this post was submitted on 24 Mar 2026
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I remember fresh bread and butter. Yum.
Not anymore though because my body decided it makes sense to attack itself when I eat the tiniest particle of gluten. Celiac disease. Ugh.
Potatoes and butter.
I'd probably pick bread as my favorite food, but at one point doc had me try going gluten free to rule out some possibilities. No gluten issue, but it really made me value a nice potato! Potato is just underground bread.
Yes but don't forget the salt there.
Syracuse, New York is nicknamed Salt City, as it was a huge commercial salt producer for many years. There is a dish called Syracuse Salt Potatoes which boils the potatoes in a very saturated brine, as salt was in no short supply.
The skin on the small potatoes keeps too much of the salt from being absorbed, and the centers get such a creamy texture while as the water evaporated off the skins from residual heat, it leaves a beautiful powdered salt coating all over the outside. Then cover or dip (I like to dip so the salt doesn't run off) in melted butter and enjoy! Must be tasted to be believed.
Oh I want to try it out but I'm kind of scare by any salt recipe from the new world. It seems that USA' and Canada's standard size of cristal salt is very diffdrent from the french one, living many of my dishes from there way over salted. I guess if we're talking about melted salt and brine saturation it could be fine but I'm still scared.
Can I use any potatoes or do I need something starchy/tender/...?
Oh wow, I never even considered the salt itself would be an issue. It looks like you would likely have coarse grey salt, gros sel, as your large grain salt? I use Kosher or coarse sea salt, which from what I can find, is fairly the same volumetrically, but things also said grey salt is denser with actual salt. The saltwater is pretty much a saturated solution or close to it, so I don't know if you could actually oversalt the water. The weight ratios I found have around 1 lb salt per 4 lb potatoes.
For the potatoes themselves, we have little bags of boiling potatoes, either white, red, or a mix or red, white, and purple. They have thin skins and hold up well for boiling. Looking up French styles, la Charlotte, Ratte, l'Amandine, Belle de Fontenay, Annabelle, Franceline, Nicola, Roseval, and Chérie all seem likely useable. Ours are around the size of a golf or ping pong ball. All yours seem more finger shaped so I can't tell exactly how large they are.
Maybe you can find a French recipe for the papas arrugadas the other commentor mentioned to get a version with things you can buy more easily. Other than the sauce, the idea seems the same.
Oh... So I should use some gros sel whenever kosher salt is mention. That changes many thing. I probably try it (one day) and keep you updated but I feel like many times a recipe seems straighforwars it is because we make a lot of assumtions that don't necessary match another culture well.
I've tried reading a few things now, and I think that is going to be your best starting point. I can only get so much without knowing the French words, since I'm sure the detail of the translation is much more important when talking about something as specific as tiny structures and textures.
It sounds like kosher salt is more flakey, while gros sel is cubic, but I'm thinking that they are not fine salts and will leave more air pockets when measuring by volume should keep you closest. Grey salt from the sea is going to have some taste that a white salt from a mine isn't, but if it's just being used 90% for whatever osmosis trick it is doing to potatoes, that probably isn't going to make a huge difference.
My understanding is all recipes in English (or at least from America) are written with kosher salt in mind. Salt that would go in a shaker is much too fine and will make food much saltier than intended, it's probably twice as much salt.
It's easy to slip one's mind trying to share something like this, that seems like it would be the most mundane recipe, as probably for both of us, salt and potatoes are daily staples we don't pay much mind to, we just know what to use.
Thank you for taking time to think this through when I did not (^_^)
Of course! I enjoy talking to you and you teach me so much about France I would never think to learn about.
Very similar to papas arrugadas, a traditional dish in the Canary Islands.
Yum, those with that mojo sauce and a nice piece of fish does sound really good!
Indeed so, but I think their true genius is as a tapa. They pair well with lager on a sunny day (which you'll obviously be drinking a lot more of, because of the salt), and they beat the hell out of a packet of crisps.
You are really selling me on the Canarian lifestyle.... 😎
I love potatoes. I used to talk down on them too. Not anymore. Meat and potatoes, or beans and potatoes whatever you want.
You probably know this stuff better than me since you're coeliac, but just in case you don't: try the Loopy Whisk's bread recipes. I have a couple of coeliac family members and these are by far the best results I've gotten for making gluten free bread for them
Thanks. I'll check it out.
As someone who was diagnosed at 43, I relate so much to this comment. Most things, buttered toast included, aren't worth the weeks of pain. Although, I have seriously considered a Dick's Deluxe burger on a couple of occasions.
Nothing like eating Dicks to make the pain stop.
Couldn't resist the opportunity on that one, eh?
I want you to know that I barely, barely tried to resist that opportunity.