Tater Tots

RE: Tater Tots (2005Equinox)

Mon, 17 Mar 2008 03:25:43 GMT

I would rather have them over french fries anyday. I either deep fry them or cook them on our American Harvest Jetstream oven. That way they are evenly cooked. The oven is acceptable but they then cook more on one side than the other. Tater Tots are one of THE best things ever.

RE: Tater Tots (cleanmonk)

Mon, 03 Mar 2008 14:29:28 GMT

i love tater tots !!!!

RE: Tater Tots (PapaJoe8)

Sat, 02 Feb 2008 09:33:24 GMT

Wow, lots of tater tot info!

My questions are, what year did Oreida invent the tot, and what year does anyone remember them being sold by a restaurant, drive in, or food consesion? I know Keller's sold them in the 50s but not sure what year. I saw 1954 up there somewhere in Salins post.
Joe

RE: Tater Tots (salindgren)

Sat, 02 Feb 2008 02:28:00 GMT

What’s For Dinner?

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ajc.com > Evening Edge
Chefs take the humble Tater Tot to the next level

By JOHN KESSLER
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 01/17/08

The Tater Tot held its debutante ball, fittingly, at the Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami Beach. The swooping post-modern structure had itself just debuted in 1954, signaling the country's interest in new forms, new conveniences, new luxuries — all financed with infusions of postwar cash.

The coming-out event wasn't actually a dance in honor of a frozen food, but rather a breakfast at the National Potato Convention being held at the hotel. One attendee — F. Nephi "Neef" Grigg of Ore-Ida Foods in Idaho — had smuggled in a satchel of what would be his greatest invention.
Brant Sanderlin/Staff
(ENLARGE)
No matter how you spell it, Tater Tots are popular.

Brant Sanderlin/Staff
(ENLARGE)
Tater Tots are everywhere these days – on a menu near you, in recipes – and can come stuffed with cheese or even (chef's honor) foie gras.

Recipes
Tater Tot recipes: How to make your own and customize theirs.

• Tater Tot photo gallery

John Kessler
John Kessler writes food features and a column about food and more for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
E-mail John Kessler

Recent Kessler columns

* Can we just banish this distasteful appellation?
* Chefs take the humble Tater Tot to the next level
* A recovery from burnt jambalaya

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• Search AJC recipes

As Grigg recalls in his papers, he "bribed ... the head cook ... and arranged to have the Tater Tots cooked, placed in small saucers and distributed on the breakfast tables for sample treats."

The response?

"They were gobbled up," Grigg wrote, "faster than a dead cat could wag its tail."

Half a century later, the gobbling of Tater Tots continues unabated — to the tune of more than 3.6 billion annually. Grigg's solution for using up scrap generated from the processing of frozen french fries has become an iconic American food — snack, side dish, object of adoration. Each successive generation deepens our appreciation.

For baby boomers, the presence of Tater Tots signaled a happy equation in the school cafeteria: Tater Tots + Ketchup = Bliss. For Generation X, they became a ubiquitous comfort food — the stuff of casseroles, fish-stick Fridays and midnight munchies.

Now, a younger generation promotes Tater Tots as hipster bar food. The ultra-chill Clocked in Athens serves its tots as cocktail bites with blue cheese dip. The Vortex in Midtown hosts a monthly "Boozer Doodle and Tater Tot Extravaganza," in which would-be artists sketch burlesque dancers, drink to excess and help themselves to the endless single-item buffet. (As often as not, they sketch fetishized images of the tots; some can be viewed on www.flickr.com).

This generation also has definitively dropped the "tater." Following the example set by Napoleon Dynamite, the movies' patron saint of awkward youth, these fried snacks have become "tots" tout court in common parlance.

Fill it with foie gras

Once a popular food earns its retro cachet these days, the fine dining crowd can't be far behind. Don't believe it? Michel Richard — the great chef at Citronelle in Washington — has five little words to shake your soul:

"Tater Tot foie gras ravioli!" the chef exclaims by telephone. "I make the Tater Tot mixture, fill it with foie gras and then sauté it until it crisps. They're wonderful."

Fancy stuff aside, the French-born chef professes a fondness for the freezer-bag variety of this ultimate American bite in all its plainspoken goodness.

"I love Tater Tots like you get in a burger joint," enthuses Richard. "They're crunchy and crispy on the outside, and creamy and moist inside. Mmmmm."

So enamored was Richard of the little potato snacks that developing a technique to duplicate (if not improve) them has become a long and evolving professional project. The very first recipe in his James Beard Award-winning cookbook "Happy in the Kitchen" (Artisan, $45) — an homage called Spuddies — binds potato cubes with gelatin, which melts when fried. Creamy and crisp, but not exactly tot for tat.

So Richard abandoned that technique for a better one that, in fact, echoes the industrial process perfected by Grigg a half-century earlier. He barely steams Yellow Finn potato cubes, then packs them into a mold to cool, letting the expressed potato starch do the binding. He cuts the chilled mixture into bites and fries them twice — once at a moderate temperature to cook them through and then again at a high temperature to crisp the outsides. Creamier, crisper.

On menus high and low

Closer to home, some Atlanta chefs also make their own potato bites, though they stop short of dropping in handfuls of black Périgord truffle as Richard is wont to do. Gary Donlick at Pano's & Paul's prepares nutmeg-scented potato bites that he serves with wild mushrooms and strip steak. Ron Eyester of Food 101 in Morningside has fashioned crab-filled tots as an appetizer.

Yet the cultish surge in appreciation lies not in the whims of a few creative chefs but in the fact that so many drinking holes and joints have discovered that a hot, salty, greasy basket of tater goodness is the way to diners' hearts.

"There's something about that chemical tang of vegetable oil sliding down your throat that's so addictive," says a thoughtful Hillary Brown, the 30-year-old restaurant critic for Athens' Flagpole newspaper.

The Vortex tries to go the deep-fat fryer one better and serves a messy heap of chili-cheese tots, though this bodacious heap — neither crunchy nor creamy — offers little beyond ballast.

With recipes, texture must be the first consideration. Tater Tots can never be a food of the moment like chili-cheese fries, nachos or still-popping Rice Krispies enjoying their first contact with milk.

No, as millions of Midwesterners can attest, Tater Tots show a gentler side to their personality when smothered and baked. Tater Tot hot dish appeals for its pillowy, potato-y insides as much as its crisp surface.

Always popular

Consider the "Tomminator" — an amalgam of tots and Brunswick stew sheathed in a thick cloak of melted cheese that has become the signature dish at Fox Bros. BBQ in Inman Park. It is fine when fresh from the kitchen, but distressingly delicious after five minutes when the tots have surrendered all integrity.

Sheila Devaney of Chapel Hill, N.C., says the vegetarian Tater Tot casserole she learned to make while living in Georgia "is always the first thing gone when you bring it to a potluck at work. But if there's any left, it's even better the next day for breakfast."

Not content with casseroles, a growing subculture of home cooks has begun shredding potatoes and hand-forming their own tots — debating Richard's recipe along with a number of others floating on cooking Web sites.

Devaney considers such efforts ridiculous, if not anathema to the essential appeal of Tater Tots: their ubiquity.

"Why would you ever make your own?" she gasps in disbelief. "Just go to our friends at Ore-Ida. They can hook you up!"

Editor's Note: References to Tater Tots and tots are used with permission from the H.J. Heinz Co.

Tots trivia

• Before F. Nephi Grigg invented the Tater Tot, Ore-Ida used its potato scraps as cattle feed.

• The first test marketing consisted of an Ore-Ida executive traveling the country to hand out samples and play the ukulele while people ate.

• The alliterative name was coined with the help of a thesaurus and, yes, it's a registered trademark. There are many fried potato snacks but — hail! — only one Tater Tots.

• The Idaho Legislature passed a resolution in 2005 commending the "Napoleon Dynamite" filmmakers that reads, in part: "tater tots (sic) feature prominently in this film thus promoting Idaho's most famous export."

• Ore-Ida, a subsidiary of H.J. Heinz, produces several varieties, including onion Tater Tots and mini-Tater Tots.

— John Kessler

RE: Tater Tots (Ort. Carlton.)

Thu, 24 Jan 2008 01:48:32 GMT

Dearfolk,
Love 'em! They beat those same old fries hands down.
One restaurant here in Athens -- Clocked! on West Washington Street -- always has Tater Tots, and lets customers sub them for fries at no extra charge... they'll even add Cajun spice to 'em (or a couple of other things) gratis.
Same is true of The Euclid Avenue Yacht Club on Euclid Avenue (DUH!) in Atlanta's Little Five Points.
Sure wish I had a few right about now.
Totting It Up, Ort. Carlton in Ever-Amazing Athens.

RE: Tater Tots (salindgren)

Thu, 24 Jan 2008 01:33:48 GMT

Okay, to PapaJoe8, I think I have another thread started, "REAL FRENCH FRIES". Looks like there are a couple of replies. What I want to know is where do you get beef tallow, like McDonald's used in the 1970s? I'm not married, have no kids, who cares if I drop dead from enjoying great fries?
-Scott Lindgren

RE: Tater Tots (Donna Douglass)

Mon, 21 Jan 2008 17:23:48 GMT

I don't know the history of Tater Tots, but the first we ever had them was when there was a chain of chicken places, that made broasted chicken and one of the sides was broasted potatoes, which were the same as what we now know as tater tots. They were delicious, as was the chicken. I can't recall the name, other than Broasted Chicken, and it was very good. I don't know how large the chain was nor what happened to it, but we patronized the one that was located in Worthington, Ohio. Our first experience with these delicious little potato morsels.

Donna

RE: Tater Tots (mikez629)

Mon, 21 Jan 2008 17:15:31 GMT

You get 7-8 tater tots and squash them so they are flattened. Take homemade baked beans/spoon them over the tater tots and add cheeder cheese-try it---its goood!

RE: Tater Tots (PapaJoe8)

Mon, 21 Jan 2008 17:11:23 GMT

I still wana know the history of tater tots. Don, I'm not so sure Ore-Ida's potatoe mouth can be trusted. Maybe they stole the idea from Joe Keller?

Twice fried, we need the scoop Salin!

Oh, Ore-Ida onion tater tots, drop one in a bowl of chili, stir around a bit, but don't let it soak too long, mmmm.
Joe

RE: Tater Tots (salindgren)

Mon, 21 Jan 2008 16:39:44 GMT

Ha. LegalLady does not like tots. She says "yuck!". Well you know what? My girlfriend is a lawyer, practicing in CA and NY, and she LOVES tater tots! Well, actually, she will eat ANY kind of potato. I guess I was right in my guess about the invention on the tot, using up parts. I still don't care, I LOVE them. As for LegalLady's suggestion for fresh homemade fries... I guess I will have to try this someday, TRUE FRENCH FRIES, the twice fried item. I need a little basket, a round one, that will fit in a pan of oil. Or better yet, in a pan of beef tallow!
-Scott Lindgren scottlindgren@netzero.net

RE: Tater Tots (PapaJoe8)

Mon, 21 Jan 2008 13:14:29 GMT

Ok, Keller's in Dallas started selling Tots in the 50s. How did that happen? Did they make their own or??? buy them from Ore-Ida? Or ????
Joe

RE: Tater Tots (MiamiDon)

Mon, 21 Jan 2008 09:13:44 GMT

quote:
Originally posted by dcwatts

Someone asked about the history of the 'Tot.
They were invented back in the 1950s by an employee of Ore-Ida as a means of getting rid of the scraps generated by the processing of frozen french fries.

Tater Tot history, straight from the potatoe's mouth:

http://www.oreida.com/funzone/history.aspx

RE: Tater Tots (dcwatts)

Sun, 20 Jan 2008 19:23:07 GMT

Someone asked about the history of the 'Tot.
They were invented back in the 1950s by an employee of Ore-Ida as a means of getting rid of the scraps generated by the processing of frozen french fries.

RE: Tater Tots (dcwatts)

Sun, 20 Jan 2008 19:11:52 GMT

Here's my favorite TaterTot recipe. Not a main dish, it can serve as a side dish with steak or what-have-you OR (my more common use) breakfast.

T A T E R - T O T C A S S E R O L E

2 1/2 cups shredded cheese (your choice)
8oz sour cream
1 (14oz) can cream of potato soup
1 (32oz) pkg frozen Tater-tots
1tsp salt

Pre-heat oven to 350degF. Blend 1&1/2 cups cheese with sour cream, salt and soup in a large mixing bowl. Toss in the 'tots. Spread in a greased 9x13in baking dish. Top with remaining cheese. Bake, uncovered, for 45 minutes.

OPTIONAL: Cut four strips of thick-sliced bacon into moderately sized pieces (large enough so that they do not become microscopic when rendered). Fry in skillet and allow pieces to drain on paper towel. Discard bacon grease. Mix cracklins into sour cream mixture with other ingredients.

Enjoy!

RE: Tater Tots (LegalLady)

Sun, 20 Jan 2008 18:26:05 GMT

Tater Tots? Yuck. Give me good old homemade french fries any day.

LL

RE: Tater Tots (salindgren)

Sun, 20 Jan 2008 18:06:35 GMT

Oh, poor grammar on my part. What I said was that Dallas was A home to the tot, not THE home. Sorry if I created confusion there. But, I have no idea on the history. It may well be that they are simply some genius idea for using up otherwise useless tater parts, but who cares?? We all LOVE them! Parts is parts.
In a similar vein, and also funny, is the story regarding so called "baby carrots". These are carrots that would otherwise be tossed out. They just pare them down and market them as "babies". Ha!
-Scott Lindgren

RE: Tater Tots (PapaJoe8)

Sun, 20 Jan 2008 09:56:52 GMT

Maynerd and Salin mentioned Keller's in Dallas. My first taste of a tater tot was at Keller's. I think no one else had them back in the 50s. You for sure couldn't buy them at the crocery. Kellers still has them and they taste just the same as 40 yrs. ago.

Oh, I love the Oreida's. They are the very best IMHO.

Now, for the history of tater tots. Where did they start and how did they progress? Salin said Dallas was the home of these tasty treats. Could that be true?
Joe

RE: Tater Tots (Vince Macek)

Sun, 20 Jan 2008 08:20:44 GMT

Fox Brothers BBQ here in Atlanta (Dekalb Ave, west of Decatur) has a popular dish that's basically Tots topped with Brunswick stew and shredded cheese. Certainly they lose their crunch quickly, but still tasty.

RE: Tater Tots (salindgren)

Sun, 20 Jan 2008 05:36:13 GMT

Well, I was just going to say something more about cooking tots. I discovered last week that the steak fries I bought do not cook well in the oven, so I fired up the 2nd batch in oil. Now, we have talked about how tots need to be really crispy, which means at least 25 minutes in the oven, and since I already had the used oil in a pan in the fridge, I made today's tots that way, and while it's a little messier, it's a whole lot faster. When you are in a hurry, go for the oil.
-Scott Lindgren

RE: Tater Tots (UncleVic)

Sun, 13 Jan 2008 03:00:15 GMT

quote:
Originally posted by TIPPY LEE

Tater tots from the local DQ here, are awesome!!...Very crispy! served with ranch dressing...Excellent!!...Tom B. in Eastern Kentucky.

Bringing this topic up again created one heck of a flashback. Tippy Lee (Tom Blackburn) was a good friend who passed away 12/10/2005. About the same time (hour) Richard Pryor passed (I can still picture them 2 humoring each other at the pearly gates). Tom always liked his grub from DQ.. Claimed they had the best foot long chili dogs that existed. Do miss his humor for sure.. He was suppose to come to town here for a Mountain Concert before he got sick.. Never made it, but still have an autographed drum stick I saved for him before I learned of his passing. Time to have a plate of Tater Tots in his memory (Ore Ida with Heinz Ketchup)..

RE: Tater Tots (Frankman)

Sun, 13 Jan 2008 02:47:25 GMT

When I want a quick meal I'll throw a couple of handfuls of left over tots in a saucepan with some chill. By the time I heat the chili the potatoes are warm. Yes, it took a lot of willpower to learn to have leftover tater tots.

RE: Tater Tots (salindgren)

Sun, 13 Jan 2008 02:34:53 GMT

To thediningroom: Yes, I've looked at Ralphs, Vons, all the stores here in LA, and no more Onion Tater Tots, nor Tabasco Heinz. I'm OK with the ketchup problem, my girlfriend hates anything spicy, so it's no big deal for me to just add hot sauce to MY ketchup. You know, I think Ore-Ida actually had TWO versions of onion tots, regular onion, and green. But that's the hard part, I am not sure how to add an onion feature to tater tots. I think I will try a little onion powder in the ketchup, oui? Might work. BTW, my cat's official (registered) name is Potato Blossum. Therefore she's called Tater, or Tater Tot. She's a beautiful Abby. A real sweet little gal.
Regarding Sonic... I used to frequent them in Dallas. I got excited here in LA about 6-7 years ago when they opened a store about 30 miles from my downtown loft, and I was kind of disappointed, except for the lime-ade, which is very good. I'll talk more about old faves on the Fast Food page. But yes, it really makes no sense to me when "national" chains advertise, and tease us with pretty pictures WHEN THEY DON'T EVEN OPERATE ANYWHERE NEAR YOU!! Especially goofy for me, in the heart of Los Angeles? There are so many! Ruby Tuesday's. I don't know whether they have a store in CA. Stuart Anderson's Black Angus. Not any within many miles of downtown LA. Carrow's. Maybe 15 miles from DT. And over and over.
-Scott Lindgren scottlindgren@netzero.net

RE: Tater Tots (stricken_detective)

Tue, 08 Jan 2008 17:19:31 GMT

Here is my mother's recipe:

(DO NOT. COOK. THE BEEF. It goes into the pan raw. You must trust me on this.)

Norwegian Pizza:

1 1/2 lbs ground beef
cream of celery/mushroom/chicken/whatever or cheese soup
1 medium onion, chopped
1 bag tater tots

Press ground beef flat into a 9x13 pan, like you're making cookie bars. Sprinkle salt & pepper over meat, sprinkle onions over that. Spread undiluted soup over that, put tater tots in rows over that. Bake @ 350 for 90 minutes. Cut along the tater tots for your pieces, and eat with a fork, this pizza.

If you use cheese soup, it tastes like cheeseburgers & fries.

RE: Tater Tots (MilwFoodlovers)

Tue, 08 Jan 2008 09:15:20 GMT

quote:
Originally posted by thediningroom

Tater Tot Casserole sounds yummy, do you have the recipe?

Here's a page of them: http://www.cooks.com/rec/search/0,1-71,tater_tot_casserole,FF.html

RE: Tater Tots (thediningroom)

Tue, 08 Jan 2008 07:14:13 GMT

quote:
Originally posted by salindgren

OK, I'm from Dallas, a home for Tater Tots. Yes, Keller's and others have good ones. Now, my question would be: Are the institutional units different from the oven-bake type we're sold? Is there a reason why we can use the oven, but at restaurants they always go in the fryer? I know the ones we buy are sprayed with an oil of some type, so that they will actually work in the oven. What I'm finding today is that even in some of the non-commercial vendors, there are several brands out there now, not just over-priced Ore-Ida. This is good, and extends to all shapes of "french fry" type potato. I buy the largest bags I can find of TTs, crinkle cuts, and steak fries. I don't care for the curly guys, or regular or shoestrings so much. I got tired of dealing with aluminum foil, which can get expensive, but I did discover that if you crinkle the foil first, things don't stick so much. No, here's what I do now. I have a 10 inch saute pan (plain, not teflon), with a metal handle. I load it up with tater tots, and throw it in the oven at 450 degrees. Takes about 30 minutes. What's good about this technique is: I can toss the tots anytime, no stirring or anything. I can pull them out and examine them anytime. I can pour them out of the pan right onto a plate, which I can't do with foil on a sheet. Also, what I'm finding is that if I just dedicate this pan to this task, it just lives in the oven, I have not needed to scrub it, it's just sort of "seasoned" without any nasty black buildup, call me lazy, but it's working.
Last year, I was in a place with no oven, so I fried the things, but I really think I like the oven better. It's easy somehow to over-fry in oil, and I think the baked ones actually taste better, then you don't have to deal with the oil, either. One reason why restaurant fries taste better than what you do at home is a matter of chemistry. Totally fresh oil is not tasty. In restaurants, when they change the oil, they save a few ounces of the old oil, and add it to the new. It's kind of like a starter for sourdough, changes the chemistry of the new oil in a tasty way.
As for dipping sauces, well, I'll stick with ketchup. I like to add regular Tabasco, which Heinz USED to sell, now I have to do it manually. What's more sad is that Ore-Ida quit with the onion tots, but, like I said, I'm finding plenty of cheaper brands out there. Somebody mentioned seasoned salt...That sounds good. Maybe onion powder stirred into the ketchup... Tater tots for grown-ups.
Happy totting!
-Scott Lindgren scottlindgren@netzero.net

I just bought a large bag of Ore-Ida Onion Tots last month, are you sure your store just don't carry them any longer?

RE: Tater Tots (thediningroom)

Tue, 08 Jan 2008 07:07:54 GMT

Tater Tot Casserole sounds yummy, do you have the recipe?

RE: Tater Tots (MilwFoodlovers)

Tue, 08 Jan 2008 06:53:22 GMT

I always got a kick of the excitement the dieticians that I worked with had when the hospital had tater tot casserole on the menu.

RE: Tater Tots (thediningroom)

Tue, 08 Jan 2008 05:33:20 GMT

quote:
Originally posted by Sundancer7

I am not a big fan of tater tots but I must admit Son'cs are the best I have ever had.

As a matter of fact, most everything Sonic has is good. They do a super burger, onion rings, grilled cheese and I like their breakfast addition.

Paul E. Smith
Knoxville, TN

I wish you people would keep talking about Sonics. I been wanting to go there for years, I hear you talk about them on these forums and see the commericals on cable TV all the time. I live in Michigan and the clossest one is 200 miles away. It should be illegal for them to advertise where people can't get to one.

RE: Tater Tots (salindgren)

Sun, 06 Jan 2008 22:35:34 GMT

To MiamiDon: Well, thanks for the pix, but trust me, there are no more onion Ore-Ida tots marketed in SoCal, nor Tabasco Heinz. I have looked in every major supermarket chain here in LA. I stick with my comments about the pan-bake method...the tots just pour right out onto a plate. Don't have to pick them up one at a time to transfer.
-Scott Lindgren

RE: Tater Tots (leethebard)

Sun, 06 Jan 2008 10:12:44 GMT

Wow...I thought I was weird.Now I see I'm in good company. I'm a teacher..and on Tater Tot day, I smile...even school tater tots are a treat...plain with ketchup...tastier than many fries!
leethebard