WEBVTT - How Do Latkes Work?

0:00:01.800 --> 0:00:06.920
<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of iHeart Radio, Hey

0:00:06.960 --> 0:00:12.200
<v Speaker 1>brain Stuff, Lauren Vogelbaum. Here on the surface, latcas might

0:00:12.280 --> 0:00:15.760
<v Speaker 1>look like any other pan fried potato cake, but these

0:00:15.800 --> 0:00:18.880
<v Speaker 1>traditional holiday treats are so much more than a starchy

0:00:18.880 --> 0:00:22.439
<v Speaker 1>comfort food. Laticas have been a Honkah staple for at

0:00:22.520 --> 0:00:25.560
<v Speaker 1>least two hundred years and have roots dating back millennia,

0:00:26.680 --> 0:00:29.800
<v Speaker 1>but it took us a while to get here. Hanka,

0:00:29.880 --> 0:00:32.680
<v Speaker 1>of course, is the Jewish festival celebrating the miracle of

0:00:32.720 --> 0:00:36.080
<v Speaker 1>the Oil that lasted eight days. The story goes that

0:00:36.240 --> 0:00:39.440
<v Speaker 1>over two thousand years ago, after a small rebel squad

0:00:39.560 --> 0:00:42.680
<v Speaker 1>led by Judith mccabee drove religious oppressors from their land,

0:00:43.080 --> 0:00:46.000
<v Speaker 1>they went to rededicate their temple, but most of the

0:00:46.040 --> 0:00:50.120
<v Speaker 1>holy oil for their lamps had been desecrated. As miraculous

0:00:50.200 --> 0:00:53.200
<v Speaker 1>as their victory was, this one day's worth of oil

0:00:53.440 --> 0:00:58.320
<v Speaker 1>lasted eight Eating oily or fried foods to celebrate. The

0:00:58.360 --> 0:01:01.360
<v Speaker 1>holiday goes back to the eighth dred Ce at least,

0:01:01.960 --> 0:01:05.280
<v Speaker 1>but potatoes are native to the America's They wouldn't arrive

0:01:05.319 --> 0:01:07.760
<v Speaker 1>in Europe until the fifteen hundreds, and they weren't really

0:01:07.760 --> 0:01:10.720
<v Speaker 1>popular there until the seventeen hundreds, when a French dude

0:01:10.760 --> 0:01:12.880
<v Speaker 1>who practically lived on them during his stint in a

0:01:12.880 --> 0:01:17.319
<v Speaker 1>Bavarian prison promoted them as an inexpensive and hardy sustenance food.

0:01:18.880 --> 0:01:22.279
<v Speaker 1>So what were lucas made with until then? It turns

0:01:22.280 --> 0:01:27.600
<v Speaker 1>out ricotta and other cheeses. Okay. This is because sometime

0:01:27.680 --> 0:01:31.480
<v Speaker 1>around the twelve or thirteen hundreds, rabbinic discourse started linking

0:01:31.520 --> 0:01:35.039
<v Speaker 1>the victory of Judah over his oppressors with the fictional

0:01:35.080 --> 0:01:39.520
<v Speaker 1>tale of Judith's victory over her oppressors led by Holofernes.

0:01:40.040 --> 0:01:42.120
<v Speaker 1>She fed him salty cheese so that he had drink

0:01:42.160 --> 0:01:44.280
<v Speaker 1>too much and she could behead him. Lots of art

0:01:44.319 --> 0:01:47.960
<v Speaker 1>depicts the scene. It's pretty metal. Um So cheese was

0:01:48.040 --> 0:01:52.200
<v Speaker 1>becoming a traditional hannock of food around that time, and

0:01:52.240 --> 0:01:55.680
<v Speaker 1>then in the late fourteen hundreds, Spanish rulers in Sicily

0:01:55.840 --> 0:01:58.960
<v Speaker 1>expelled the Jewish people living there. They fled to northern

0:01:59.000 --> 0:02:02.280
<v Speaker 1>Italy and beyond and brought with them recipes for Southern

0:02:02.320 --> 0:02:06.320
<v Speaker 1>Italian ricotta pancakes. It turned out to be the perfect

0:02:06.400 --> 0:02:10.200
<v Speaker 1>cultural combination, and fried ricotto latcas were the norm in

0:02:10.240 --> 0:02:14.600
<v Speaker 1>Eastern Europe through the eight hundreds. During that time, a

0:02:14.639 --> 0:02:18.680
<v Speaker 1>couple of things happened that set the stage for potato latcas. First,

0:02:18.880 --> 0:02:22.079
<v Speaker 1>in Eastern Europe, potatoes were being planted as a sustenance

0:02:22.160 --> 0:02:25.840
<v Speaker 1>food where other crops were failing, so potatoes were cheap

0:02:25.919 --> 0:02:31.120
<v Speaker 1>and plentiful, whereas cheese was more expensive. And Second, okay,

0:02:31.200 --> 0:02:34.440
<v Speaker 1>we're gonna need to talk about Jewish dietary guidelines called

0:02:34.560 --> 0:02:38.679
<v Speaker 1>kosher laws. They forbid eating dairy products and meat products

0:02:38.760 --> 0:02:41.760
<v Speaker 1>during the same meal, or even cooking and serving them

0:02:41.760 --> 0:02:44.960
<v Speaker 1>with the same kitchen and dining gear. So if you're

0:02:45.000 --> 0:02:48.160
<v Speaker 1>making dairy based cheese latcas, that means you have to

0:02:48.240 --> 0:02:51.360
<v Speaker 1>fry them in either butter or a neutral fat like

0:02:51.440 --> 0:02:56.680
<v Speaker 1>a vegetable or olive oil. But butter was also expensive,

0:02:57.000 --> 0:03:00.320
<v Speaker 1>and vegetable oils could be even pricier because they slee

0:03:00.400 --> 0:03:03.800
<v Speaker 1>had to be imported. A popular cooking fat at that

0:03:03.840 --> 0:03:07.320
<v Speaker 1>time and place was chicken fat or schmaltz. You can't

0:03:07.360 --> 0:03:10.720
<v Speaker 1>cook cheese pancakes and schmaltz, but you can cooked potato

0:03:10.760 --> 0:03:15.280
<v Speaker 1>pancakes in it. Through the nineteen hundreds, the potato became

0:03:15.360 --> 0:03:19.120
<v Speaker 1>so synonymous with latka that you don't have to specify anymore,

0:03:19.520 --> 0:03:21.880
<v Speaker 1>though you can find lots of different recipes made with

0:03:21.880 --> 0:03:27.160
<v Speaker 1>different ingredients. The traditional kind today calls for grated potatoes,

0:03:27.200 --> 0:03:30.400
<v Speaker 1>shredded onion, egg, salt and pepper, mots of meal or

0:03:30.440 --> 0:03:33.440
<v Speaker 1>bread crumbs as a binder, and vegetable oil to cook

0:03:33.480 --> 0:03:37.000
<v Speaker 1>them in. You stir the batter together, ladle small scoops

0:03:37.000 --> 0:03:39.240
<v Speaker 1>into a hot pam about a quarter cup or sixty

0:03:39.280 --> 0:03:42.440
<v Speaker 1>million liters per scoop. Then pan fry the pancakes until

0:03:42.480 --> 0:03:45.440
<v Speaker 1>they're golden brown and lacy on the edges something like

0:03:45.480 --> 0:03:49.000
<v Speaker 1>four inches or ten centimeters across. You might eat them

0:03:49.040 --> 0:03:51.320
<v Speaker 1>with your hands in just a couple of bites, dipped

0:03:51.360 --> 0:03:54.040
<v Speaker 1>in or topped with apple sauce, sour cream, or both,

0:03:54.520 --> 0:03:57.840
<v Speaker 1>often as a side dish with Hanuka dinners. They're crispy

0:03:57.920 --> 0:04:00.960
<v Speaker 1>on the outside and creamy soft on the side, salty

0:04:01.040 --> 0:04:05.320
<v Speaker 1>and starchy and satisfying for the article of this episode

0:04:05.400 --> 0:04:07.880
<v Speaker 1>is based on How Stuff Works. Spoke with cookbook author,

0:04:07.960 --> 0:04:11.640
<v Speaker 1>blogger and latca expert Amy Kreitzer back in twenty nineteen.

0:04:12.520 --> 0:04:15.640
<v Speaker 1>She explained that the basic latka is always good, but

0:04:15.840 --> 0:04:19.520
<v Speaker 1>that you can get creative. To quote, one of my

0:04:19.600 --> 0:04:22.000
<v Speaker 1>favorite toppings is just a little bit of cream, cheese

0:04:22.040 --> 0:04:24.800
<v Speaker 1>and locks and then some other bagel toppings like an

0:04:24.800 --> 0:04:27.960
<v Speaker 1>everything bagel, spice or some red onion. I've also done

0:04:27.960 --> 0:04:31.120
<v Speaker 1>a latca's eggs benedict for breakfast, and then recently I

0:04:31.160 --> 0:04:37.320
<v Speaker 1>just did fried pickles latcas. She does have more traditional

0:04:37.360 --> 0:04:41.360
<v Speaker 1>potato preferences, though her grandmother's go to the rest it.

0:04:41.960 --> 0:04:44.760
<v Speaker 1>She said they're the starchiest, they're cheap, and I think

0:04:44.760 --> 0:04:47.320
<v Speaker 1>they make the best Latka's. She would also use some

0:04:47.480 --> 0:04:50.120
<v Speaker 1>grated with onion and would grade it with the potato,

0:04:50.520 --> 0:04:55.760
<v Speaker 1>which helps keep them from browning. But to get your

0:04:55.800 --> 0:04:58.839
<v Speaker 1>latcas too crisp up appropriately in the pan, we must

0:04:58.920 --> 0:05:02.600
<v Speaker 1>turn to sign ants. You want to squeeze as much

0:05:02.720 --> 0:05:05.839
<v Speaker 1>moisture from your grated potatoes as possible before you mix

0:05:05.880 --> 0:05:08.719
<v Speaker 1>them with your other ingredients. Either press them between paper

0:05:08.760 --> 0:05:12.400
<v Speaker 1>towels or ring them out in a cheese cloth. That way,

0:05:12.440 --> 0:05:14.159
<v Speaker 1>when you put them in the hot oil in the pan,

0:05:14.400 --> 0:05:17.840
<v Speaker 1>they don't steam. Okay, You want your oil to be

0:05:17.920 --> 0:05:20.480
<v Speaker 1>up around three hundred and fifty degrees fahrenheit, that's one

0:05:20.560 --> 0:05:24.040
<v Speaker 1>seventy seven celsius. Water, of course, boils all the way

0:05:24.080 --> 0:05:27.720
<v Speaker 1>down at two hundred and twelve fahrenheit or one celsius.

0:05:27.800 --> 0:05:30.000
<v Speaker 1>So when you put your latcas in the pan, the

0:05:30.040 --> 0:05:34.239
<v Speaker 1>water in the potatoes will immediately start vaporizing into steam,

0:05:34.279 --> 0:05:37.200
<v Speaker 1>which will create a barrier on the surface of the latkas,

0:05:37.200 --> 0:05:40.799
<v Speaker 1>preventing the oil from browning them. The longer the latcas

0:05:40.800 --> 0:05:43.080
<v Speaker 1>sit in the pan, the more oil they'll soak up,

0:05:43.480 --> 0:05:46.800
<v Speaker 1>making them more soggy than crunchy. At the end, you

0:05:46.839 --> 0:05:49.800
<v Speaker 1>squeeze out excess water from the potatoes so they'll crisp

0:05:49.880 --> 0:05:52.960
<v Speaker 1>up nice and quick. It also helps to keep the

0:05:53.000 --> 0:05:55.599
<v Speaker 1>pan hot by using a heavy pan that holds heat

0:05:55.600 --> 0:06:00.800
<v Speaker 1>well like cast iron, and cooking in small batches. And

0:06:01.320 --> 0:06:05.600
<v Speaker 1>one last lacca crisping trick, repurpose the potato starch that

0:06:05.640 --> 0:06:09.360
<v Speaker 1>you squeezed out. Kretzer said. One thing I do now

0:06:09.400 --> 0:06:11.400
<v Speaker 1>that I didn't do growing up is I saved the

0:06:11.440 --> 0:06:14.600
<v Speaker 1>starch from the potatoes while shredding them. I squeeze out

0:06:14.640 --> 0:06:17.160
<v Speaker 1>all the liquid, then let it sit for about ten minutes.

0:06:17.720 --> 0:06:20.400
<v Speaker 1>Then when you drain off the water on the bottom,

0:06:20.440 --> 0:06:23.680
<v Speaker 1>there's this white starch, which is actually potato starch. I

0:06:23.760 --> 0:06:31.200
<v Speaker 1>add that back for my lacas, which helps them stay crispy.

0:06:31.760 --> 0:06:34.559
<v Speaker 1>Today's episode is based on the article How lacas became

0:06:34.640 --> 0:06:37.360
<v Speaker 1>Honaka's favorite food on how stuff works dot Com, written

0:06:37.360 --> 0:06:40.240
<v Speaker 1>by Stephanie Vermillion. Brain Stuff is production of by Heart

0:06:40.320 --> 0:06:42.560
<v Speaker 1>Radio and partnership with how stuff Works dot Com, and

0:06:42.560 --> 0:06:46.080
<v Speaker 1>it's produced by Tyler Clang. Four more podcasts my heart Radio,

0:06:46.320 --> 0:06:48.960
<v Speaker 1>visit the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever

0:06:49.000 --> 0:06:50.400
<v Speaker 1>you listen to your favorite shows