I had fish and chips, and a caramel shake for breakfast, and a leftover Mexicali burger for lunch. Unlike most places, they gave me more than enough tarter sauce for my cod, but I got an extra chipotle tarter sauce to dip all of my fries in. I didn't use any ketchup until now when I ate a bit plate full of tater puffs with Heinz tomato blood.
Tater tots are grated potatoes formed into small cylinders and deep-fried, often served as a side dish. The name "tater tot" is a registered trademark of the American frozen food company Ore-Ida, but is often used as a generic term. "Tater" is short for potato. Ore-Ida also markets a coin-shaped version called "Crispy Crowns".
Tater tots were invented in 1953 when American frozen food company Ore-Ida founders F. Nephi Grigg, Golden Grigg, and Ross Erin Butler Sr. were trying to figure out what to do with leftover slivers of cut-up potatoes. They chopped up the slivers, added flour and seasoning, then pushed the mash through holes and sliced off pieces of the extruded mixture. The product was first offered commercially in stores in 1956.
The name "Tater Tot" is a registered trademark of Ore-Ida—which has been a subsidiary of Heinz since 1965—but has become so widely associated with the dish that it is often used as a generic term. "Tater" is short for potato. The name "Tater Tot" was created in the 1950s, and soon trademarked by a member of the Ore-Ida company's research committee who used a thesaurus to come up with an alliterative name.
Originally, the product was very inexpensive; according to advertising lectures at Iowa State University, people did not buy it at first because there was no perceived value. When the price was raised, people began buying it. Today, Americans consume approximately 70 million pounds of Tater Tots, or 3,710,000,000 Tots per year.
Tater Tots sounds better than Tater Scraps which is what they really are. I thought about sprinkling a little Cajun seasoning on them and may do that whenever I finish the bag.