“Jo-Jo Potatoes” May Come from “Junk Potatoes” at 1960s Fryer Demos

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hello, this is Trevor Fritz in Juneau, Alaska.

Hi, Trevor.

Hey, Trevor, what’s up?

Well, you know, I was hoping you guys could tell me a little bit about the etymology of the word JoJo’s.

JoJo’s?

Yeah, JoJo’s. You know, it’s the term for fried potato wedges. You’d see it on your deli menu at, you know, any grocery store.

In Alaska or elsewhere or anywhere?

You know, I haven’t seen it anywhere else.

Having asked other people, I’ve heard, you know, it kind of varies across the Pacific Northwest, whether they’re called JoJo’s or just potato wedges.

And, you know, I never really gave it much thought until I’d had a co-worker for a summer job up here that I’d mentioned I had JoJo’s for lunch and looked at me quite confused.

And after, you know, explaining what JoJo’s were, you know, the girl kindly asked me, well, why are they called JoJo’s?

When I came to think of it, I just couldn’t figure out why.

All right. This is our kind of puzzle.

Yeah. So how are you spelling this?

You know, I think it’s spelled J-O dash J-O.

I think I have an answer for you, Trevor.

Oh, yeah? Yeah, what’s that?

Well, it’s based upon the work of two people that I know.

Sam Clements and Barry Poppick have both looked into this word.

Sam frequents the straight dope message board, and they’re always trying to get to the bottom of people’s claims and truths and fictions.

And Barry Poppick is a fairly well-respected historical etymologist.

He tries to find the origins of words, and he specializes in food words.

And on his website, BarryPoppick.com, Barry has an entry for JoJo’s, and he’s got this document that I love.

It’s a letter from a fellow from a company called Flavor Crisp.

And this guy, Brad French, claims that JoJo’s came about in the 1960s.

The company that he now works for had a product line of restaurant equipment called Flavor Crisp.

Now, they would fry chicken and fish, and they would do this at fairs.

And in order to clean the oil, this is the part I don’t quite understand, apparently they would just throw potatoes in there to kind of like clean the oil in between bouts of frying chicken and fish.

And they would usually just throw them out.

But one day, supposedly, they accidentally put the potatoes up on the counter where people could sample them.

You know, at the trade fairs where the restaurateurs are coming through and figuring out what equipment they’re going to buy.

Yeah. You know, see how the equipment works. And people started eating them.

And then what they called them. Here’s the thing is what they called them was just junk.

That’s what they called them. They called them junk potatoes.

And so when somebody came through and said, oh, these are great. What do you call these? They’re like, JoJo’s. We call them JoJo’s.

Now, the story is a little too pat for my taste.

Usually when I find a story that’s kind of like so perfect like that, it’s probably fake.

Right.

But it kind of jives with what we know.

Sam Clements has found mention of JoJo’s in newspapers from the 1960s, a lot of different places.

It shows up in Minneapolis and Maine.

It shows up in the Northwest.

A lot of people claim it’s a Northwestern term, but I don’t see any.

I never heard it growing up in the South.

Yeah, I don’t see any.

It’s certainly a definitely more Northern and not Southern term.

But this guy, Brad French from the Flavor Chris Company, he’s got this story in it.

It sounds pretty good to me.

Wait, were the fried potatoes named after him?

Who?

Brad French.

No.

The smaller ones.

No, he’s alive now.

So he was not with them in the 1960s, but he works for the company now.

So he said they found out that if you quartered a russet potato, you could cook it with the chicken, and they would be done at the same time.

And that was the secret.

So that you cook your side with your entree together and serve them all at once.

So you don’t have this whole delay about one thing getting cool while the other one was still cooking.

I’m salivating over here.

Yeah, anyway, it sounds like a really good story to me.

But again, they show up in menus and in newspaper reviews of restaurants starting in the 1960s again and again and again throughout the northern part of the United States.

Again, Maine and Minneapolis and Washington and Utah and Idaho and those kinds of places.

You know, there’s one more thing in this letter from this fellow from this Flavor Crisp company.

He says that the reason that they’re so successful, he believes, is because on the outside they’re textured like a french fry, but on the inside they’re textured like a baked potato.

Yeah, I think that’s what really stands out about them to me.

It’s not a bad theory because you’ve got these competing textures, right?

Oh, that sounds so good.

And spices?

Wait, are there spices?

Yeah.

What spices?

Oh, yeah.

You know, I’m not sure what kind of spices they use here at the deli, but it seems good.

And a couple of the recipe books and cookbooks you’ll find they describe using paprika or maybe a little chili powder or salt and pepper, that sort of stuff with them.

Oh, gosh. That sounds great.

Thanks a lot, Trevor.

Food.

Thanks for tackling that one for me, guys.

Food and words. We love it.

Thanks for calling, Trevor. Really appreciate it.

All right. Well, you guys have a good day.

Bye-bye.

Okay. Take care.

Bye-bye.

You think they serve JoJo’s at HoJo’s?

They might.

We should find out.

By a guy named Mojo.

And actually, apparently Mojo is another name for these.

Oh, really?

The Shakey’s chain of restaurants serves them and calls them Mojos.

But that’s not nearly as old as the Jojo’s term.

So if you want more, it’s Mo-Mojo’s or Mojojo’s.

Jojo, I’ll have some more Mojo’s.

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