Syracuse Salt Potatoes

Salt potatoes are small potatoes boiled in water so salty it looks like a mistake, then drained, left to dry for a minute until a fine white crust blooms on the skins, and rolled in melted butter. Three ingredients, twenty-five minutes, and the creamiest boiled potato you will ever eat.

They come from Syracuse, New York, where salt workers in the 1800s boiled their lunch potatoes in the brine they were paid to evaporate. The trick has not changed since. The brine raises the boiling point of the water, so the potatoes cook hotter and faster than they would in plain water, and the starch inside turns fluffy while the skin stays taut. Butter is the only sauce they need, and the whole thing is done before the rest of dinner is ready.

Pictured: the potatoes finished with melted butter and a scatter of fresh thyme leaves, which is the optional herb topping from the recipe card.

What Are Salt Potatoes?

Salt potatoes are an Upstate New York specialty: small, thin-skinned potatoes boiled whole in heavily salted water, then served with melted butter. The ratio is the recipe. A cup of salt to eight cups of water sounds like far too much, but the potatoes only absorb a little of it. Most of the salt stays in the water, and what clings to the skins dries into a thin, powdery crust that seasons the potato from the outside in.

The dish dates back to the salt springs around Onondaga Lake, which supplied much of the country’s table salt in the nineteenth century. Workers boiled potatoes in the brine on site, and the habit spread to every clam bake, church picnic and state fair booth in Central New York. They are still sold in five-pound bags with a packet of salt taped to the side, and a good stand at the fair sells them by the paper boat with butter poured over the top.

Two things make Syracuse salt potatoes different from ordinary boiled potatoes. The brine boils a few degrees hotter than plain water, so the interior cooks faster and turns fluffier, and the skin stays intact instead of splitting. Then the crust does the seasoning that a shake of salt at the table never manages, because it is already on every square inch of the potato before the butter goes on.

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Ingredient Notes

• Small potatoes. Four pounds of small, thin-skinned potatoes, scrubbed and left whole with the skins on. Baby yellow potatoes, new potatoes, creamers or small red potatoes all work; the ones pictured are small yellow potatoes about two inches long. Pick potatoes of a similar size so they finish together.
• Fine salt. One cup of fine table salt or fine sea salt. It dissolves completely in the water, which coarse kosher salt does not do well. If kosher salt is all you have, use one and a half cups of Diamond Crystal or one and a quarter cups of Morton, and stir until you cannot see any grains.
• Water. Eight cups, enough to cover the potatoes by an inch. Use a pot large enough that the water does not come more than two-thirds of the way up the sides, because it foams as it boils.
• Butter. Half a cup, melted just before serving. Unsalted is the safer choice, since the potatoes carry plenty of salt of their own, but salted butter is what most stands in Syracuse use, and nobody complains.
• Optional toppings. Fresh thyme leaves, chopped parsley or chives, cracked black pepper, a little grated Parmesan, or a pinch of smoked paprika. The bowls pictured have thyme.

The Potatoes USA guide to potato types groups small round whites, reds and yellows as waxy or medium-starch potatoes, which hold their shape when boiled. That is exactly what you want here. Russets are the one type to avoid, because their floury flesh soaks up too much brine and splits.

Which Potatoes and Salt to Use

Size matters more than variety. Salt potatoes are meant to be eaten whole in two or three bites, so anything larger than a golf ball should be halved before it goes into the pot, and halved potatoes lose the crust on the cut face. Look for a bag labeled baby, creamer, new or B-size, and sort out any that are much bigger than the rest.

Thin skin is the other requirement. The crust forms on the skin, and a thick-skinned potato tastes like a plain boiled potato with salt on the outside. Fresh, young potatoes with skin you can rub off with a thumb are the classic, but small yellow potatoes from the supermarket work perfectly well all year.

On the salt side, the ratio of one cup to eight cups of water is about one and a half times seawater, which is what the original brine was. It will not make the potatoes inedibly salty, because the potato skin lets only a little of it through. Cut it below three-quarters of a cup and the crust does not form and the potatoes taste underseasoned, which defeats the point.

How To Make Salt Potatoes

Scrub the potatoes under cold water, but do not peel them and do not prick them. The skin is what holds the crust.

First, put the water and the salt into a large pot and stir until the salt has dissolved completely. This takes a minute or two with fine salt. If a layer settles on the bottom, keep stirring; undissolved salt sits under the potatoes and burns onto the pot.

Next, add the potatoes to the brine. They should be covered by about an inch of water. Set the pot over medium-high heat and bring it to a boil.

Then reduce the heat so the water simmers steadily, uncovered, and cook for fifteen to twenty minutes. Small potatoes are done at fifteen; anything close to two inches needs the full twenty. A thin knife should slide into the middle with no resistance.

After that, drain the potatoes in a colander and leave them alone for three to five minutes. Do not rinse them. As the steam evaporates, the salt left on the wet skins dries into a fine white crust. You can watch it happen.

Finally, tip the potatoes into a serving bowl and pour the melted butter over them. Roll them gently to coat, scatter over any herbs, and serve while they are hot.

Why the Crust Forms

Boiling water with this much salt in it is a saturated brine, and as each potato comes out of the pot it carries a film of that brine on its skin. The heat inside the potato evaporates the water in that film within a minute or two, and the salt is left behind as crystals. The thinner the film and the hotter the potato, the finer and more even the crust. That is why they need to sit uncovered in the colander rather than being tipped straight into butter.

How To Tell When Salt Potatoes Are Done

The knife test is the reliable one. Pull out the largest potato in the pot and push a paring knife into the center. Done salt potatoes give no resistance at all and the knife slides out clean. If the middle still grips the blade, give them three more minutes and test again.

The skin also tells you. A finished potato has skin that is slightly wrinkled and loose, and it may show a hairline split or two, which is fine. Skin that is still tight and glossy means the inside is not there yet. Wide splits with the flesh bursting out mean the pot boiled too hard or the potatoes went five minutes too long, and they will still taste good but will soak up more butter than crust.

Salt potatoes hold in the hot brine for a few minutes off the heat without harm, so if the main course is running behind, turn off the burner and leave them in the water rather than draining early. Once they are drained and crusted, they are at their best for about twenty minutes.

Make It Ahead

These are a last-minute dish by nature, but the prep is trivial: scrub the potatoes and measure the salt into the pot with the water in the morning, and the whole thing is ready to switch on. For a cookout, boil them at home, drain and crust them, and carry them in a covered bowl. Pour hot melted butter over them when you get there.

Cooked salt potatoes can also be made a few hours ahead and rewarmed. Spread them on a sheet pan and reheat at 350°F for ten to twelve minutes, then butter them. The crust softens a little in the fridge but comes back as they dry in the oven.

Storing Salt Potatoes

Leftovers keep in a covered container in the refrigerator for three to four days. Store them without extra butter if you can, because buttered potatoes go greasy in the fridge and the crust dissolves into it.

Reheat them in a hot skillet with a little butter or olive oil, cut side down if you halve them, until the skins crisp and the insides are hot through. The microwave works in a pinch but leaves the skins soft. Do not freeze salt potatoes; boiled potatoes turn grainy and watery after thawing, and these are no exception.

Cold leftovers are worth keeping for another reason. Halved and pan-fried the next morning, they make the best breakfast potatoes in the house, and they need no salt at all.

Variations and Substitutions

Herb Butter and Other Finishes

Thyme, as pictured. Strip the leaves from four or five sprigs of fresh thyme and scatter them over the buttered potatoes. It is the finish in the photographs and it suits the salt better than anything else we have tried.

Garlic butter. Warm the butter with two grated garlic cloves for a minute before pouring it over. Add a squeeze of lemon if the meal is fish.

Parsley or chives. Two tablespoons of either, chopped, stirred into the butter. Dill is the one to use with salmon.

Cheese and spice. A handful of grated Parmesan, a pinch of smoked paprika, or a few red pepper flakes over the top. Go easy, because the potatoes are already well seasoned.

Smashed and Crisped

Boil and drain the potatoes as written, let the crust form, then press each one flat with the bottom of a glass on an oiled sheet pan. Drizzle with olive oil and roast at 425°F for twenty to twenty-five minutes until the edges are crisp and brown. Butter them after roasting. It is a cross between salt potatoes and smashed potatoes, and it is the way to serve them when the rest of the meal is coming out of the oven anyway.

Dairy-Free and Other Swaps

Olive oil or a good plant butter, warmed, replaces the dairy butter without changing anything else. Small red potatoes or fingerlings work in place of yellow ones; fingerlings cook a couple of minutes faster. If you only have larger potatoes, halve them, add them cut side up, and expect the crust to form on the skin side only.

What to Serve with Salt Potatoes

In Syracuse they are served with grilled meat and not much else, and that is still the best plan. A rack of smoky oven-baked spare ribs or a slab of Cracker Barrel meatloaf wants a plain, buttery potato beside it, and this one needs no gravy.

Fish is the other classic pairing, because the salt and butter do the seasoning for the whole plate. Pan-seared cod with rainbow chard or a tray of bang bang salmon bites alongside a bowl of salt potatoes is a weeknight dinner that takes half an hour end to end.

For a cookout, put them next to burgers, corn on the cob and a basket of bacon basil cornbread muffins, and serve the butter warm in a jug so people can pour their own.

Salt Potatoes FAQ

More Questions About the Method

Make a pot of salt potatoes once and you will understand why Syracuse never let the idea go. They cost almost nothing, they take twenty-five minutes, and they turn a bag of small potatoes into the best side on the table. Put them next to ribs this weekend and see for yourself.