Cheese Latkes
Most Jews are aware of the custom to eat fried foods on Chanukah, in commemoration of the miracle of the oil related in the Talmud (Shabbat 21b). Far fewer are familiar with the custom of eating dairy products, especially cheese, which is mentioned in the Shulchan Aruch (O”H 670). According to the RaMa (R. Moses Isserles, c. 1525-1572), the cheese eaten on Chanukah recalls the milk that the heroine Judith served to a Greek general (presumably during the Hasmonean revolt) in order to make him sleepy and give her the opportunity to put him to death. Those who have read the apocryphal book of Judith might find this curious, since, although the book does relate the assassination of a general by the heroine, it makes no mention of dairy products and has no obvious connection to Chanukah. The story takes place during the reign of Nebuchadrezzar, over 400 years before the Hasmonean revolt, and Judith lulls the enemy general to sleep with wine, not milk, before decapitating him.
The version of the legend involving milk is apparently the result of a conflation of Judith’s story with that of Yael, who, according to the Bible (Judges 4:17-31; 5:24-28), lulled a Canaanite general to sleep with a bottle of milk before driving a tent peg through his head. The Mishna Berura (R. Israel Meir Kagan, 1838-1933) harmonizes the two as follows:
She [Judith] was the daughter of Yohanan the High Priest. There was an edict that every engaged woman should sleep with a nobleman first, and she fed the head of the oppressors cheese to make him drunk, and cut off his head, and everyone fled.
The cheese apparently made the general thirsty, causing him to drink large quantities of wine.
According to Gil Marks’ The World of Jewish Cooking (the source of much of my information, and perhaps misinformation, on the history of Jewish cuisine), the original form of the Chanukah latke was cheese-based. However, in Eastern Europe cheese was a luxury item in wintertime, as were butter and vegetable oils, and many Ashkenazi Jews were forced to develop non-dairy alternatives that could be fried in schmalz. By the mid-nineteenth century, due to a series of crop failures in Russia and Poland, potatoes had become the main staple of the Eastern European diet, and the potato latke supplanted flour and buckwheat latkes as the most popular form of Chanukah pancake.
I haven’t had a chance to try the following recipe, which comes from The World of Jewish Cooking, but I have generally found the cookbook reliable (at least as far as recipes are concerned), and as a dairy lover, I can’t imagine that cheese pancakes could possibly be bad. If you’re tired of potato latkes but think you can handle some more fried food before the holiday ends, make a batch of these and let me know how they come out:
Zeesih Kaese Latkes
1 pound cottage, pot, or ricotta cheese
4 large eggs
About 1/4 cup all-purpose flour or matza meal
2 tablespoons butter, melted, or sour cream
1 to 2 tablespoons sugar or honey
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract or ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
Vegetable oil or butter for frying1. In a food processor or blender, puree the cheese, eggs, flour or matza meal, butter or sour cream, sugar or honey, vanilla or cinnamon, and salt until smooth. Or beat the eggs with an electric mixer until thick and creamy, then beat in the cheese and the remaining batter ingredients.
2. Heat a large skillet or griddle over medium heat. Lightly grease with oil or butter.
3. In batches, drop the batter by heaping tablespoonfuls and fry until bubbles form on the tops and the bottoms are lightly browned, 2 to 3 minutes.
4. Turn and fry until golden brown, 1 to 2 minutes. (The pancakes may be kept warm by placing in a single layer on a baking sheet in a 200-degree oven.) Serve with sour cream, yogurt, maple syrup, flavored butter, jam, cinnamon-sugar, or fresh fruit.
Variation: For lighter pancakes, separate the eggs, beat the egg whites until stiff but not dry, and fold into the batter.
I saw a similar recipe in the Hamodia prior to Pesach, as a way to use up chometz. As such, it called for a goodly amount of breadcrumbs rather than matzoh meal. I served them with maple syrup.
They were delicious and, by using wholegrain breadcrumbs, a much better alternative for those watching carbs.
That sounds really yummy. I suppose that you could also use whole wheat flour.
It’s important to note that potatoes are a New World food, so were not known in Europe, Asia, or Africa until after 1492. Cheese and buckwheat were no doubt the latke ingredients prior to that time.