The most intense potato flavor you've ever experienced.

June 2, 2024 8:17 AM

Rosin is highly flammable, and its fumes are noxious. So what better way to cook a potato? Boiling potatoes in molten rosin - a byproduct of pine sap distillation - seals in the flavor. "You get the most intense potato flavor you've ever experienced." If you're not up for boiling rosin yourself (Joy of Cooking, probably wisely, removed its recipe in the '98 edition), head to the Catface Country Turpentine Festival in Portal, Georgia, a "Rockwellian small-town festival replete with event-themed floats and beauty queens". (Catface refers to the scars left behind by the extraction of resin.) Alternatively, you can hop in your DeLorean and head to Cracker Barrel, which served rosin potatoes in the 80s. Or Doctor Potato (not a real doctor, but a team of potato experts) notes you could try coating your spud in a jacket of salt and egg. Previously...
posted by dmd (56 comments total)

IDK, I don't mind the flavor of potatoes but I can't say I particularly want it intensified.
posted by humbug at 8:25 AM on June 2 [8 favorites]

Metafilter: DO NOT BREAK THE SKIN; if you break the skin, you cannot eat that potato.
posted by lalochezia at 8:29 AM on June 2 [8 favorites]

I’m skeptical there’s really that much unrealized potential in a boiled potato, and unless I missed it she doesn’t really say anything about the experience of eating it apart from the phase “pure potato flavor” which makes me suspect it was underwhelming after so much buildup.
posted by Horace Rumpole at 8:32 AM on June 2 [3 favorites]

I've long wondered about rosin cooked potatoes because I own a copy of Joy Of Cooking that contains it as a recipe. The rosin i'm familiar with is used on string instrument bows to help them grab the strings better, but I'd assume it can't be too different -- even those tiny "rosin up your bow" packages reek of tree scent.

I can't imagine how to even get enough rosin to put in a pot to cook potatoes. And I'd assume, that pot is then forever relegated to having rosin and is only used for cooking potatoes.

Still, I've heard so many good things about rosin cooked potatoes that I've been dying to try once since I was about 10, which is when I first read that recipe in Joy Of Cooking.
posted by hippybear at 8:37 AM on June 2 [13 favorites]

I got a baked potato once at Cracker Barrel back when they boiled them in rosin. It tasted like... a baked potato. But one where you couldn't eat the skin. I was not moved to order one a second time on another visit.
posted by indexy at 8:39 AM on June 2 [5 favorites]

How good can a dang tater taste? We do something called salt potatoes. Smallish white thin skinned ones you put into boiling water with several cups of salt. They taste like a potato.
posted by Czjewel at 9:00 AM on June 2 [3 favorites]

I mean the fun about old copies of The Joy Of Cooking is how utterly prairie housewife they get. Need illustrations on how to skin a squirrel? Yeah, they were in there. Want to use every part of that animal you've slaughtered? Yes, you'll have instructions on boiling non-meat parts to extract tallow and other things.

I know they aren't always great recipes, but those older copies of TJOC were the sort of thing that should have been included with those Sears houses you could order out of their catalog.
posted by hippybear at 9:01 AM on June 2 [9 favorites]

"You get the most intense potato flavor you've ever experienced", you know, like a potato, but more potato-y.
posted by 2N2222 at 9:01 AM on June 2 [2 favorites]

Why would the potato boiled in rosin have any more concentrated potato flavour than a potato baked in the oven? Steam is going to escape either way, taking some small amount of flavour molecules with it. I think much of the flavour of a potato is in the skin anyways, so if you can't eat the skin, it seems like you'd be losing a lot of the potential flavour.

I guess you could sous vide a potato if you were particularly interested in keeping as much potato flavour in as possible.
posted by ssg at 9:04 AM on June 2 [1 favorite]

I too have always been curious about the Joy of Cooking rosin potatoes. But during the pandemic, where suddenly I had so much more time to cook, I started making jacket potatoes by default when I wanted a baked potato as a side. With an initial brush of olive oil, and then another brush of oil and some kosher salt later, the potatoes turn out far more crispy on the outside and fluffy and potatoey on the inside than any other baked potatoes I've had in the recent past.

I have little doubt that the rosin potatoes do have a different flavor to the conventional American baked potato, but I'm not sure it's worth the trouble of, uh, boiling gallons of rosin to get past the jacket potato standard.

The problem, of course, is that jacket potatoes take hours to bake.
posted by eschatfische at 9:04 AM on June 2 [7 favorites]

Boiled potatoes taste nothing like roasted potatoes. And I assume that rosin potatoes are closer to roasted potatoes because of the higher temp of the rosin.

My favorite potato at this point is a russet that's been well washed, had four stabs with a fork, put into a microwave for 6-9 min depending on its size, and then rubbed with oil and salted and put in a 400°F oven for about 20 minutes until the skin begins to get crisp. Slice that in half and add butter and maybe a bit of sour cream, and you've got a lot of potatoey awesomeness there.
posted by hippybear at 9:04 AM on June 2 [8 favorites]

"You get the most intense potato flavor you've ever experienced"

hardcore taters
posted by chavenet at 9:06 AM on June 2 [41 favorites]

Why would the potato boiled in rosin have any more concentrated potato flavour than a potato baked in the oven?

I assume the thickness of the rosin actually doesn't allow steam to escape the potato and it's the result of all that steam being trapped inside the starch of the potato interior that really transforms that interior.

Baking in an oven will allow water to escape.

Boiling will allow water to escape.

I don't know if rosin cooking allows steam to escape because it's a horrible thick tarry mess.
posted by hippybear at 9:07 AM on June 2 [2 favorites]

I am allergic to rosin, and I LOVE all potato.
Please report back if the ultimate potato is worth the trip to the farmacy.
posted by thegirlwiththehat at 9:08 AM on June 2 [2 favorites]

> allergic to rosin

Too bad you're not allergic to potatoes too or you could experience double trouble potato sweats
posted by dmd at 9:18 AM on June 2 [2 favorites]

hardcore taters. Never change, MetaFilter.

I would love to try one of these.

A staple of my family's recipes was the fully loaded baked potato. Cooked in foil, and then popped with an expertly delivered boxing of the heels of the palms. Butter, chives, bacon, cheddar, sour cream, pepper, thoroughly mixed inside the skin.
posted by spikeleemajortomdickandharryconnickjrmints at 9:22 AM on June 2 [6 favorites]

I assume the thickness of the rosin actually doesn't allow steam to escape the potato and it's the result of all that steam being trapped inside the starch of the potato interior that really transforms that interior.

The recipe in the first link says: You will see bubbles in the rosin as the water is being forced out of the potato. I suppose if you had a pot of rosin that was many metres deep, pressure would prevent some steam from escaping, but at reasonable cooking depths, vapour pressure is going to easily push steam up through rosin, even if it is a little more viscous than water.

But realistically, most things get more concentrated in flavour when you drive off the water, so I doubt that's it.
posted by ssg at 9:24 AM on June 2 [1 favorite]

We do something called salt potatoes

Wow! Do you cook it in molten salt? [keeps reading] Aww.
posted by aubilenon at 9:28 AM on June 2 [1 favorite]

It tasted like... a baked potato. But one where you couldn't eat the skin. I was not moved to order one a second time on another visit.

What's the point, then? The skin's the best part, as far as I'm concerned.
posted by Thorzdad at 9:34 AM on June 2 [4 favorites]

Jeepers, what a ride. I think I'm going to tell my kids that if they tell a lie, Ms. Hatchett will find them out.
posted by Western Infidels at 9:39 AM on June 2

i heard that in addition to boiling them in rosin, you can also mash them and stick them in a stew can anyone else confirm???
posted by Aya Hirano on the Astral Plane at 9:46 AM on June 2 [12 favorites]

I mean the fun about old copies of The Joy Of Cooking is how utterly prairie housewife they get.

I remember my mom's 1960s-era copy having instructions on how to butcher and prepare a bear. Hopefully not some misremembered thing? I don't think it's in the 1982 edition that I own.
posted by gimonca at 9:51 AM on June 2 [1 favorite]

They call me Dr. Potato
Good morning, how are you? I'm Dr. Potato
I'm interested in things
I'm not a real doctor
But I am a real potato
I am an actual potato
I live like a potato.
posted by shenkerism at 10:10 AM on June 2 [9 favorites]

OK but if I'm gonna do it's gonna be Rosin of Durban Poison, cuz that shit is the bomb. Damn expensive tater though.
posted by symbioid at 10:14 AM on June 2 [1 favorite]

I do something called "mashed potatoes" which I can guarantee are 100000x better than russets cooked in rosin. As an extra added benefit, there is no risk of being poisoned!
posted by grumpybear69 at 11:10 AM on June 2

A long time ago I worked for a coppersmith whose job was bending 6 or 8 inch copper pipes to make heating coils for boilers. One end or the pipe would be capped and the heated roisin would be poured in. The pipe had to be kept hot so that the roisin wouldn't solidify and trap air bubbles. Whe everything was cooled the pipe would be lifted on to the bending machine and bent to the required shape. The pipe would then be heated again and the roisin would run into a large pot for reuse. It was hard work but I loved the smell of the roisin. Never thought of bringing some spuds to work.
posted by night_train at 11:16 AM on June 2 [6 favorites]

AskMe concerning rosin potatoes
posted by TedW at 11:19 AM on June 2 [4 favorites]

spikeleemajortomdickandharryconnickjrmints, you just made me lose two hours of my life catching up on MeFi drama from 2009 and I love you for it
posted by cabbage raccoon at 11:59 AM on June 2 [3 favorites]

Tastes differ, or possibly there are a lot of indifferent and badly stored potatoes out there.

Mine are blooming. There’s also a hell of a rainstorm now and for the next few !days! and I am wondering damply how to keep them from washing out. Back to it.
posted by clew at 12:12 PM on June 2

can't imagine how to even get enough rosin to put in a pot to cook potatoes.

It's used for candlemaking so some places that supports that both internet including amazon and physical stores. Don't know if I'd trust food safe labels on something like that from amazon though.
posted by Mitheral at 1:03 PM on June 2

And now I wonder if you could cook potatoes in beeswax.
posted by Mitheral at 1:04 PM on June 2

Would a sous vide potato also taste like a rosin potato? Because I would like to try this but the rest of the household has vetoed the traditional method.
posted by lepus at 1:11 PM on June 2

Typically American bravado in the face of being told your way of making a living is toxic: 'poisonous?? What the hell do you think you’re talking about, 'poisonous'? — I could eat a potato cooked in this stuff!'

Like Midgley splashing himself with tetraethyl lead like it was an aftershave in front of Congress.
posted by jamjam at 1:13 PM on June 2

Need illustrations on how to skin a squirrel? Yeah, they were in there.

There are instructions for skinning a squirrel in the 1923 edition of Joy of Cooking and also in the 1962 edition (page 556).

I remember my mom's 1960s-era copy having instructions on how to butcher and prepare a bear.

The 1962 edition says (page 557):

Remove all fat from bear meat at once, as it turns rancid very quickly. If marinated at least 24 hours in an oil-based marinade, all bear, except black bear, is edible. Cook after marination, as for any recipe for Beef Pot Roast or Stew, pages 493–505. Bear cub will need about 2½ hours' cooking; for an older animal, allow 3½ to 4 hours. Bear, like pork, can carry trichinosis, so be sure the meat is always well cooked through.

posted by cyanistes at 1:32 PM on June 2 [5 favorites]

And if you're into this, next up you can try ham cooked in asphalt! (YouTube)
posted by ethand at 1:32 PM on June 2 [1 favorite]

My strong memory of us neighbor kids copping some taters from their houses to be cooked later that night when we would sleep out in a tent in one of the kids backyard, or even the nearby small wooded area. More likely the later cause we would build a campfire and throw out taters into it. 30 minutes later the outside skins were basically charcoal and the interior under cooked and hard. We weren't going to wait 45 minutes as we had no patience. We would peel away the black charcoal skin and salt that tater. There was a zone where it was the best potato I've ever had, until you hit the raw center part. I should try that again as an adult.
posted by Czjewel at 1:45 PM on June 2 [2 favorites]

aubelenon. No, I broke my erlinmeyer flask.
posted by Czjewel at 1:48 PM on June 2

I am curious whether boiling in rosin would solve some of the annoyances of cooking potatoes at altitude. It doesn't feel like it should be that different, and it's not like Peru doesn't have plenty of potatoes, but they take longer to cook at elevation and it's like the steam escapes out and then doesn't stick around to cook the interior. We've tried cutting them in smaller bits, but the sliced surfaces get this weird overcooked texture trying to get the inside to stop being slightly undercooked, so the whole roasting process is just a slow and disappointing exercise in sad potatoes like, 2/3rds of the time. So weird.

In less absurd methodologies, I am also considering wrapping in foil or using the instant pot.
posted by deludingmyself at 2:06 PM on June 2

I assume the thickness of the rosin actually doesn't allow steam to escape the potato and it's the result of all that steam being trapped inside the starch of the potato interior that really transforms that interior.

If water did not escape the potato during cooking, then the cooked potato would have the consistency as a raw potato, and be functionally inedible. The "soft, fluffy" consistency of a cooked potato is from the rupturing of cell walls and the escape of moisture from said cells, allowing the rigid, water-stuffed raw potato to become a soft, slightly broken-down edible potato.
posted by anazgnos at 2:11 PM on June 2 [2 favorites]

Johnny, rosin up your ‘to
posted by snofoam at 2:18 PM on June 2 [3 favorites]

"It is easy to think of potatoes, and fortunately for men who have not much money it is easy to think of them with a certain safety. Potatoes are one of the last things to disappear in times of war, which is why they should not be forgotten in times of peace".
MK Fisher..."How to Cook a Wolf".
posted by Czjewel at 3:23 PM on June 2 [3 favorites]

deludingmyself, there’s a delicious Krnji López-Alt potato approach that might work at altitude — you cook cubed potatoes in an instant pot/pressure cooker until just done, and then you pour off the water and shake them around to steam dry, and THEN you oil and season them and oven-roast to get them crispy on the outside. Takes a while, but most of it unattended.
posted by clew at 3:41 PM on June 2 [1 favorite]

If water did not escape the potato during cooking, then the cooked potato would have the consistency as a raw potato, and be functionally inedible.

Also each one would be a miniature pressure cooker bomb just waiting for the slightest alteration to the integrity of the skin to explode.
posted by Mitheral at 3:57 PM on June 2 [2 favorites]

At hippybear’s mention, I tracked down my copy of Joy of Cooking that I inherited from my great aunt (1962 edition) and found the same section as cyanoses posted. Holy crap, this section totally passed me by. The following section after that one sounds like a fucked up party game: “Stuffings, Dressings, Farces, or Forcemeat”
posted by dr_dank at 4:15 PM on June 2 [3 favorites]

Yeah, they sanitized The Joy Of Cooking a while ago, but if you can find a vintage copy, it's a rollercoaster ride.
posted by hippybear at 4:22 PM on June 2 [2 favorites]

Reporting from my 32nd Printing/December 1982 Joy of Cooking: Rosin Potatoes, Squirrel skinning (“don gloves to avoid possible tularemia infection”), and Bear (“be careful not to cut into the musk glands on lower belly”) all accounted for. As well as Wild Boar, Woodchuck, Beaver, Beaver Tail, Raccoon, Opossum….
posted by TWinbrook8 at 4:23 PM on June 2

…Porcupine…
posted by TWinbrook8 at 4:24 PM on June 2 [2 favorites]

Modernist Cuisine recommends Pressure-cooked potato confit. Quarter-turn lidded Mason jars are put on a trivet or rack inside the pressure cooker so the potatoes (fingerlings etc.) are cooked in olive oil to a confit, at 120 °C for 30 minutes or an hour or so. The Maillard reaction at this temperature helps intensify certain flavors.
posted by polymodus at 4:27 PM on June 2 [3 favorites]

Just to cross-reference, see this Ask about potato recipes:
https://ask.metafilter.com/380228/Po-TAY-toes-recipes-wanted
posted by indexy at 5:12 PM on June 2

I have my Mom's probably mid-60s copy of Joy of Cooking. Should probably look for it.

Wonder if there are Possum recipes in there? Crazy what we won't eat anymore. Any dogmeat recipes in there? Bears? Of course, pretty sure my folks back then ate venison/elk/antelope...

With CWD, wouldn't touch venison with a ten-foot pole. Same goes for hunted ducks/geese/turkey things with the bird flu thing. Bacteria and viruses and prions are the fucking worst...
posted by Windopaene at 5:26 PM on June 2

Didn't see the Durban Poison rosin suggestion till just now...

"I seem to have cut the dickens out of my finger... Save the rosin"
posted by Windopaene at 5:39 PM on June 2

None of the articles mention rosin can be used as a cheap and good high temperature soldering flux on electronic circuit boards.
posted by dagosto at 5:52 PM on June 2 [1 favorite]

It does seem like a weird idea to fill a whole cauldron with rosin (meaning it can't ever be used for anything else) and boil/bake spuds in it, when both rosin and cast-iron cauldrons are pretty exotic now. It would have made a lot more sense back when US produced a lot. Rosin and turpentine production didn't die out, it just got mostly offshored: China alone makes about 500,000 metric tons a year of pine rosin. I think it's like a lot of agricultural products where it's sold by the ton where they make it, so if you make the stuff it's basically free.
posted by netowl at 6:35 PM on June 2 [2 favorites]

If you can’t eat a rosin-cooked potato with broken skin, does this put the lie to the idea that pre-puncturing a potato is necessary to prevent an explosion (or even just the skin splitting on its own)?

Because it seems like you’d want to avoid even a tiny risk of an explosion in boiling rosin. And mere skin splitting must not happen all that frequently either since it would mean cooking in rosin results in a lot of inedible potatoes.
posted by theory at 7:40 AM on June 3

My childhood edition of Joy not only included instructions for dressing bear and porcupine, but also a section about avoiding food contamination from radioactive fallout. It was /very/ comprehensive.
posted by eraserbones at 9:39 AM on June 3 [2 favorites]

These sound good, potatoes do have a nice flavour, especially raw, and I'd love to try the texture of one just boiled in its own water. Not going to go and boil sap about it though.
posted by GoblinHoney at 11:02 AM on June 3