George Speck
- For the American composer, see George Crumb. For the conductor and music coach, see George Crum (musician)
George "Speck" Crum (1822 – 1914), son of "a mulatto jockey and an Indian maid," according to a menu used at Moon's Lake House,[1] was the cook at Moon's Lake House, a resort at the south end of the lake in Saratoga Springs, New York, USA. He is widely credited as the inventor of potato chips. According to one story, on August 24, 1853, a customer complained that Crum's french fries were "too thick". The angered cook was frustrated by this remark, so he decided to give the maximal opposite of what the client was complaining about: he sliced potatoes paper-thin, over fried them to a crisp and seasoned them with an excess of salt. When the crisps were prepared, he gave them to the customer, who loved them. The chips became popular, and became known as Saratoga Chips. Crum was able to open his own restaurant in 1860 with the profits he made selling his new chips. They remained a local delicacy until the Prohibition era, when an enterprising salesman named Herman Lay popularized the product throughout the Southeast United States.
According to Urban legend, the hard-to-please customer in Saratoga Springs was none other than railroad magnate Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt, but more than likely it was a much more obscure customer.[2] An early source for the story identifies Vanderbilt as a regular customer, but not as the unintentional co-originator of the famous snack.[3]
However, a recipe for fried potato "shavings" had been printed in the US in 1832, in a book explicitly derived from an even earlier English collection. “Claims that the product originated in Saratoga NY in 1853 may be looked at with appropriate skepticism.” [4]
It is curious that a biography commissioned by Crum himself in 1893 did not mention his famous invention.[5] It is possible that Crum's sister, Katie Speck Wicks, either made the first discovery herself or in conjunction with Crum.[6] A contemporary source even gives credit to Cary Moon's wife Harriet, stating that she developed the side dish over time.[7]
The lack of a patent by the actual inventor may leave the matter in doubt.
Sources and notes
- ^ Moon, D.L. The Descendants of Robert Moon of Boston and Newport, p. 420[1]
- ^ Snopes, which lists its sources
- ^ Early Lake Houses Saratoga, New York (Reminiscences of Saratoga compiled by Cornelius E. Durkee, The Saratogian 1927-28[2]
- ^ Civil War Recipes and Food History - The Potato During the Civil War
- ^ History of Saratoga County, New York. Nathaniel Sylvester
- ^ Invented in Saratoga County. Timothy Starr, 2008
- ^ New York Times
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