Add This Vegetable For Perfectly Crispy Latkes Every Time

During the eight days of Hanukkah, families that celebrate their Jewish heritage observe several customs, including serving certain foods. Among the quintessential Hanukkah foods everyone should know about are latkes. If your fried potato pancakes keep turning out soggy, it could be because the heat is too high. One unexpected way to make sure your classic potato latkes recipe turns out brown and crispy is to add a carrot to the frying pan.

This trick has seemingly been made popular by recipe developer and cookbook author Adeena Sussman, who said in an Instagram post that she learned it from culinary educator and best-selling author Kim Kushner. In the video, Sussman demonstrates adding a whole carrot to a pan of oil before placing the latkes in. The carrot stays in the pan as the potato pancakes fry, and then she throws the carrot away when she's done.

Sussman explains in the caption, "I used to peel the carrot, but recently I have stopped doing that. And some people snap larger carrots [in] half, feel free to, but that is also optional. I do just recommend trimming off any fuzzy carrot tops because those would burn faster if still attached."

On Instagram, Andeena Sussman says that putting a carrot in the frying oil with latkes is a North African cooking technique. It has actually been used for centuries for frying all kinds of foods, from fish fillets and schnitzels to pan-fried doughnuts, keeping the oil clean during the cooking process. And, there's a science behind why this works.

When you're frying foods, tiny particles naturally break away from the food and end up floating in the oil. They keep cooking until they burn, turning the oil dark and creating a bad flavor. Because of surface tension on the oil, anything else that's floating in it becomes like a magnet. It's the same phenomenon known as "the Cheerios effect," which is why breakfast cereal clumps together in a bowl of milk. Sussman explains that "the carrot attracts tiny particles from the items that are frying, preventing them from burning in the oil. This prevents the oil from darkening and makes it last longer per batch."

On top of that, the carrot becomes a thermal mass that helps regulate the temperature of the oil. That's particularly useful when you're frying latkes on an electric cooktop, which maintains heat by cycling on and off. Also, it makes cooking safer by preventing sudden spikes in temperature. By using this carrot trick, you can win your next Hanukkah party with a DIY latke bar full of topping options, such as caviar, crème fraîche, and lox.