F. Nephi Griggs, founding father of Ore-Ida and inventor of Tater Tots, is pictured. Gibchan, Wikimedia Commons
The Ore-Ida Tater Tots truck in 1961. Gibchan, Wikimedia Commons
The acquainted crunch of cornflakes on prime of tacky potatoes transports many Latter-day Saints again to household reunions, time at their grandparents’ home, ward cook-offs — wherever they ate the Utah staple: funeral potatoes. However that’s not the one notorious potato dish Latter-day Saints have made — a Latter-day Saint additionally invented Tater Tots.
This crunchy, fried breakfast potato is now an American staple. Right here’s how we obtained it.
Who invented Tater Tots?
F. Nephi Grigg, a relative of Parley P. Pratt, was born in Nampa, Idaho. His entrepreneurial spirit started on the age of 12 and continued when he was older. In response to the Deseret Information, Grigg acquired the corporate that turned Ore-Ida and first started promoting frozen corn.
Grigg ran the corporate out of a tiny Oregon city that bordered Idaho, sparking the identify Ore-Ida. The corporate had heard about promoting fried frozen potatoes and wished to step into that enterprise. In response to LDS Residing, this led Grigg to invent the Tater Tot.
The Ore-Ida Tater Tots truck in 1961.
Gibchan, Wikimedia Commons
Are Latter-day Saints related to Tater Tots at present?
Not at first look, however Tater Tots positively match patterns of Latter-day Saint delicacies at present.
In response to NPR, Latter-day Saints gravitated towards comfort meals in the course of the mid-Twentieth century. NPR wrote, “As soon as a individuals who made all the pieces from scratch, they turned a individuals who put ready-made meals into different ready-made meals: canned soup on instantaneous rice, Sprite in sherbet, and, in fact, Corn Flakes on potatoes.”
Whereas Latter-day Saints are higher recognized for funeral potatoes, some Latter-day Saints have made Tater Tot recipes as properly. One recipe web site known as Mormon Experts lists a recipe for a Tater Tot casserole. This recipe has loads of cheese and potato not in contrast to different fashionable Latter-day Saint recipes.
One other weblog known as The Lifetime of a Mormon Housewife additionally lists a unique Tater Tot casserole recipe. This recipe sounds eerily like funeral potatoes with its cheese, cream of hen soup and bitter cream, however it additionally provides Hidden Valley ranch seasoning into the combination.
Napoleon Dynamite and Tater Tots
In LDS Residing’s article in regards to the historical past of Tater Tots, it contains the well-known reference to Tater Tots within the film “Napoleon Dynamite.”
Whereas “Napoleon Dynamite” is just not expresslya Latter-day Saint film, Matt Bowman identified some connections to Latter-day Saints in a 2018 Deseret Information article. Bowman wrote, “Napoleon’s battle, then, is in a way the battle of all Mormons who search to work out what it means to be an individual with a physique that, they're taught, is each divine and, in E-book of Mormon parlance, ‘pure.’”
Aware of it or not, the scene the place Napoleon Dynamite has Tater Tots overflowing in his pant pockets may simply be probably the most on-the-nose depictions of Latter-day Saint tradition but.