SALT POTATOES
- Program
- Subject
- Location
- Lat/Long
- Grant Recipient
-
Hungry for History®
-
Folklore
- 106 Lake Dr, Liverpool, NY 13088, USA
- 43.099484, -76.206649
-
Onondaga Historical Association
SALT POTATOES
Inscription
SALT POTATOESPOPULARIZED BY SALT INDUSTRY
WORKERS, POTATOES BOILED IN
BRINE & PAIRED WITH MELTED
BUTTER SERVED IN LOCAL TAVERNS
AND EATERIES AS EARLY AS 1883.
WILLIAM G. POMEROY FOUNDATION 2021
Salt potatoes are a result of the once dominant salt industry in the Syracuse area. At its peak in the 1870s, Onondaga County supplied 90% of the nation’s salt. Boiling was the preferred way of separating the salt from the brine. Workers brought potatoes, a food staple of the many Irish immigrants who settled here who worked in the industry. At some point, they began to toss the potatoes into the boiling kettles and produced a dish that would become the region’s calling card. By the 1880s, taverns and saloons on Syracuse’s North Side, where many of the workers congregated at the end of the day, were serving bowls of salt potatoes, topped with melted butter, alongside their pints of beer.
