Blue Ridge Country Nov/Dec 2024 - 62

THE STEAMIER THE BETTER
Passionate about Potato Chips
Virginia's Route 11 has been chipping away since 1992.
BY FRED & JILL SAUCEMAN
I
t's a steamy business. Sarah Cohen
says the steamier the better.
At Route 11 Potato Chips in
Mount Jackson, Virginia, steam is a
sign of success.
Walk into the building on a day
when chips are being kettle-cooked,
and sometimes you can barely see
the employees for the steam.
In making potato chips, the objective is to cook as
much water as possible out of the potatoes.
For a typical batch, 100 pounds of potatoes go in,
and that amount yields 25 pounds of potato chips.
" The process is more complicated than it appears, "
explains Cohen, president and founder of Route 11 Potato
Chips. " We peel the potatoes and then slice them
directly into hot sunflower oil. It takes eight minutes to
cook a batch. We're cooking 75 pounds of water out of
every batch of chips. The more moisture we cook out,
the crunchier the chip and the longer the shelf life. "
And don't try this at home. The complex chip-making
technology was designed and engineered by Cohen's
business partner, Mike Connelly. They describe the operation
as " like a commercial kitchen on steroids. " Further,
these are not grocery-store potatoes. They're chipping
potatoes grown specifically for Route 11. And they
come from up and down the East Coast, depending on
the growing season.
" We work our way up the East Coast, " Cohen says.
" In April we start getting freshly dug potatoes from
Florida. Then we head into North Carolina before stopping
in Virginia to work with a local grower here who
is in Dayton, Virginia. We work with him from August
through September. "
From that grower alone, Route 11 purchases about
one million pounds of local potatoes. Once those are
finished, the company begins buying potatoes from
growers in Pennsylvania and then New York.
The potato chip factory sits about a mile off U.S. 11.
The drive to Route 11 Chips takes you to one of the
only covered bridges in the state that still supports regular
traffic, the Meems Bottom Bridge, built in 1892 over
the North Fork of the Shenandoah River.
The public is welcome at Route 11 Potato Chips.
Viewing windows allow customers to see almost every
phase of production.
" And there is no charge, " Cohen adds. " We have
daily specials in our retail factory store, and you can buy
all the chips in the building, if you want. The only thing
we require is that you try some samples, and the samples
are free. "
Chips are cooked to order. Each day begins with a
batch of lightly-salted chips, Route 11's best-selling
product. They're seasoned with unrefined, mineral-laden
sea salt from Utah.
" We like to give our snack food as many positive attributes
as possible, " Cohen says.
The product line includes what Cohen calls " core
classics, " like barbecue chips, salt and vinegar, sour
cream and chives and salt and pepper, Cohen's current
favorite.
Route 11 was the first company in the country to develop
and sell a dill pickle-flavored chip. That flavor was
introduced in 1995, three years after Route 11's founding.
JOSH COHEN
" We chip the Yukon Gold chips right out of the ground, since
their chemistry will change a couple of days after digging.
If you chip them right after harvest, you get that
buttery characteristic in the chips. "
62 BLUERIDGECOUNTRY.COM
RYAN BONOS
ERIC LUSHER
RYAN BONOS
https://www.rt11.com/quality http://www.BLUERIDGECOUNTRY.COM
Blue Ridge Country Nov/Dec 2024

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Blue Ridge Country Nov/Dec 2024
