Pine Resin Baked Potatoes

I had them in 87 on my 1st visit to CB in dayton. The server said the skin was the best part. I guess i missed out on a grest taste sensation. If they still served them the skin would still go to waste!
britt

We Call them Pitch Potatoes. The Pitch/Tar/ Resin, whatever you want to call it, was used to patch roofs back in rthe day. The pitch, when cold, was hard and if you would strike it with a hammer, it would break up like peanut brittle. We would build a pit with blocks all around, get a wood fire going, set the pail of pitch on the blocks and melt the pitch then CAREFULLY lower the potatoes into the pitch. We would lay newspapers on the ground and when the potatoes were cooked, using a garden rake, remove the potatoes from the pitch and put them on the newspaper to cool. Once cooled and the pitch was hard, we'd roll the taters up in the newspaper and tap the taters with a stick to crack the pitch, just like cracking an eggshell. Remove taters, slather on the butter, salt & pepper and enjoy!

My dad used to cook these potatoes for us back in the 60's. His cooking expertise mainly centered around the grill, the rosin pot, cooking fish on a Coleman stove, and venison stew. We loved these potatoes and I never heard of anyone else we knew who did them. The resin gives a wonderful flavor to the potatoes if I remember correctly.

My dad is 86 today and we took him out for fried oysters for lunch! Happy Birthday, Daddy!

I'm so glad you started this post, when I mentioned this type of potato at CB my wife thought I was daffy, now you have proven me right. How about pine rosin gum from Maine don't see that anymore either
Clay Bell

Never ate any in my life. I have a book about food fads at home, and it mentions them, but apparently the trend died out.I guess that is a good thing. I have heard of salt crust potatoes
and would rather eat that.You can brush away the salt and it most likely the skin would be edible still
despite all the salt. On the resin potatoes, no,you can't eat the skin.

quote:

Originally posted by HollyDolly

On the resin potatoes, no,you can't eat the skin.

With the pitch we used, you sure could eat the skin----and we did!
See my prep comments above. Once the pitch cooled, the shell would break away just like a nut shell.

Pine resin taters are yummy- as i understand it this whole thing started with lumberjacks in the 1800s... their wives would make them resin potatos to take with them for lunch because the resin sealed them up and kept them hot for hours!

incedentally im and experimental archeologist and im working on a Native American style dugout canoe... the same pine resin was frequently used to weatherproof such boats and im having a really hard time finding a supply of resin for my project... anybody have any suggestions on where i might get 20 lbs or so?

Very cool. Sounds great, too bad it is dangerous to make.

I first tasted a resin baked potato at one of the Cracker Barrel restaurants in Tennessee some years back. It had a unique flavor and I thought the potato had a great taste. After that I would look forward to eating at Cracker Barrel primarily because of the resin baked potato. My understanding is that when Cracker Barrel expanded into Indiana it was forced to drop the resin potato in that state because of some health issue and it was subsequently dropped nation wide. I remember when ordering the potato that one was advised to refrain from eating any of the potato within a quarter inch of the peeling.

I ate one last night, for the first time.
 
Hands down, the best baked potato I EVER ATE.
 
Got it in Decatur, Texas at:
 
http://www.sweetiepiesribeyes.com/about_sweetie_pies.php
 
 
 

There's a distinction between "Pitch" Potatoes & "Pine Tar" Potatoes. Pitch potatoes were cooked in a bucket of a Petroleum based tar that was used to patch roofs back before 1960-65. I don't think you can find it anymore, but haven't looked in over 20 years. Pine Tar potatoes are cooked in a bucket of resin base extract from trees. I've never tasted pine tar potatoes but I'm sure the results would be nearly the same. The similarity is that the tar, from whatever the source, acts as a sealant for the immersed potatoes. The results are the same. the flavor is sealed in while the spuds cook.  

As I recall, you pop them out of the resin, once they float to the top of the kettle, onto canvas(?) squares, twist like a bad microwave tater in aluminum foil and let them rest for a couple of minutes.....then pull/peel the  fabric (and skin) off.

Season as usual......and try to boil them in the pine tar OUTSIDE! 

       I doubt anybody's homeowners insurance pay-out!     lol