Traditional and Tasty: 54 Hanukkah Recipes The Whole Family Will Love (2024)

FAQs

What is a traditional food for Hanukkah? ›

The eight days of Hanukkah are observed with the lighting of a menorah after sundown and meals featuring foods challah bread, kugel, potato latkes, jelly doughnuts called sufganiyot, and festive drinks. Fried foods recall the miracle at the Temple of Jerusalem, when a day's worth of oil lasted eight nights.

Bimuelos are small fried fritters that can be covered with powdered sugar or a sweet syrup for Hanukkah. Traditional Hanukkah foods are made with oil, symbolic of the oil that lasted eight days. Sufganiyot, or jelly doughnuts, can be served plain with different fillings that can be added to the doughnuts once served.

Some nonreligious customs of celebration are eating treats fried in oil (which recalls the miracle of the oil), giving children gifts of money (Hanukkah gelt), and playing a game with a four-sided top called a dreidel.

It is customary for women not to work for at least the first half-hour of the candles' burning, and some have the custom not to work for the entire time of burning. It is also forbidden to fast or to eulogize during Hanukkah.

Third Night

Latkes (Potato Pancakes) – During Hanukkah, fried foods are encouraged as they symbolize the miracle of Hanukkah, when the oil in the Temple burned for eight days even though there was only enough oil for one day.

In America, Hanukkah food typically refers to two things: latkes, Eastern European fried potato pancakes, and sufganiyot, jelly-filled doughnuts that are favored in Israel and increasingly popular here.

"Among other rules, eating certain animals, primarily pigs and shellfish, is forbidden; meat must be ritually and humanely slaughtered; and dairy and meat aren't to be eaten at the same meal." Fish and plant foods are "neutral" (parve) and can be eaten with either meat or dairy.

"By the 14th century, there's quite a strong tradition that people eat cheese on Hanukkah and it's associated with Judith giving cheese to the enemy to make him drunk," Weingarten says.

What is the great miracle of Hanukkah? ›

Today, the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah lasts eight days to remember, and celebrate, the miracle of the one cruse of oil lasting eight days. One candle is lit on the first night in addition to the shammash, and a candle is added each night.

An important part of the Hanukkah tradition is to serve foods fried in oil, which symbolizes a miracle: After the Maccabee tribe recaptured ancient Jerusalem, the lamp in the temple appeared to hold only enough oil for one night yet continued to burn for eight days.

While the Hanukkah menorah is usually lit after sunset, a lazy weekend morning is also a great time to celebrate the Jewish holiday. So many traditional Jewish foods double as brunch favorites, from potato latkes (hash browns, anyone?) to doughnuts and challah.

On Hanukkah, Jews observe the custom of eating fried foods in commemoration of the miracle associated with the Temple oil.

They found a jug of oil that only contained enough fuel to keep the Temple's lamps lit for one day. However, the oil lasted for eight whole days! This miracle is the reason we eat foods fried in oil to celebrate Hanukkah and remember the Maccabees.

The most traditional gift for Hanukkah is gelt, which is Yiddish for “money” — given either in the form of real money or wrapped chocolate coins. These can be used to play the popular Hanukkah game, dreidel.

However, by a miracle of God, one day's worth of oil kept the lamp burning for eight days, the time it took to get more oil. In honor of the miracle of oil, Hanukkah is celebrated for eight days and nights and foods are fried in oil.