Rosin Potatoes, Resin Potatoes People are fascinated by the idea of cooking a potato in a pot of boiling pine resin. Those who have had potatoes cooked this way say that they are the best potatoes they've ever had. The secret lies in the fact that the boiling resin distributes the heat evenly around the cooking potato. Forest workers, sawmill employees, and just plain country folk in the South used to tap the numerous pine trees in the region to harvest the pine sap and sell it for making turpentine, among other uses. Somehow, maybe by accident, someone found that a potato cooked in boiling pine resin was exceptionally delicious. They got so popular in the South that hardware stores used to sell a "rosin potato cooker" - a cast iron pot pre-filled with rosin. You just put it over a fire, heated it up until the rosin melted and started boiling, and carefully put in your potatoes. You don't wrap them in paper first - you put the potatoes in boiling pine sap in a cast iron pot and let them cook until they rise to the surface - that's the signal that they're done. Then, with a slotted spoon or tongs or a stick, you carefully lift the hot potato out of the rosin and roll it up in butcher's paper or a brown paper bag and twist the ends to keep it hot until it's served. When you're ready to eat the potato, you cut it lengthwise through the paper and then add butter, salt, pepper, even sour cream and bacon bits if you want. By the way - you don't eat the skin with the resin on it, just the inside. Simple, huh? Except that it seems that you can't go down to your local hardware store and buy rosin cookers or bulk rosin any more. I have searched the web several times, and the only rosin that I can find for sale is small quantities such as are used by athletes to dry their sweaty hands, and by artists. Of course, rosin is expensive when bought that way. However, there does not appear to be any place at all on the web that sells bulk pine rosin suitable for filling a pot to cook potatoes. You might be able to get it from a turpentine manufacturer. While I was searching, I found a few web sites that seemed to want to confuse pine resin with "pine tar". "Pine tar", is distilled pine resin. It's pretty nasty stuff, and I'd think twice before trying to cook potatoes in it. Also, please note that both pine resin and pine tar are highly flammable. Cooking potatoes in resin is not something to be undertaken lightly. The words "resin" and "rosin" are used interchangeably. Just be sure it's pine resin and not something else. There are other "resins." Here's an art supply store that sells it for $3.00 a pound. See:

Artstuff.com If you know of a good source for pine resin or of a place that still sells rosin potato cookers, please let me know so I can post it here. Hi: I came across your site looking up bulk rosin. Interesting application for the rosin with boiling the potatoes. I am a new business located in California. I sell Brazilian Amber Gum / Pine Rosin. It is pure rosin chunks, chips/powder. My customers to this point have been bull riders/rodeo, beekeepers for the hive dipping and Brazilian wax salons for their rosin/wax recipes. The rosin is also used in a recipe for a metal forming product called pitch / chasers pitch. Pitch is used in coppersmithing with a technique called Chasing & Repousse. I am a coppersmith by trade and also make the pitch and use the pitch in my work. Long story short, I had the rosin for this application and it has since turned into its own entity. You mention in your post that if anyone has a link for rosin, send it your way, so I would like to pass on my website link to you in the event you would like to share my information with those who ask. www.amberpinerosin.com My information is on my site, but basically, I sell quantities from 1 lb up to 55 lb bags. My prices are competitive with the current market for the smaller quantities and I have super low shipping rates. I will also be offering the Honduran pine rosin soon. It has a lower softening point and the bull riders in particular like it due to its increased stickiness. I would also be more than happy to do a link exchange with you. Thank you in advance for your time! Debra Amber Pine Rosin JUST ROSIN! Brazilian WW Grade Pine Rosin (coming soon - "Black" super sticky rosin for Bull Riders) If you are interested in locating a resin pot for cooking potatoes. see: Resin Potato Pot Southern Kitchen Cinnamon Rolls On 4 Dec 2007 at 4:54, Christy wrote: > Southern Kitchen was a restaurant in Dallas many years ago. They had > the best Cinnamon Rolls in the entire world. I had the recipe which > was posted in the Dallas Times Herald but lost it about 20 years ago. > I would love to have it again. > > Thanks for the help! > Christy > Hello Christy, See below. Phaed Southern Kitchen Cinnamon Rolls Dough Mixture: 1/2 cup milk 1/2 cup butter 1/3 cup sugar 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 1/2 teaspoons dry yeast 2 tablespoons warm water 2 1/4 cups flour 1 egg Scald milk, add butter and stir until the butter is melted. Add sugar and salt and stir until dissolved. Dissolve yeast in warm water and add to milk mixture. Add 1 cup of flour and beat well. Add egg, which has been beaten lightly, and beat about 2 minutes. Add 1 cup of flour and beat well. Then add rest of flour and mix well. Place on floured board and knead very lightly - about 8 times. Put in well greased bowl, cover and let rise until double in bulk. Cinnamon Sugar Mixture: 1 cup sugar 1/2 cup light brown sugar, well packed 1 tablespoon cinnamon 6 tablespoons butter Mix sugar, brown sugar and cinnamon together until well blended. Roll dough out to 8" x 20". Completely cover with 1 tablespoon melted butter. Spread cinnamon sugar mixture evenly over surface, reserving about 3/4 cup for top. Roll up and cut into 24 even pieces. Melt 5 tablespoons butter in 7" x 10 1/2" pan and put rolls in pan placing cut side up. Press down to force butter up around rolls. Then spread remaining sugar mixture evenly over top. Press down. Let rise until double. Bake at 375 F. until done - about 20 minutes. Serve warm. Suspiro de Quesa > Around 1959 or so there was a Latin restaurant, run by Restaurant > Associates, on 6th Avenue in Manhattan, in the Time-Life building. A > beautiful restaurant, now, alas, long since defunct. Among their > wonderful dishes was a cheesecake dessert called Suspiro de queso (a > lovely poetic name for an ethereal dessert).. It'd play hell with my > cholesterol, but I'd love to make it. Thanks. > > Howard Hello Howard, The name of the restaurant or the name of the chef would help.... Perhaps you are referring to the restaurant named "La Fonda Del Sol"? It was a Restaurant Associates venture in the Time-Life Building, as was "The Tower Suite". However, La Fonda Del Sol did not open until 1961. It was designed by Alexander Girard, and the dishes, furnishings and even the matchbooks from it were designed by him and are collector's items. As for recipes, I cannot find any recipes at all from La Fonda Del Sol, nor can I find a cheesecake called "suspiro de queso". The only dish with that name that I can find is a savory appetizer called "suspiros de queso". There is a recipe in Spanish for it here: suspiros de queso Sorry that I could not be more helpful. Phaed Hello Phaed, I was reading one of your recipes and happened upon this request (from way back in 2007) that you were not able to find the recipe for (included below). I speak Spanish so it intrigued me and I went looking for "Suspiros de Queso". You're right, the dish by exactly that name is a savory dish, but I looked up just "Suspiros" and found the recipe under the name "Suspiros de Amante (o tartelitas de queso)." It can be found in Spanish at the following link: Suspiros de Amante Great site by the way, I look forward to many hours of trying recipes of a bygone age. Thank you. All the Best, Candy Devil's Steak The cookbook is "Trail Boss's Cowboy Cookbook" by the Society for Range Management. This cookbook includes recipes with names like ""mule muffins", "yella belly soup","son-of-a-bitch stew", "son of son-of-a-gun stew", "slum gum", "grave-yard stew","garbage can dinner", "black night barbecue sauce", "devil's steak", "frizzled beef","blackbird pie", "roasted rattlesnake", "Australian barbecued emu", "Australian camel stew", recipes for kangaroo, "mailbox greens", "prairie fire", "storm at sea", "beef candy", "mystery pudding, "son-of-a-gun-in-a-sack", "lumpy dick", and "spotted dog". It's also packed with old-timey recipes, trail recipes, camp recipes, chuck-wagon recipes, old-west recipes and Mexican recipes. From this one I chose "Devil's Steak." It's said this recipe for steak was created by a cook who was allergic to wheat flour, so she came up with the idea of dredging the steak in powdered mustard. Devil's Steak 2-3 lbs. round steak, 3/4" thick 2 tbsp. dry mustard 1 1/2 tsp. salt 1/4 tsp. pepper 2 tbsp. cooking oil, or as needed 1 10 oz. can mushrooms, bits & pieces 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce 1/2 cup dry wine Cut meat into small pieces. Trim all membrane and fat from pieces. Pound each piece until 1/4" thick or less. Mix mustard and spices and dredge meat on both sides in mixture. Have large frying pan medium hot with oil. Fry a few pieces at a time 1 to 1-1/2 minutes on each side, until golden brown. Keep warm. Drain mushrooms, but save liquid & set mushrooms aside. Add mushroom liquid and Worcestershire sauce to hot pan pan. Simmer and scrape off pan drippings. Add mushrooms and wine to this liquid and heat. You may thicken with corn starch, if desired. Serve this sauce over the meat. Makes 8 to 10 small servings. Swedish Recipes RecipeSource Smorgasbord Recipezaar DMOZ Gretchen's Cookbook Astray Meraya Nyberg