A staple of elementary school lunch trays in the 1990s and Brooklyn dive bars in the early aughts, the Tater Tots brand of frozen potato nuggets sold by Ore-Ida has become successful enough since being introduced in the mid-1950s that, similar to Kleenex and Band-Aids, the name has become synonymous with the product.
The humble tot is also the hero of a starchy side dish pitmaster Leonard Botello IV serves up at his Texas barbecue joint Truth BBQ. Alongside meaty mains like brisket and pulled pork, Botello has installed a tot-centric item on Truth’s menu that recalls a dish he remembers his grandmother making when he was a kid: tater tot casserole.
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“My grandma on my mother’s side would make it for the holidays and stuff like that. We would have it for Christmas breakfast,” Botello tells InsideHook. “It always stuck with me because it’s real hearty and Southern. I wanted to do something at Truth that was similar or at least reminded me of that part of my childhood. My grandmother left a box of recipes, but that one was not in there. So, I basically had to just go off of what I remembered. It’s not the same, but it’s similar in a lot of ways.”
According to Botello, he’ll often use his memory as the foundation for creating a fresh take on an old dish.
“It’s kind of like a building process. That’s usually how I like to cook,” he says. “I’ll have something that reminds me of a dish and I’ll try to base the new dish off of flavor profiles that really, really stuck out to me. I’ll start out with stuff that I like and then just add or take things out.”
Made with cheddar cheese, bacon and sour cream, Botello’s casserole really came together with the addition of Cajun seasoning.
“Tater tot dishes can be good, but sometimes will be a little bland from all the starches in there,” Botello says. “It needed a little spice and a little salt. We kept adding salt and then it became too salty. I was looking for something that could amplify that flavor profile without being overly salty. That ended up being Cajun seasoning. We were trying to step outside of the box a bit with that.”
Now that his take on it is perfected, tater tot casserole remains a morning meal for Botello, as it was when he was a kid eating his grandma’s version of the dish.
“I like to eat it for brunch with an over-easy egg and hot sauce,” he says. “It’s really good like that. I’ve seen people put it in breakfast tacos, too. I don’t know. I’ve seen a lot of people eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
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.
There are several stories of how Tater Tots got its trademarked name, but Steve Grigg, Nephi's son, prefers the version in which Ore-Ida employee Clora Lay Orton came up with the name in a factory-wide contest. Tater Tots were slow to take off when they first appeared in grocery stores in 1956.
Tots are short for "tater tots", which are small cylindrical pieces of deep-fried grated potato often served as a side dish or snack. Tots can be a term of endearment used to refer to young children, often toddlers.
The Tater Tot is the brainchild of two Mormon brothers, F. Nephi and Golden Grigg, who started a factory on the Oregon-Idaho border that they appropriately named Ore-Ida. The brothers started the factory in 1951 after being convinced that frozen foods were the next big thing.
Traditional tater tots are often considered a less healthy option due to their high-fat content from deep-frying and added preservatives. However, you can make healthier versions by baking or air-frying them with minimal oil.
The term “tater tot” is a proprietary name owned by Ore-Ida. In Australia, tots are widely called “potato gems,” and non-Ore-Ida brands have called them “tater treats,” “tasti taters,” “potato crunchies,” and “spud puppies.” Ore-Ida's website calls these imposters “imi-taters.”
In Australia these are known as, “potato gems,” “potato royals” or “potato pom-poms” In other parts of the world they've are called, “potato puffs,” “oven crunchies” and “Hash Bites"⠀ What do you call these?
To keep things easy and healthier, we bake the tots instead of frying them. A microwave and food processor makes quick work of the potatoes. Shaping the mixture is a little tricky — but with a bowl of cold water next to you, you'll quickly get the hang of it (see our notes in the recipe).
If you haven't eaten a fresh, hot, golden batch of crispy tater tots lately, let me refresh your memory: they are delicious. While the frozen ones in the red bag are fine, today's homemade tater tots are even better! Unlike traditional fried tater tots, these healthy tater tots are baked in the oven, not a deep fryer.
If you're cooking for more than one serving size worth of tater tots but want to keep them warm while the next batch student is cooking, a good trick will be to keep them in the oven at a temperature of 200°F. They'll remain crispy and delicious until they're all cooked.
Ore-Ida was founded in 1952, a year before Tater Tots were invented to find a use for french fry scraps, which until then had been given away as animal feed. Tater Tots were originally made by pushing potato scraps mixed with flour and seasonings through holes cut in plywood.
You might think tater tots would taste like fries, but fries are just chunks of potatoes that are fried. Tots are potatoes chopped up into tiny bits, then mixed with seasonings and binder (corn flour, I think), so they taste slightly different, as well as having a different consistency.…
Tater tots are typically made from grated or finely chopped potatoes mixed with flour and seasonings, then deep-fried until golden and crunchy. While they are undeniably tasty, they're not the healthiest choice if consumed in excess.
Introduction: My name is Geoffrey Lueilwitz, I am a zealous, encouraging, sparkling, enchanting, graceful, faithful, nice person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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