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The Festive Fried Food of Hanukkah | A Celebration of Hanukkah with Geoffrey Baer

The Festive Fried Foods of Hanukkah

Band playing on stage with various color spotlights shining
Sufganiyot are filled, fried doughnuts coated with powdered sugar and are a popular Hanukkah food in Israel. Credit: Maglara / iStock

When WTTW asked families about their favorite part of Hanukkah for the TV program A Celebration of Hanukkah, there was a common answer: the food. Specifically, the fried potato pancakes called latkes. They’re associated with Hanukkah as a reminder of the story of the holiday, in which the Maccabees regained control of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem and were able to keep the menorah inside burning with kosher olive oil that should have lasted for only one night, but lasted for eight.

“We eat oily foods on Hanukkah to remember the miracle of oil,” Rabbi Allison Tick Brill told Geoffrey Baer in A Celebration of Hanukkah. “So we fry potatoes in oil and donuts in oil and anything you can think of to remind us of the oil that the Maccabees found.”

Fried savory pancakes known as latkes date as far back as the fourteenth century, although back then they were made from cheese and served with fruit preserves. Once the humble potato had established itself as a staple in Eastern Europe, it became the dominant ingredient in latkes. They’re still often served with fruit preserves – most commonly applesauce – or sour cream. The preferred topping (or a combination of both!) is the subject of a pitched battle, as chronicled in the song “Applesauce vs. Sour Cream” by the self-described “latke fans” and Hanukkah band The LeeVees. (“This is just one huge, enormous, big decision//You have to make,” goes the refrain.)

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What are Sufganiyot?

Latkes are now almost certainly the most well-known Hanukkah food in the United States, beloved by children and adults alike. In Israel, it’s sufganiyot: filled, fried doughnuts. Similar to Polish pączki, they traditionally consist of a yeasted dough filled with fruit preserves and dusted with powdered sugar. But there are plenty of other flavors available these days; for instance, North Shore Kosher Bakery in Chicago, which Geoffrey Baer visited in A Celebration of Hanukkah, also makes chocolate-, custard-, and caramel-filled sufganiyot. And while sufganiyot are better known in Israel than the United States, they’re still plenty popular stateside: North Shore Kosher Bakery turns out somewhere between 20,000 and 25,000 during Hanukkah.

Other fried foods surface in Jewish communities’ celebrations of Hanukkah around the world. For example, the Bene Israel community in India eat the onion fritters known as kanda bhaji while lighting wicks in coconut oil instead of the candles typically seen on menorahs in the United States.

Beyond fried food, many families also celebrate Hanukkah with dishes often found on a festive Jewish table, such as kugel (another food that’s the subject of a song by The LeeVees) or brisket (Chicago pastry chef Mindy Segal likes to put some of the fatty beef on top of her latkes, as served to Geoffrey Baer in A Celebration of Hanukkah).

And then there’s gelt, chocolate coins often dished out as prizes in a game of dreidel during Hanukkah. Gelt – Yiddish for “money” – used to be real coins, gifted to friends and children during Hanukkah. But when American Jewish people began re-engaging with the holiday as a Jewish counterpart to Christmas, candy companies sought to capitalize on the interest and began producing foil-wrapped chocolate coins. Unsurprisingly, gelt – just like latkes – is a favorite of kids at Hanukkah and another instance of the joy and light celebrated during the holiday.