What Are Syracuse Salt Potatoes?

If you've been to upstate New York in the summertime, you've probably eaten Syracuse salt potatoes. The salty spuds are ubiquitous at warm-weather events, such as fairs, barbeques, and clambakes. In other words, if there's an event in those mid-calendar months, there will be salt potatoes.

Salt potatoes may be simple to prepare, but they have a rich history. They're an immigrant food created by Irish immigrants, and they were born during a time of great change in the U.S. Read on to find out how salt potatoes came about and the impact they made on upstate New York.

The Origin of Syracuse Salt Potatoes

For more than a century, Syracuse, N.Y, has been known as Salt City, says Chuck D'Imperio, author of A Taste of Upstate New York: The People and the Stories Behind 40 Food Favorites. Syracuse was built around Onondaga Lake, which is home to a number of brine springs, or salt springs. In the late 18th century, British colonialists began to gather the salt from these springs (through evaporation and boiling), and over the next few decades, the area increasingly industrialized.

At the same time, a huge influx of Irish immigrants arrived in New York and ended up working on the Erie Canal, which passed through Syracuse (the modern Erie Canal, however, now runs south of the city). With available work, many Irish immigrants made their way to Syracuse and became salt producers.

Every day, these Irish workers would bring a sack of small, round potatoes to work to eat throughout the day. While the water was too briny to drink, it was safe to cook with, so the miners boiled it and used it to cook their potatoes. "The salt was so thick that not only did it go all the way through the potatoes, but it gave a nice little crust on the outside too," D'Imperio told Allrecipes.

In the early 20th century, local entrepreneur John Hinerwadel, Sr. started hosting community clambakes at his venue, Hinerwadel's Grove. Hinerwadel served salt potatoes as a side dish, and they grew so popular that in the 1960s, the Hinerwadels started packaging and selling salt potato kits: paper bags filled with round, new potatoes and 12-ounce packages of salt.

"It was such an ingenious idea because everybody in upstate New York grew up with these, and everybody in upstate New York grew up with Hinderwadel's salt potatoes," D'Imperio says. Although Hinerwadel's Grove closed in 2018 and the land was put up for sale, the five-pound bags of salt potatoes still thrive.

Get the Recipe: Syracuse Salt Potatoes

"Everybody has them in the summer for picnics and for barbeques," D'Imperio says. "At the end of the buffet table, you're going to find a big steaming bowl of salt potatoes next to a big, melted bowl of butter."

It's also interesting to note that salt potatoes are one of the few beloved potato dishes that doesn't transform during the cooking process. "This is one of the few potatoes that remain a potato when served," D'Imperio says. "They're not French fries, they're not potato salad. It's not scalloped potatoes or anything like that. A salt potato is served as a salt potato only."

You can learn a lot about a place from its food, and Syracuse's relationship with salt potatoes is no exception. Their creation and continued love is inexplicably woven into the area's industrial and societal history.

"So many of the foods in upstate New York come from the immigrant story, and I just love the fact that these came from the Irishmen working in salt mines in central New York around Syracuse," D'Imperio says. "It almost brings a tear to your eye, doesn't it? The little immigrant potato in somebody's pocket trying to sneak its way through Ellis Island."

Get the Recipe: Chef John's Syracuse Salt Potatoes