The Original Salt Potatoes Recipe

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4.12 from 71 votes

This delicious salt potatoes recipe is based on this traditional upstate New York side dish. Salt potatoes came about in the 1800s when, legend has it, Irish salt miners made lunch by putting potatoes in baskets and lowered them into the kettles of boiling brine. The spuds were then crowned with gobs of butter.

Course:

Dinner

Lunch

Side Dish

Vegetable

Cuisine:

American

Makes:

About 2 pounds (907.2 g)

Servings: 6

Takes:

Prep Time: 15

Cook Time: 30

Total Time: 45

Ingredients

US Customary - Metric

▢ 2 quarts water (half gallon)
▢ 1 pound Morton Coarse Kosher Salt (about 2 cups (456.3 g))
▢ 2 pounds small waxy potatoes, new potatoes, or fingerlings
▢ 6 tablespoons unsalted butter (¾ stick)

Notes:

About the potatoes. White potatoes are standard, but you can use red skinned potatoes if you wish.

About the salt. It doesn't matter if you use table salt or kosher salt since the recipe goes by weight.

About the salt. Remember, kosher salt is half the concentration of table salt so if you use table salt, use half as much. Click here to read more about salt and how it works.

Metric conversion:

These recipes were created in US Customary measurements and the conversion to metric is being done by calculations. They should be accurate, but it is possible there could be an error. If you find one, please let us know in the comments at the bottom of the page

Method

First, read my article on The Science of Potatoes.
Prep. Wash the potatoes thoroughly, scrubbing them with a scrubby sponge. Make sure you get all the soap out of the sponge first, please. Cut out any bad spots or growing eyes, but leave the skin on and leave them whole.
Cook. Bring the water to a hard boil. Add the salt and stir until dissolved. Add the taters, being careful not to splash yourself. Boil until a fork slides in and out of a potato with ease, about 20 to 30 minutes.
Pour the potatoes into a strainer or colander in the sink and drain. Let them sit for a few minutes and they should get a slight frosting of salt. If they are large-ish, you can cut them into smaller chunks at this stage if you wish. Or just leave them whole. Put the hot pot back on the burner and turn it to medium. Add the butter and melt it. Then add the potatoes and stir, coating them with butter.
Serve. Serve immediately, but they are potatoes, so they'll stay warm for a while.

Nutrition per Serving