Syracuse Salt Potatoes

Salt Potatoes: The Perfect Potato?

Imagine everything great about mashed potatoes — the velvety texture, buttery richness and comforting warmth — encapsulated in a perfectly salted skin that bursts with flavor.

This recipe is easy as can be and is what I call laugh-out-loud delicious. I mean it, the first time people take one of these hot, salt-crusted potatoes, dunk it in warm melted butter and pop it in their mouth, they usually find themselves laughing out loud. It's that good.

These make an ideal side dish for anything from roasted chicken to broiled salmon. I also like to toss them into salads (lots more on how to serve these below).

A Little History

Syracuse salt potatoes come to us from the booming salt industry of 1800s Syracuse, New York. Despite misconceptions, Syracuse earned its moniker "Salt City" not from salt mines, but from the abundant salt springs dotting the region.

Workers, predominately Irish immigrants, would take the salty brine and boil it, or leave it in the sun to evaporate. What was left behind was enough high-quality salt to make Syracuse the country's top salt producer for most of the 19th century.

The region's famous potatoes were invented when workers tried throwing new potatoes into the boiling brine to cook for their lunch. The practice caught on and anyone who's tasted them can easily see why!

A Quick Science Lesson

First of all, don't be scared away by the amount of salt this recipe calls for, only a fraction ends up in the finished potatoes, much like when cooking pasta in salted water.

The elevated salt level serves two essential purposes. First, it raises the water's boiling point, resulting in a transformative cooking process that cooks the starch more completely and renders the potatoes supremely creamy on the inside while creating a taut skin. Second, as the potatoes dry after being cooked and drained, the left-behind salt from the brine seasons the skin, creating a satisfying crust.

What You Need:

Here's all you'll need to make Syracuse salt potatoes.

• New Potatoes: New potatoes, also called baby potatoes, are young, small potatoes that are harvested early in the season. They are known for their thin, delicate skin and sweet flavor compared to mature potatoes. Golden varieties are traditional but you can use others and achieve the same flavor. The smaller the better.
• Salt: Plenty for boiling — it's the magic ingredient!
• Butter: For dunking or drizzling.
• Chopped fresh herbs such as parsley and chives: For sprinkling on top.

How To Prepare Syracuse Salt Potatoes:

1. Boil the Potatoes: Bring a pot of heavily salted water to a boil and add new potatoes. Cook at a steady boil until tender.
2. Melt the Butter: Melt it in a saucepan on the stove over low heat or in the microwave on 'low power' in 30 second increments (butter can explode in the microwave if you're not careful).
3. Drain and Devour: Dump the cooked potatoes into a colander to dry. Once the water evaporates the salt crust is left behind and the potatoes are ready to eat. Transfer to a bowl, sprinkle with herbs and serve with a small bowl of melted butter for dunking. Alternatively, drizzle the butter all over them...if you're into that kind of thing.

How To Serve Syracuse Salt Potatoes:

There are many ways to enjoy these creamy, salt-crusted spuds. Here are a few of my favorites:

• Dunked in butter: This is the most traditional way. Melt butter, dunk and enjoy — it doesn't get much better than that!
• Drizzled with butter: For a more elegant presentation or if you want to put these out on a buffet table with other dishes, drizzle your spuds with butter and sprinkle herbs on top.
• Drizzled with Olive Oil: For dairy-free salt poatoes, drizzle generously with olive oil and sprinkle with herbs or chopped scallions or both!
• At Your Summer Barbecues: Salt potatoes are a fantastic side dish with grilled chicken, burgers, fish or steak. In fact, if you want to try authentic salt potatoes in Syracuse, NY, you'll find them at summer fairs and BBQs, where they've been a staple for generations.
• In Salads: When a salad calls for boiled potatoes, these extra creamy salt potatoes work really well. I especially love them in Tuna Niçoise Salad: Just follow my recipe for tuna niçoise salad but swap salt potatoes in.

If you try this salt potatoes recipe, I hope you'll come back and leave a star rating and a comment. I'd love to know what you think!

Syracuse Salt Potatoes

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5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star

5 from 2 reviews

• Author: Lisa Goldfinger
• Total Time: 27 mins
• Yield: 4 servings 1x

Print Recipe

Description

Syracuse salt potatoes are supremely creamy and buttery before you even add the butter! Eat them the traditional way - dipped in butter - or serve them as a side dish drizzled with butter or olive oil and sprinkled with fresh herbs. 

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Ingredients

Units USM Scale 1x2x3x

• 1 ½ pounds new potatoes (note 1)
• 8 ounces salt (note 2)
• 6 ½ cups water
• 4 ounces butter
• ¼ cup chopped fresh parsley or chives

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Instructions

1. Combine water and salt in a saucepan and bring to a boil over high heat. When salt is dissolved, add potatoes and lower heat to medium. Cook at a low boil for 25 minutes. (note 3)
2. Meanwhile, melt the butter (note 4)
3. Drain potatoes in a colander. Once a salt crust forms (a few minutes) they are ready to eat. Transfer to a serving bowl and sprinkle with herbs if using. Serve with melted butter for dunking. (See recipe post for more serving suggestions)

Notes

1. New Potatoes: New potatoes, also called baby potatoes, are young, small potatoes that are harvested early in the season. They are known for their thin, delicate skin and sweet flavor compared to mature potatoes. The gold variety is traditional for this dish but any color will work. 
2. How to Measure Salt: 8 ounces of salt is equal to 1 ⅔ cups Diamond crystal or 1 cup Morton kosher
3. Water level: You will see a good amount of water evaporate during cooking, leaving behind salt on the pot. This is a normal part of the process.
4. Melting Butter: Just a warning here about microwaving butter. Go low and slow to avoid a butter explosion in your microwave. I suggest you melt it in 30 second increments on low power or use "melt butter" button if you have one. Alternatively, melt butter in a saucepan on the stove over low heat.

Nutrition Disclaimer: We use an online nutrition calculator to determine nutrition values but in this recipe it is difficult to calculate how much of the salt used in the cooking process actually sticks to the potatoes. We did our best to input the values, based on the fact that these potatoes do not taste overly salty and seem to have a normal amount of salt for a potato dish, however if you are following a salt-restricted diet you may want to avoid these, as we can't give you a precise value for the salt content. Please note: butter is not included in this nutrition calculation.

• Prep Time: 2 mins
• Cook Time: 25 mins.
• Category: Side dish
• Method: Boil
• Cuisine: Out of this world