Latkes are a simple recipe consisting of grated potatoes, onion, eggs, and flour, but they can be easy to mess up due to the moisture and starch components of potatoes. Starch helps the potato stick together, but the moisture can cause the latke to fall apart.

To achieve the perfect balance of starch and moisture in your latkes, cookbook author and New York Times writer Joan Nathan suggests cooking the potatoes in the oven just until the outside is fully done while the inside remains raw. The final step is to cool and grate the potatoes.

The reason this is so effective, Nathan explains, is the par-baking process slightly dries out the potatoes, creating an ideal ratio of starch to moisture. When the grated potato is combined with the other ingredients and fried, the resulting latkes can hold their shape and crisp up perfectly.