Lamb Weston, Inc.

Lee A Wheeler

John C Julian

Jerry L Sloan

A knife assembly for a potato slicing machine used in slicing potatoes into waffle or lattice cut sections includes an elongated, corrugated knife and inner and outer clamping members for clamping the knife therebetween. The inner and outer clamping members each have a plurality of parallel, tapered fingers which extend toward a cutting edge of the knife along grooves in one side of the knife, thereby to support both sides of the knife and lift potato surfaces away from such side and any potential interfering edges which might shear away portions of the cut potato surfaces. A unique potato product formed using such knife assembly is a substantially ellipsoidal section having a peak to peak thickness of about 7/16 inch. The section has opposite sides, each with longitudinal ridges and grooves therebetween. The ridges and grooves of one side are disposed at an angle to those of the other. The section also has a grid of openings formed therein. The product when parfried has a solids content of about 25-65% and an oils content of about 6-20%, by weight. The section is prepared from a whole potato by slicing the same with a corrugated knife along two parellel planes but from different cutting directions, to form a potato section of the foregoing shape. The section is then blanched, dried and parfried in oil.

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Tigard, OR, United States of America

Lee A Wheeler