Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/01/24/celebrity-chef-attempts-diy-pr.html
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I hate this sort of content. The point of junk food is that it’s junk - trying to recreate/elevate it doesn’t make sense to me. Just pick up a tube of Pringles at the gas station like a normal person*. Or, option two, just make normal potato chips at home without putting them into a “paraboloid mold.”
*Then convert the can to a wifi antenna like a reader of this website
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I make Pringles-esque chips at home by boiling some potatoes, blending them with water, salt, and fat (bacon fat works great) and spreading the paste on sheets in my dehydrator.
It tends to split up when drying, and what you get has more of the irregular shape of Baked Lays than Pringles, but they’re delicious.
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I have never eaten and nor will I ever eat a Pringles Potato Chip.
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You are either with us or with the enemy.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pringles#cite_ref-15
They were originally known as “Pringles Newfangled Potato Chips”, but other snack manufacturers objected, saying Pringles failed to meet the definition of a potato “chip”. The US Food and Drug Administration weighed in on the matter, and in 1975, they ruled Pringles could only use the word “chip” in their product name within the following phrase: “potato chips made from dried potatoes”.[15] Faced with such an unpalatable appellation, Pringles eventually opted to rename their product potato “crisps” instead of chips. This later led to other issues in the United Kingdom, where the term potato “crisps” refers to the product Americans call potato “chips”.
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I watched the skittles one. Saffitz is simultaneously very serious about her pursuit of these project, and charming and understatedly funny in execution. She seems to legitimately respect the source material, and genuinely desire to find out how to recreate, not elevate it. I ended up learning a lot of fun and interesting stuff about the science of food while being thoroughly entertained. Your point may stand generally for click-bait-y stunt-y videos, but these ones are finely crafted.
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You make a valid point: so long as there’s an educational component to it then I think that’s great. If it’s a stunt well I think we both agree it’s silly.
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I love this series, but this one was weak, in that she ‘only’ reproduced the Pringle, but did not give it a gourmet pizzaz a la the Snickers riff, Kit-Kat riff, etc., but just used canned commercial flavorants.
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It certainly does raise the question, “why?”
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Omg, you sybarite, I want to have your babies! 
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I retried Pringles maybe a month ago (I enjoyed them as a youth).
Yeah, um, they aren’t good.
They aren’t good at all.
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I think this is the only one I haven’t watched, and it’s really interested to see how some of this stuff is made in a factory setting as she’s researching. Also, it’s gratifying to see someone take a genuinely experimental approach to the food design process, and also to see how the other test subject chefs really connect with the junk food gestalt on a pure nostalgia basis.
“What makes a cheeto a cheeto? Is it the crunch, the cheesiness?” Turns out one of the main components for them was having the shitty orange powder that stuck to your fingers in a certain way.
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You may have omitted the first step in enjoying Pringles: enjoying several large beers.
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She name-dropped Gene Wolfe! Part of my reason for watching the video was just to see if she would credit him with his contribution to the junk-food galaxy.
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I have really enjoyed this series. I see it as being akin to people who take electronics or mechanics apart to see how they work. I like the problem-solving aspect of it - from a person who clearly has a deep knowledge of how food works.
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But where do you keep your wine for jaunts around the walmart parking lot on a mobility scooter at 6am?
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In a Pringles canister?
Yes, a pringles can…
I guess you missed this heartwarming tale from a couple of weeks ago?
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