4 Tips for Perfectly Crisp Latkes

Magic happens when you mash together shreds of potato and onion and then fry it up into little cakes. (Gail Simmons knows.)

Latke season has officially begun, and Craig Kanarick, the CEO ofMouth, a digital marketplace of specialty food and drink products, loves the lacy potato pancakes so much he’s made awhole kit of condimentsto accompany them.

Now he’s shared his four best tips, just in time for the holidays:

“Make sure the oil is super-hot but not smoking hot,” Kanarick says. He recommends grapeseed oil for frying, which has a higher smoking point.

Despite constantly draining the shredded potatoes and onions, some liquid will inevitably remain as you fry. “Potatoes are wet, so the oil will splatter,” he says. “Wear anapron!”

Skip the spatula for these lace-edged delicate potato pancakes. “Little bits of the latkes are going to come off in the oil, so used a slotted spoon to remove them,” Kanarick says. “Those are the bites we usually fight over!”

What’s not to love about craggy-looking fried potatoes? (They’re still delicious when they’re ugly.) And don’t fret when the first batch of latkes aren’t up to your expectations. “Just like the first few pancakes aren’t perfect, the first few latkes won’t brown as well as the ones that follow,” Kanarick says.