The Three Essential Steps to the Crispiest Latkes

Flabby latkes be gone! These three easy techniques guarantee latkes that are incredibly crispy on the outside.

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Published December 13, 2025

A plate of fried latkes served with applesauce and sour cream additional latkes cooling on a rack in the background — Serious Eats / Vicky Wasik

It's all about moisture management. Here's how to make sure watery potatoes don't rain on your Hanukkah.

Hanukkah is upon us, and with it platters of golden latkes, fried until crisp. Or, at least, they should be. There's nothing worse than a soggy, limp latke (note the lazy hyperbole of a food writer who wants to sign off for the day and eat some latkes). Avoiding such an unthinkable catastrophe is all about moisture management—removing as much water as we can, then tying up the rest to reduce its steamy effects. I rely on three key steps to get the job done.

Step 1: Squeeze in a Sack

The first and most critical strategy for avoiding flabby latkes is to remove as much free water as possible from the mix. That means squeezing the potatoes as tightly as possible to express the water. We can do that with our hands, but it works even better to put the shredded potato (and onion, which is also watery) into a cheesecloth sack, tie the ends around a sturdy wooden spoon, and then twist. You can exert significantly more pressure on the potatoes by squeezing them in a twisting sack than you can by squeezing them in your bare hands, and it's much less exhausting.

Step 2: Harvest the Starch

Brown water and hydrated potato starch at the bottom of a metal mixing bowl

The next step is to collect all that potato water you just squeezed, let it stand long enough for the starches suspended in it to settle, and then pour off the liquid and harvest the starch. This natrual potato starch can then get mixed back into the shredded potatoes to help provide a starchy glue.

Step 3: Add More Dry Starch

Overhead view of adding potato starch — Serious Eats / Amanda Suarez

Why stop with the potato's natural starch? We can add even more. I like to use potato starch, since it's thematically on point, but cornstarch or even fine breadcrumbs work well too. I dust some in (I eyeball it, this isn't an exact science), to help absorb much of the residual free water, creating an even thicker base for the latkes. All this extra starch does an important thing: It forms a starchy slurry that, when heated, gels. Gelled water doesn't flow as freely as regular liquid water does, which means it's less likely to flood to the bottom of the skillet and impede browning and crisping. Plus, once whatever free surface water is there evaporates, the extra starch crisps to a glassy, shattering exterior for the ultimate crispy bite.

Now if you'll escuse me, I have some very crispy latkes to make and eat.