Natural vegetable crisps

[ffutures]

Question for my UK veggy / vegan friends (congrats on the Mars thing, incidentally), and for anyone else interested.

We have a vending machine at work that sells "Snapz" crisps, which are basically thinly sliced dried vegetables. One of the varieties is beetroot, and I've just tried extracting the natural colour and using it as an acid/alkali indicator, as you can with normal beetroot. It turns out to work really well, and is much easier than the original experiment. The technical details? Add boiling water, soak for a minute or two, and pour off the liqud. You now have a dye that's red with acid, yellow with alkali, and doesn't stink of pickled beetroot or red cabbage (which is the other one we sometimes use).

That's all well and good, but what I really want to do is extend it by adding more varieties of vegetable crisp and get more indicators, so that we can do some sort of class investigation. I've tried carrot and it doesn't work - the dye isn't an indicator. And the vending machine only has those two and apple with various flavourings.

So what I'm looking for is some other sources for natural crisps - can't believe that carrot and beetroot are the only ones available. Any suggestions? Needs to be sold in the UK, of course, and if possible reasonably cheap. What I don't want is potato with flavourings, apple with flavourings, etc.

Thanks!

Comments

[frandowdsofa.livejournal.com]

You can get parsnip, sweet potato, and mixed ones that are mainly those plus the ones you've already mentioned. But they aren't cheap. Posh supermarkets and organic delis sell them, there are Tyrells brand, or Terence Stamp. I think Sainsburys and Tescos do their own brand versions, but you get hardly any in the packet.

Alternatively you can make your own in a microwave, using a gadget like this: http://www.tokyomango.com/tokyo_mango/2007/02/microwave_potat.html

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Thanks - that's very useful. I wonder if you can get the crisp maker in the UK?

[frandowdsofa.livejournal.com]

I got one years ago from Lakeland Plastics. Or there's one on Ebay at the moment: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Microwave-Crisp-maker_W0QQitemZ160119119036QQihZ006QQcategoryZ20633QQtcZphotoQQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

[sharikkamur.livejournal.com]

Okay, I'm fascinated. I had never heard of using beetroot as an acid/alkali indicator. I must try this in my kitchen. What's the pH of the colour change?

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

One site gives it as

Red cabbage indicator pH indicator (rough) colours:

pH 2………….4………….6………….8………….10………….12

….Red.. ….purple….violet…….blue…blue/green…green

Beetroot and red cabbage have the same indicator. I'm not convinced it's anything like that accurate. It's one of the things the kids would be finding out in an investigation.

[blindpew-faldo.livejournal.com]

Tyrell's crisps are usually available from Waitrose or if you feel rich try Fortnum and Mason or Harrods.

Starts banging drum, Tyrell's are a Herefordshire firm.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Don't appear to be in my local waitrose, dang it!