These Crispy, Golden-Brown Latkes Are The Only Recipe You Need For Your Hanukkah Celebration (2024)

FAQs

What are latkes and what significance do they have concerning Hanukkah? ›

These potato pancakes (called latkes) are meant to symbolize the miracle of Hanukkah, when the oil of the menorah in the ransacked Second Temple of Jerusalem was able to stay aflame for eight days even though there was only enough oil for one day. The symbolism comes in the form of the oil in which latkes are fried.

Latkes — a.k.a. fried potato pancakes — are obviously the star of Hanukkah. The eight-day Jewish holiday celebrates the miracle of oil, so the more fried Hanukkah food the better.

A latke is a type of potato pancake or fritter found in Ashkenazi Jewish cuisine. The dish, which is traditionally served during Hanukkah, can be made with grated, shredded, or mashed potatoes. This top-rated recipe is made with shredded russet potatoes, all-purpose flour, an egg, an onion, and salt.

Before the potato, latkes were made with grains like rye, cheese, and vegetables like turnips, carrots, and even beans. Safe to say, though, that with the addition of this new world tuber the latke has found a friend forever. Cassola pancakes, a Sephardic cheese fritter thought to resemble latkes of the Medieval days.

As the potato became popular in eastern Europe, it was quickly adopted to the point that today, latke is almost synonymous with potatoes. The latke is traditionally prepared during the Hanukkah holiday to commemorate the miracle of the oil in the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem lasting eight days.

Hanukkah is a Jewish festival that reaffirms the ideals of Judaism and commemorates in particular the rededication of the Second Temple of Jerusalem by the lighting of candles on each day of the festival.

Crispy, fried, slightly oniony potato pancakes with decadent (that's a euphemism for fattening) toppings. Why latkes? The simple answer is that they're meant to remind Jews of the miracle of the oil associated with Hanukkah.

Therefore, potato pancakes, i.e. latkes, became the traditional Hanukkah food for Eastern European Jews.

Potato latkes are a more recent Ashkenazi invention that gained popularity in Eastern Europe during the mid 1800? s. A series of crop failures in Poland and the Ukraine led to mass planting of potatoes, which were easy and cheap to grow. But before potatoes came on the scene, the latke of choice was cheese.

By the way, you don't have to be Jewish or actually celebrate Hanukkah to love latkes. These crispy little potato pancakes make a wonderful appetizer or a great side dish all year long.

Who invented the latke? ›

The latke, it turns out, has its roots in an old Italian Jewish custom, documented as early as the 14th century. That, it seems, is where Jews first fried pancakes to celebrate Hannukah. Only back then, they were made of cheese.

Potato pancakes have a creamy, almost mashed-potato-like center, with a thin, golden, crisp exterior. Latkes, on the other hand, should have a deeply browned crust, with wispy, lacy edges. Latkes also aren't hash browns.

Although many Americans associate potato pancakes with Hanukkah, they have more broad origins. They originated in the eastern European countries of Germany Austria, Russia and Poland as a peasant food. Potatoes were cheap, plentiful and easy to store, making them a staple and necessitating inventive potato recipes.

Where did potatoes originate? The Inca Indians in Peru were the first to cultivate potatoes around 8,000 BC to 5,000 B.C. Potato History: The ancient civilizations of the Incas used the time it took to cook a potato as a measurement of time.

Of course we associate potato latkes with Hanukkah, but in reality latkes descends from Italian pancakes that were made with ricotta cheese. The first connection between Hanukkah and pancakes was made by a rabbi in Italy named Rabbi Kalonymus ben Kalonymus (c. 1286-1328).

Latkes Are a Hanukkah Staple

The tradition traces back to 14th century Italy. According to "The Encyclopedia of Jewish Food," Italian Rabbi Kalonymus ben Kalonymus introduced Italian potato pancakes into Jewish tradition by including them in a poem about Hanukkah in the early 1300s.

The eight days of Hanukkah are observed with the lighting of a menorah after sundown and meals featuring foods challah bread, kugel, potato latkes, jelly doughnuts called sufganiyot, and festive drinks. Fried foods recall the miracle at the Temple of Jerusalem, when a day's worth of oil lasted eight nights.

Eight candles symbolize the number of days that the Temple lantern blazed; the ninth, the shamash, is a helper candle used to light the others. Families light one candle on the first day, two on the second (and so on) after sundown during the eight days of Hanukkah while reciting prayers and singing songs.