Ready, Set, Hanukkah!🕎
Even if the menu stays the same, it never hurts to start prepping early
Hello, everyone, and a warm welcome to new subscribers who found me over the past week or so. I’m so glad you’re here, especially at this time of year when there’s so much competing for our time and attention.
I’ve been busy baking Christmas fruitcakes and cookies to give to friends, neighbors, and to swap with fellow food bloggers. It’s truly a labor of love, but amid the clouds of flour and clattering mixing bowls, I realized that the clock is ticking down to Hanukkah as well—it arrives on Christmas night!—and I haven’t done a thing to prepare for it! Yikes!
But what’s the big deal about not being ready for Hanukkah? Every year I serve the same menu at the holiday table—brisket, potato latkes, kugel, plenty of side dishes and as many desserts as I can muster (though always rugelach and cutout cookies sprinkled with blue sugar!). It’s what my visitors expect. Hanukkah is an ancient holiday with many food traditions built into it, so who am I to quarrel with that—though I suspect that brisket and latkes were not on the menu 2,000 years ago!
After so many years, you would think that throwing a Hanukkah celebration would be a piece of cake—right? Not quite, at least for me. Despite having prepared more dinners for this holiday than I care to count, each time it rolls around, I start hyperventilating. That’s kind of a tradition too. I’m fairly sure my mother was like that about most family parties, always on edge about how to schedule everything so that she knew who was bringing what, hoping that all would go perfectly once the guests showed up.
I’m not a big entertainer, but I am a big worrier, undoubtedly a genetic trait with matrilineal roots. My solution is probably one that most party-givers have discovered: Do as much as you can ahead of time and leave as little as possible to do on the day of the event.
For me that means starting several weeks early—mainly because, even though the menu doesn’t change, it’s fairly intensive in terms of the amount of elbow grease and time it requires to prepare it—and the work it takes to clean up afterwards. Though I love it when people bring things, I usually handle the main dishes myself. How could I ask someone to bring 60 or 70 latkes?
It starts with a menu—preliminary at first because things could change. Here’s mine for this year—again, pretty much the same as last, but pristine. Scribbling in the margins, cross-outs and coffee stains will come later.
From this, I draw up a grocery list and timetables—all handwritten in a big spiral-bound notebook, no spreadsheets for me. (But I do wonder if ChatGPT might be helpful! For old-school me, probably not!).
Of course it really begins with knowing how many folks are coming. I’ve had as many as 30—a bit overwhelming for a sit-down dinner, especially when you really don’t have the table space. Lately I’ve pared the guest list down to a much more manageable 12 to 15. Then you might actually talk to people instead of spending all your time managing the flow of food and dirty dishes.
How much is too much?
Amounts are always approximate, but in my house, more is better—running out of food feels like you’ve failed somehow. The idea that your guests might walk away hungry seems like a sacrilege! (The fear that there won’t be enough food must be genetic too, a legacy from ancestors who really did experience food insecurity.) Instead of Christmas or Hanukkah gifts, we send people home with parcels of leftovers. What could be better?
That said, I always buy with leftovers in mind and try to get started with the cooking and baking two or three weeks ahead. Latkes, for instance, require peeling and grating several pounds of potatoes (in a food processor, not by hand as my poor mother used to do!). The process calls for clenched fists and a bit of muscle to squeeze them dry in a clean towel, and, while the resulting pancakes are the most delicious thing in the world, they do make the house reek of fried potatoes and onions for many days afterwards. If you’re freezing them in advance, as I do, they should be prepared at least a week in advance.
Below are recipes for three of the usual suspects at the Hanukkah feast, ones I’ve written about before, but stories you might want to read—or reread.
Brisket
I’ve heard that half a pound per person is probably a good calculus. Despite the sad truth that brisket is no longer the economical cut it once was, I’ll opt for three-quarters of a pound per person. This year, that’s about eight or nine pounds worth. That sounds like overkill (poor cow!) as there’s so much else on the menu, but brisket cooks low and slow and shrinks a lot! Here’s a link to the story I wrote about the delicious recipe I used last year and will probably make again.
Potato latkes
I’ve been following Joan Nathan’s recipe from The Jewish Holiday Kitchen for as long as I can remember, grating some five to 10 pounds of potatoes, along with onions, plus eggs, flour and potato starch to make from 50 to 100 potato latkes, then flash freezing them in air-tight bags to be opened and heated on the day of the party. Here’s a link to my story about that:
Rugelach
The stars of my cookie plate are rugelach (it’s plural, so don’t say “rugelachs” or mistake it for arugula!). These are the crescent-shaped, jam- or chocolate-filled cookies with the cream cheese crust that are a Jewish deli staple but that also show up on many bakery shelves nowadays. There are numerous versions, but my favorite recipe is from Dorie Greenspan, author of many excellent books and a blogger here on Substack. Here’s my 2020 take on her cookie; the headline says it all:
Of course, as you may notice from my handwritten list (assuming you can read it!), there’s more to this dinner than these three recipes. Hint: hors d’oeuvres, vegetables and a possible chicken or fish dish—and many more desserts, including maybe chocolate babka, another time-consuming but very satisfying baking project I also wrote about way back when (click here for the link).
The mashup of Christmas and Hanukkah this year, with the two arriving on the same night (the fifth time in more than 100 years!), might call for a few creative Chrismukkah (or Hannumas) touches—and/or a special spiked punch or bubbly to celebrate New Year’s Eve, happening just two days after the party on the seventh night of Hanukkah!
If you have any ideas for food and drink mashups, however outlandish, I’d definitely like to hear them!
How much advance planning and cooking do you do for your parties? Do you make successive lists, as I do, with tasks to accomplish daily as you get closer to your event? Do you have designated people to make certain things or do you do it all yourself? I’d love to know.
Thanks again for being here. Please let me know in the comments what you’re making for the holidays and if you’ve started cooking yet.
And stay tuned for more recipes and the answer to the question my family frequently asks, “Why are you doing this? Do you have a screw loose? It’s too much work!”
See you very soon.
Ruth
12-30 guests? "As many desserts as I can muster"? Doing every dish myself, including latkes? This would terrify me, Ruth! You're a Hanukkah hero! Happy Holidays, Ruth!
I admire your hosting and cooking efforts, Ruth! I can barely handle a meal for 4…
And the cutout cookies are soooo festive!