Hot Potatoes

But for a dish so seemingly simple, there are a myriad of ways to
get from raw potato to finished product, even in Syracuse alone. Oil
vs. butter, onions vs. no onions, diced vs. shredded; Apparently,
there’s more than one way to skin (and slice, season and fry) a spud,
and to the Syracuse cooks who have perfected the bite-size breakfast
staple, home fries are certainly no small potatoes. 

At Ruston’s Diner, 6293 Jamesville Road, Jamesville (469-1200), the
home fries start with chopped and unpeeled small new potatoes. The
rest? It’s a secret –even to manager Debbie Culkin. “The cooks won’t
tell us!” says Culkin. “It’s their secret recipe.” 

We did manage to squeeze out of the Ruston’s staff that the potatoes
are fried on the grill with a margarine blend, chosen over oil for its
“richer flavor,” says Culkin. Despite the enigmatic recipe, it’s no
secret that Ruston’s home fries are popular, especially in the diner’s
signature fretta. Home fries are combined with onions, peppers,
broccoli, sausage and pepperoni in this hearty egg dish, one of the
restaurant’s top sellers. “The home fries totally make the fretta,”
says Culkin. 

The old-fashioned flat-top grill makes the home fries at Mother’s
Cupboard Fish Fry, 3709 James St. (432-0942). The diner has used the
same seasoned flat top since 1921 and, according to owner Amy Easton,
the home fries recipe has been in use for just as long. Potatoes are
cubed and peeled by hand, boiled, then seasoned on the grill with
onions, paprika, garlic, salt and pepper. 

“The seasoned flat top gives the home fries that real homemade
flavor,” says Easton. “No pre-whatever potatoes here.” That
just-like-mom-used-to-make vibe is part of what makes Mother’s Cupboard
a popular spot for the college crowd, says Easton, among whom home
fries are a morning-after staple. “Home fries are the best hangover
food!” 

Texture is key at the B-ville Diner, 18 E. Genesee St.,
Baldwinsville (638-9999), where kitchen manager Howie Roberts has been
cooking up home fries for more than 20 years. “I’ve got it down to a
science,” he says. The recipe starts with unpeeled potatoes diced into
a uniform square shape. Going skinless helps keep the texture
consistent, says Roberts. “Skins tend to peel off or break up and turn
into mush, which just doesn’t look all that great.” 

The seasoning, added to the spuds on the grill, is a 60-year-old
house recipe that blends garlic, salt, pepper, paprika and onion, and
when fried with a butter blend, gives the potatoes a crispy texture and
a “perfect brown color,” says Roberts. 

At Stella’s Diner, 110 Wolf St. (425-7345), the home fries
philosophy is simple: Good potatoes equal good home fries. That’s why
this 11-year-old hot spot switches up their favored taters with the
seasons. “As weather changes, moisture levels change,” says co-owner
Betty Stellakis. “Too much moisture makes the home fries mushy.” 

Currently, Stella’s prefers Chef’s potatoes (similar to russets),
but Idaho and Yukon Golds are also in the rotation. The chosen potatoes
are boiled, sliced thin, seasoned with garlic powder, onion powder,
salt and pepper, then baked with sliced onions in a convection oven.
Finally, the baked potato slices are fried on the flat top until just
brown. Although time consuming, the three-step process “makes the home
fries really crispy and delicious,” says Stellakis, and it seems like
Stella’s customers agree: Home fries are the breakfast menu’s most
popular item.

Customers get creative with the home fries at Julie’s Diner, 3800
Brewerton Road, North Syracuse (452-0091). Smothered in melted cheese,
mixed with fried peppers, and even deep-fried, are just some of the
ways inspired breakfast eaters order Julie’s home fries, says owner
Kristen Nacko, but the 7-year-old recipe is still super popular
straight up. 

It starts with hand-cut, unpeeled yellow potatoes, which have a
“great flavor,” says Nacko. After a bath in boiling water, the
bite-size chunks are sprinkled with garlic salt, pepper, chopped onions
and a dash of paprika, then tossed onto the grill—and that’s where the
magic happens. Throughout the frying process, the potatoes are doused
in a generous helping of melted butter, the “most important
ingredient,” says Nacko. “The butter keeps them moist and gives them
that golden color.”

Whether you like them with skin or no skin, onions or no onions,
extra crispy or even burnt, there’s likely a spot in Syracuse that
cooks up the home fries you crave. And despite their differences,
there’s no question that these local breakfast joints are doing the
potato proud. So what do you say we call the whole thing off?