The 2 Latke Toppings You Can't Forget During Hanukkah

Hanukkah is not a major holiday as dictated by the Jewish religion, but due to its modern-day elevation to the status of Christmas alternative, gentiles and Jews alike are familiar with the whole megillah: lighting the menorah, spinning the dreidel, and of course, eating mountains of latkes. As latke history would have it, these pancakes hold symbolic value not due to the potatoes from which they're made, but the oil in which they're fried. 

This ingredient harkens back to the original Hanukkah miracle where temple lamps were able to burn for eight days on just one day's worth of oil. As a bonus, deep-frying also makes just about everything taste better. No matter how delicious the combo of hot oil-plus-potato may be, though, latkes are traditionally not eaten plain (nor with ketchup, since that would be meshuggeneh), but with applesauce and sour cream.

Do people eat the two toppings together? Well, it's possible to do so, although it's not the typical way of doing things. Instead, a long-established holiday tradition, right up there with arguing politics around the Thanksgiving table, seems to be squabbling over the right way to eat latkes. Members of Team Applesauce proudly defend their favorite, but Team Sour Cream is not to be denied its chosen topping.

Apart from personal choice, is one of these latke toppings more sanctioned by history than the other? (Cue the "Fiddler on the Roof" soundtrack: "The latkes, the latkes ... tradition!") Not really — nor does there seem to be a clear-cut separation between Ashkenazi and Sephardic preferences. Although sour cream has long been a staple in Central and Eastern Europe (ancestral homeland of the former group), apples, too, figure in Ashknenazi food rituals – they're dipped in honey for Rosh Hashanah and used to make Passover charoset. Conversely, Sephardic Jews in southern Europe, far from being dairy-averse, created a latke precursor out of cheese.

One point in favor of applesauce is that apples are considered pareve under kosher dietary laws, meaning they can be eaten with either meat or dairy. Sour cream, on the other hand, cannot be consumed with latkes containing schmaltz (chicken fat). Crisco, however, is pareve, so it's perfectly permissible to smear sour cream all over latkes made with this ingredient.

One way to get around the great applesauce vs. sour cream debate is to buck tradition (oy vey!) by opting for an entirely different topping. A few New England-area Reddit contributors express a preference for a Thanksgiving-Hanukkah mashup of latkes dipped in cranberry sauce, but we'd like to take the holiday crossover thing even further. In anticipation of the next biggest holiday of the new year, we proudly present Buffalo latkes with blue cheese dip, the only dish equally suitable for both Hanukkah and Super Bowl celebrations.