English French Fries Sandwich: Chip Butty

This sandwich originated in England, but it is not uncommon in other parts of Britain and Ireland. "Chip" comes from the name of the fried potato pieces,* and "butty" comes from the butter slathered over the bread slices. The word "chips" should not be confused with the American word used in reference to very thin slices of potato that are fried (sometimes baked) until crisp, and which are then called "potato chips," as these are called "(potato) crisps" in Britain. You can use bread or rolls for the sandwich, and you can toast the bread a little, which will cut down on sogginess, as a chip butty is likely to require a good number of napkins. You can fry your own potatoes (some prefer to bake them), or you can buy some french fries, steak fries or chips to take home from a restaurant (then keep them in a warm oven, like 225F, until you are ready to place them into the sandwiches), although this may cause your personal invitation to Buckingham Palace to be canceled, IF you have one). You can top the sandwich with ketchup, or you can add some mayonnaise and some chopped herbs like rosemary, thyme or parsley, or you can add British brown sauce, which is very similar to some types of American steak sauce,** or you can give the sandwich a dose of some malt vinegar.

Ingredients (per sandwich): 

2 slices of bread or a split bread roll

butter

potatoes, peeled or unpeeled, cut into slices about 3 inches long and 1/2 inch thick

salt

Let the butter soften somewhat to make it easy to spread. For each sandwich, butter one side of two slices of bread (or the inside parts of a split bread roll) with a good amount of butter. Fry or bake the potato pieces (then salt them to taste, but I use salted butter, so you can skip lots of extra salt if you so choose), or keep restaurant fries/chips warm in the oven until right before you put them into the sandwiches. Put a double layer of warm/hot fries/chips onto the bread or roll. If using a topping, top with ketchup or mayonnaise and herbs or brown sauce or steak sauce or malt vinegar, then place the other slice of bread on top (or close the bread roll) and press down a bit to secure the sandwich. The heat from the potatoes will begin to melt the butter, coating the potatoes in yummy, buttery delight. Have plenty of napkins handy.   

 

* British "chips" are not necessarily the same as American french fries, which are often a thinner cut of potato, sometimes referred to as "shoestring fries," although I'm not certain what the guideline is for the shoestring terminology, if there even is a guideline. British "chips" and American "steak fries" are more similar. The term "chips" of the British usage is not completely unheard of in the U.S., especially in reference to "fish and chips," as some American restaurants market this common combo under that name, while many use "fish and fries," or "fish and french fries."   

** To my knowledge (I know, that's a low standard), there is no mandatory list of ingredients for "steak sauce," but when I hear the term used, I think of "A-1 Steak Sauce," long a popular brand in the U.S., and which is now marketed as "A-1 Sauce," which can trace its roots to the 1800s in England; thus, its similarity to British brown sauce.  

WORD HISTORY:

Bare-This word goes back to Indo European "bhosos," which meant "barefoot, unshod, uncovered." This gave its Old Germanic offspring "bazaz" meaning "naked, uncovered," which gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "bær" meaning "naked, not hidden."^ This then became "bar," before the ending 'e' was added to show the interior vowel was long. Some Germanic relatives also use forms to mean "pure;" often applied to "immediately usable money;" that is, "cash." The verb form was "likely" from the adjective and was "barian" in Old English, and meant, "to make bare, to uncover." Note: Some people believe there was an Old Germanic verb form that was passed down in various forms to its descendants and that's possible. Relatives of "bare" in the other Germanic languages: German has "bar," in modern times Low German uses forms in compounds for "barefoot" as "barft," "boorfoot" and "barfs" (Low German is not a standard language, but rather a number of dialects), and for "cash," as "Boorgeld," Dutch has "baar" ("seemingly" not used much, but used in reference to "cash" (baar geld) and to "gold ingots" (pure gold), Frisian once had "ber," but it apparently no longer uses a form of the word, Danish has "bar," Norwegian has "bar," Icelandic has "ber," Swedish (not standard, dialects only) has "bär."  

 

^ The change of 'z' to 'r' is called "rhotacism," and it was common in Germanic, although for whatever reason, some Germanic dialects did not always follow suit.