The Colorful History Of The Chanukah Latke
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Are Jewish Traditions Immutable?
We often think of our Jewish holiday traditions as immutable. For instance, on Pesach, we eat brisket and matzo ball soup. On Rosh Hashanah, we eat pomegranates, apples and honey. And on Chanukah, we eat potato latkes and sufganiyot. These are the experiential and culinary representations of our festivals. We assume that they are part and parcel of the holiday, existing alongside the actual halachot (the religious rules that govern how we observe the festivals). As Tevye sings in Fiddler on the Roof, “Tradition!”
The reality, however, is that our culinary traditions have evolved over time and continue to do so. And few have evolved more than the Chanukah latke. Of course, the purpose of frying latkes is to commemorate the miracle of that last vial of oil that miraculously lasted for eight days. But how we got to our modern potato latke tradition is fascinating.
The Story of Judith: The Prehistory Of The Latke
The concept of the latke originated with the Apocryphal story of the prophetess Judith. Likely hundreds of years before the Hasmonean era, Judith fed cheese pancakes to an invading Syrian-Greek general, Holofernes, then got him drunk and cut his head off. This story infers a tenuous connection to Chanukah at best, with Jewish sources in the Middle Ages suggesting that Judith was related to Judah Maccabee.
Ricotta Cheese Pancakes: The OG Latke
The 14th-century Rabbi Kalonymous ben Kalonymous, who became well-known in Italy, associated cheese pancakes as a Chanukah food in one of his poems, possibly connecting it to the story of Judith.
Inspired by this connection, the latke really took off as a ricotta cheese pancake called cassola. Sephardic Jews fleeing the Spanish Expulsion in Sicily brought cassola to Rome in 1492. These cheese pancakes were be fried in olive oil, in commemoration of the miracle of the oil used to light the menorah in the Temple.
Buckwheat: A Northern European Tradition
This ricotta cheese custom also reached Northern Europe. However, due to dairy’s scarcity and expense and olive oil’s lack of availability, the locals often substituted buckwheat or rye to make their latkes. Buckwheat latkes (known in Poland as “gretchenes") were made of buckwheat flour mixed with water, yeast and onions. They were fried with copious amounts of goose schmaltz. Why goose schmaltz? Geese were plentiful in Northern Europe in the wintertime and their slaughter provided copious amounts of cooking fat. Additionally, due to the Torah prohibition of mixing milk and meat, ricotta cheese could not be used with the schmaltz.
Potatoes: The Modern Latke
Crop failures in 1839 and 1840 in Poland and Ukraine led to the potato overtaking buckwheat and cheese as the latke ingredient of choice for Chanukah pancakes. It wasn’t until the early 20th century, though, that the modern potato latke really became established with its own firm tradition. Potatoes are cheap, easy to grow and quite tasty.
However, from a health standpoint, potato latkes are problematic for a number of reasons. Firstly, they are deep-fried in vegetable oil. Vegetable oil is high in Omega-6 fatty acids and thus inflammatory, while frying also makes the foods higher in calories. Secondly, white potatoes are predominantly made from simple starch with minimal nutritional value. Finally, latke recipes often use bleached white flour to help bind the other ingredients together. These factors, coupled with the toppings that often accompany latkes, such as sour cream and jam, results in a very high glycemic index food that does few favors for your health.
Sweet Potatoes: The Latke Of The 21st Century
A better solution is to use sweet potatoes and to bake the latkes rather than fry them.
Why sweet potatoes? Unlike regular tubers, sweet potatoes are high in vitamins A and C, iron, potassium and fiber. They are also a very reliable source of complex carbohydrates, ranking these vegetables low on the glycemic index.
Why baked? Baking preserves nutrients and spares your body from the advanced glycation end products of deep frying starches. Deep frying in partially hydrogenated oil causes inflammation. And heating oils at high temperatures causes them to oxidize, potentially causing many serious medical problems.
What Are The Nutritional Benefits Of Using Sweet Potatoes?
Each variety of sweet potato provides different nutritional benefits:
Orange sweet potatoes contain copious amounts of beta-carotene, which our bodies metabolize into vitamin A.
The Stokes Purple variety is very high in antioxidants, specifically anthocyanin.
The white Hannah variety contains iron and also has the closest texture to a traditional white potato.
The Japanese variety contains calcium and thiamine and is denser and starchier than the orange variety.
A Fun Sweet Potato Latke Recipe
Last Chanukah, we cooked up a fabulous-tasting latke recipe that I learned from Canadian food blogger Meghan Telpner, whose culinary course I took in 2016. The recipe uses sweet potatoes, zucchini, carrots and onions, with almond flour and eggs to hold it together. It is gluten-free and dairy-free and can easily be made paleo (depending on the flour) or vegan (by substituting chia for the eggs).
We had fun with this recipe and used three different varieties of sweet potatoes (Hannah, Japanese and Stokes Purple) and two different varieties of zucchini (Green and Gold Bar). All the vivid colors made it an engaging recipe for the kids.
While these latkes are obviously not fried in oil, we maintained the connection to the miracle of the oil by basting them with olive oil before baking. This had the added benefit of locking in moisture so we had a crispy outside and soft inside.
Another option is buckwheat latkes. Buckwheat is an entirely different experience from potatoes – earthy and satisfying but not sweet. That is a project for us to try again next year.
Parting Thoughts On The Latke
The latke has a very long and colorful history. Far from being bound to an unchanging culinary tradition, Chanukah foods are constantly evolving alongside the nutritional needs of the community and the availability of the raw materials.
Rather than viewing sweet potatoes as a radical departure from the traditional latke, this is just another delicious iteration in the ever-evolving history of the latke.
What new or unique ingredients have you used in your latkes this year or in years past? Please share in the comments below!
Happy Chanukah!
