Tater Tots
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Tater Tots, also known as "Tots", is a registered trademark for a commercial form of hash browns, a side-dish made from deep-fried, grated potatoes. Tater Tots are widely recognized for their crispiness, cylindrical shape and small size, similar to a miniature C battery.
Tater Tots are commonly found in the U.S. in cafeterias and school lunch-counters, as well as the supermarket frozen food aisle and some fast food restaurants. In Australia, they are known as 'potato gems' or 'potato pom-poms' (also used in the UK and New Zealand). McCain Foods Limited calls their line of tater tots Tasti Taters. In some restaurants, they go by the moniker "Mexi-Nuggets".
Tater is a word considered humorous, possibly somewhat childish; Tots may have been derived from their diminutive size, or because they are often served to children.
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[edit] History
Tater Tots were first produced in 1953 by Golden and Nephi Grigg of the Ore-Ida company, now a subsidiary of H. J. Heinz Company, as a means of utilizing the potato shreds left over from french fry production. It was on thier second try they mastered the "tots", the first was a potato based beverage. They first became available in stores in 1954; today, Americans consume approximately 70 million pounds of "Tots" per year.
[edit] In popular culture
- Tater tots are featured prominently in the Idaho-set 2004 film Napoleon Dynamite.
- Comedian Ron White tells the story of how he once gave the alias "Tater Salad" to the police, joking that he named his son "Tater Tot".
- Tater Tots are served as an hors-d'oeuvre-(in french) by Peggy Hill and Bobby Hill in the King of the Hill Season 3 episode "Pretty, Pretty Dresses".
- In the theme for The Weird Al Show, Al allegedly once worked on a tater tot farm.
