Snacks

Snacks are small, ready-to-eat foods for between meals or alongside a drink, such as potato chips, popcorn, crackers, roasted nuts, dried fruit and sweet bakes.

How to choose Snacks

  • Kettle or regular chips. Kettle chips are cut 1.5 to 2 millimeters thick and fried in small batches, which makes them harder and crunchier. Regular chips are thinner and fried continuously, so they are lighter and more delicate.
  • Salted or unsalted nuts. Unsalted and blanched nuts keep longer than salted ones, so they suit a jar that will sit in the cupboard for a while.
  • Kernels or popped. Kernels need about 13 to 14.5 percent moisture to pop, so keep them sealed. Already popped corn is ready to pour into a bowl.

About Snacks

Snacks are foods made to be eaten by hand between meals, and nearly all come ready to eat; popcorn kernels are the exception and need popping. Most are dry and crisp, which is what lets them keep.

A popcorn kernel works like a small pressure cooker: water inside turns to steam behind a tough hull called the pericarp until the hull bursts and the starch puffs out. Popcorn varieties have a hull strong enough to hold that pressure until it bursts. Other corn, such as field corn, does not pop.

Keep every bag and box tightly closed in a cool, dry cupboard. Set out chips, nuts and crackers with cheese, cured meats, olives and a cold drink.

At a glance

Main types
Chips, popcorn, crackers, nuts, dried fruit
Unopened
Crackers about 8 months, popcorn kernels 2 years
Serve with
Cheese, cured meats, olives, cocktails

Snacks questions

Where did the potato chip come from?

The popular story credits George Crum, a cook at Moon's Lake House in Saratoga Springs, New York, in 1853, but historians doubt it. An English cookbook printed a recipe for potatoes fried in slices in 1817. Chips of that era were fried in batches in iron or copper kettles.

Are stale or rancid nuts safe to eat?

Rancid nuts are not unsafe, but their oils have turned and they taste sharp and bitter. Nuts keep a few months at room temperature, a year or more in the refrigerator and up to 2 years in the freezer. Pack shelled nuts airtight, because they soak up moisture and odors from nearby foods.

Sources: Purdue University College of Agriculture; UC Davis food safety; Ohio State University Extension.

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