was caused by a fungus that destroyed the country’s ENTIRE potato crop
- Henry Spalding first planted potatoes in the U.S. in 1837
- “French Fries” were introduced to America when Thomas Jefferson served them at a Whitehouse dinner
- United States potato lovers consumed more than 4 million tons of French fries in various shapes and sizes
- The largest potato grown was 18 pounds and 4 ounces according to the Guinness Book of World Records — and was grown in England in 1795
- The highest volume baked potato restaurant, The Hot Potato, is located in Plaza las Americas in San Juan, Puerto Rico
- Believe it or not:
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- Potatoes are more nutritious when eaten with the skin on
- Potatoes were the first vegetable grown in space in 1995
- Europeans consume twice as many potatoes as Americans per year
- Potatoes are second only to milk products as the most consumed food in America
- You can treat facial blemishes by washing your face daily with cool potato juice
- You can treat frostbite or sunburn by applying raw grated potato to the affected area
- Reduce aches and pains by rubbing boiled potato water (cooled) to the affected area
- Potatoes as currency
- During the Alaskan Klondike gold rush, (1897-1898) potatoes were practically worth their weight in gold. Potatoes were so valued for their vitamin C content that miners traded gold for potatoes.
- On the South Atlantic Island of Tristan de Cunha, potatoes were once used as the country's unofficial currency. Because of its remoteness, food was most valuable.
- Unusual beliefs about potatoes
- Because the potato was unknown to them, Europeans initially considered potatoes poisonous or evil due to their similarities to the nightshade family. Some members of the nightshade family include Mandrake and Belladonna, which are used for medicinal purposes. Germany's King Frederick William realized that potatoes were a good food source and ordered peasants to plant and eat potatoes or their noses would be cut off.
- Interesting uses of potatoes
- The Incas had many uses for potatoes other than dinner:
- Raw slices placed on broken bones to promote healing.
- Carried to prevent rheumatism
- Eaten with other foods to prevent indigestion.
- Measured time: by correlating units of time by how long it took for potatoes to cook. - French chemist Louis Lumiere used microscopic grains of potato starch fixed on 9-inch by 12-inch glass plates to create and market the first autochromes in 1907. Autochromes were widely used in photography before the development of color film.
- Various folk remedies recommend using potatoes to:
- Treat facial blemishes by washing you face daily with cool potato juice.
- Treat frostbite or sunburn by applying raw grated potato or potato juice to the affected area.
- Help a toothache by carrying a potato in your pocket.
- Ease a sore throat by putting a slice of baked potato in a stocking and tying it around your throat.
- Ease aches and pains by rubbing the affected area with the water potatoes have been boiled in.
- Some of the most famous potato dishes we enjoy today were created by mistake. Collinet, chef for French King Louis Phillipe (reign 1830-1848) unintentionally created soufflés (or puffed) potatoes by plunging already fried potatoes into extremely hot oil to reheat them when the King arrived late for dinner one night. To the chef's surprise and the king's delight, the potatoes puffed up like little balloons.
- In 1853 railroad magnate Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt complained that his potatoes were cut too thick and sent them back to the kitchen at a fashionable resort in Saratoga Springs, NY. To spite his haughty guest, Chef George Crum sliced some potatoes paper thin, fried them in hot oil, salted and served them. To everyone's surprise, Vanderbilt loved his "Saratoga Crunch Chips," and potato chips have been popular ever since.
Brought to you by the U.S. Potato Board
