Thanksgivukkah: Game-changing potato latkes for your hybrid holiday feast (video)

This year Thanksgiving and the first day of Hanukkah fall on the same day for the first time since the 1800s. The newly-coined "Thanksgivukkah" has sparked a bonanza of marketing mishegas (see: Menurkey) and a creative wave of hybrid holiday meal planning that blends traditional Hanukkah foods, like potato latkes, with a traditional Thanksgiving menu. If you're thinking about celebrating, definitely make this one count — it'll be about 70,000 until the next possible opportunity.

Why so long until the next power holiday? The short answer is conflicting calendars. TIME reports on the mechanics of these celestial scheduling issues, noting the Gregorian calendar and the Hebrew calendar are calibrated differently, leading to a variable start date for Hanukkah. Then you start factoring in leap months, and the next thing you know 70,000 years has flown by.

MAKING THE PERFECT LATKE

You only need six ingredients — potato, onion, flour, egg, salt, and oil — but don't let that fool you into thinking you can just throw it all together in a bowl. Latkes are not difficult to make, but they are labor intensive. These are the hand shredded, no food processor version for people who like doing things the hard way. It's tradition.

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If you want to be a ganze macher this yontif and appeal to the big fressers in your mishpucha, just follow this Bubby-inspired recipe. No need to take out your index cards; there are no measurements here, only technique. Real latkes are made by feel. You have to follow your kishkes:

• Shred washed and unpeeled Russet potatoes using the large holes on a box grater.
• Immediately rinse shreds until water runs clear and all they're not slippery.
• Toss clean shreds into a large pot of ice water as you work.
• Repeat for all potatoes.
• Shred a few large yellow onions with the same grater.
• Drain potato shreds and press out all water with a towel.
• Mix in onion, beaten egg and flour until the mixture holds together and is "not too wet, not too dry."
• Fry large, pressed tablespoonfuls in a deep pan filled with hot Canola oil.
• Brown and flip.
• Remove latkes onto paper towels.
• Sprinkle with kosher salt.
• Serve with cranberry apple sauce and Sriracha sour cream.
• To reduce burning, remove rogue shreds from oil before frying next batch.

Mazel tov, mis amigos.

FAQ

How do you make your latkes?