Consistent in taste, texture, and availability, Fritos contain only three ingredients corn, salt, oil , which puts them high on my personal list of almost-not-processed processed snack foods hey, I tell myself what I want to hear.
I know Fritos are well-seasoned because they make the edges of my lips dry out and they demand a glass of water between handfuls.
I know Fritos are crunchy because they're sturdier and thicker than most tortilla chips, holding up even when mounded with a pile of chili, Frito pie-style. I know they're reliable and, um, mass-manufactured because they taste exactly how I remember they taste every time I taste them. He never imagined anyone would consume an entire king-size bag.
Who created the Frito pie, though? Texas Monthly noted that the concoction required cans of Hormel chili and bags of Fritos. Soon after Disneyland opened in , the Casa de Fritos opened its doors to give visitors a taste of Mexican favorites like tamales and enchiladas. The restaurant stuck around through the s and into the s, and in some tellings, it was indirectly responsible for the birth of another Frito-Lay favorite, Doritos.
The restaurant featured an animatronic version of longtime brand mascot Frito Kid , a cowboy who would be retired in the late s for the blessedly short-lived and more than a little offensive Frito Bandito.
Regular Fritos are a hit with Americans, but around the world, there are some more unusual varieties. How did we end up with Fritos on the snack shelves, and what's the story behind their popularity? We decided to dive in and take a look. This is the untold truth of Fritos. For many, Fritos may seem like a relatively new product. You may have enjoyed them with high school lunches or at a recent summer barbecue. But they actually have of a storied past that dates back further than you might imagine.
In , Charles Elmer Doolin stumbled upon the perfect business for sale, and he took a leap that made an impact on the world of snacking forever. Doolin was already a businessman, running a confectionery in San Antonio, Texas, but he was looking to diversify his offerings.
The man selling his corn chips business had been utilizing masa made out of corn, which was then fried and sold as little bags of chips. He called them Fritos , translating to "little fried things," and they were incredibly popular on the beaches of Mexico.
Fascinated by the concept, Doolin purchased the rights to the recipe, along with the customer list the man already had established, and he went on to perfect the recipe even further, leading to the Fritos corn chips we can find on shelves today. As Doolin perfected his Fritos corn chips recipe, he knew that it all had to start with great corn. After all, not much is added to that main ingredient.
According to NPR , Doolin actually came up with his own hybrid of corn, making a custom variety to produce the perfect chip. Doolin utilized Texas farmers to plant a huge array of varieties until he finally landed on the perfect type of corn to utilize in making his chips. In Kaleta Doolin's book Fritos Pie: Stories, Recipes, and More that details the company her father built, she adds that the final hybrid of corn was developed by an employee with an agronomy degree.
This employee paired sweet corn and field corn to make the perfect match. Now, the corn used for Fritos corn chips comes from farms in the United States, all devoted to bringing fresh cobs of corn to the Fritos factory to be made into chips. When it comes to making Fritos, it's definitely not as simple as just frying up some corn to make corn chips. A Fritos factory has the capability to make at least 20, bags of corn chips each shift, but it's not without careful calculation.
And there are quite a few steps involved at the factory to make these salty, crunchy snacks for consumers. The Fritos factory gets a delivery of fresh corn to start off the process, which is stored in grain silos on-site. The corn makes its way into the factory where it's cooked in water, breaking down the starch in the corn along the way. The corn is then cleaned and ground up to turn it into masa to serve as the base of the chip.
The masa is cut into the shape of Fritos that we are all accustomed to before being fried to create the finished product. Chips are topped with salt as they go through a tumbling machine, making the seasoning totally consistent before the Fritos make their way to the packaging line.
Once at the packaging line, the ideal weight of chips is measured out, added to branded bags, and sealed to eventually make their way to your local store. Kaleta Doolin, Fritos founder's daughter, claimed that her dad intended the treat to be eaten as a side dish as part of a meal — not as a snack.
Perhaps that's why Fritos Pie became such a huge success. While Fritos have been used for dips or the perfect topping for soups or chili, Fritos Pie just might be the most popular recipe using these little corn chips out there.
According to Kaleta, in , Dean played a role in planning and launching a campaign focused on ways to cook with Fritos after she added Fritos to her fruitcake. The recipe book was full of wild ideas, but one stand-out that lived on was Fritos Pie. Fritos Pie is made by adding chili and cheese to a bag of Fritos corn chips, along with other toppings such as fresh tomatoes, corn, and anything else a family's heart desires.
Other versions utilize a casserole dish, starting with a layer of Fritos as the base, and then topping it with chili, cheese, and all of the fixings. Of course, the recipe differs from region to region and household to household, but the concept of utilizing Fritos as a base remains the same. When you really boil it down, Fritos corn chips are a pretty simple concept.
After all, it's just a simple recipe utilizing corn, oil, and salt. And the original version of Fritos, with an ideally calculated amount of salt, has certainly satisfied snack lovers for years. But Fritos has definitely taken that recipe and worked to switch things up over the years, debuting a slew of popular flavors that are now well known in the United States. Fritos started out with its original corn chips, but since then, it's also added a lightly salted option, along with debuting Fritos Scoops in the early '90s to offer even more surface area for salsas and other sauces to scoop up.
The ever-loved Fritos Chili Cheese variety debuted in the mid-'80s offering another flavor option with the pairing of chili in mind, and other flavors to round out the portfolio were introduced, including Spicy Jalapeno, along with a Flamin' Hot version in to mimic its cousin, Flamin' Hot Cheetos.
As with many food companies, appealing to a worldwide audience is important for a brand's growth.
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