Process Pieces: Banana Chips

I spent my entire life thinking I hated banana chips. It turns out I was wrong.

Process pieces is a series for paid subscribers that explores my writing and cooking processes, and I encourage you to comment with your own processes if you feel so called. I hope you enjoy!

A fun announcement: I’m teaching a virtual workshop on tyromancy (cheese fortune telling) and pickling (including pickling’s relationship to shellwork!) with Jen Billock on the 22nd.

We’d love you to join us! (And we’ll send around a recording for anyone who can’t make the live session).

Please bring your own cheese, and your pickling questions, and come learn with us!

Details and tickets are here.

I spent a month of my life eating banana chips almost every day.

Ah, banana chips, the bane of my snacking existence. About as exciting as munching on a chunk of drywall, but with less flavor, most store-bought banana chips have a terrible texture and either taste artificially banana-y or taste like nothing at all.

I'm not being dramatic when I say that I have been a lifelong avoider of the banana chip: If I see them in my trail mix I will eat out literally everything else and save those chips for the compost. If someone offers them to me at a party, which has happened more times than I really expected it would, I pause to consider whether or not I want to attend that person's parties ever again (I'm joking...kind of. Please keep inviting me to your parties).

About 1/4 of the way through my next book manuscript, I realized to my horror that I was now contractually obligated to not only make banana chips but also consume them in the name of recipe testing.

So, while writing Essential Preserving, I've given myself a seemingly insurmountable task: Make a banana chip that not only stays crisp but that I actually want to eat. Not just one I tolerate, but one I would seek out as a snack in my kitchen.

Was I able to do it?

As it turns out, yes I was, and to great effect.