I have never made latkes before, and since it's Chanukah time (or just after), I thought now would be a good time to try. I personally don't care for latkes (I drown them in applesauce to make them somewhat edible). However, I've never had latkes from a box-mix, and I thought maybe I'd like those better (I prefer Bisquick pancakes over homemade ones, so why not latkes?).
When I went to the store to buy a box of latke mix, the Safeway had three kinds. Rather than try to decide which one to get, I figured I'd buy them all and decide which type I liked the best. Here are the results:
1. Manischewitz' Potato Pancake Mix
The two things I noticed first were that this recipe only had the mixture sit 3-4 minutes before cooking (unlike the longer time-frame for the others), and that the dough was kind of crumbly (as opposed to a liquid). The recipe says to drop tablespoons of the mixture into the pan, but doing it that way just created large lumps; I decided to flatten the mixture and make flat pancakes with my hands before putting them in the pan instead, which worked nicely.
These perhaps did not turn out the best because this was my first go at making latkes. I overcooked several of them, to the point that they were a little burnt, or some were crunchy like french fries (granted, I actually liked them like that, but I don't think that's the correct texture for latkes). And the oil had turned brown, which I think meant the oil was burnt too, but I wanted to keep it hot!
Decision: While I'm not sure they turned out like they were supposed to, they tasted like pancake french fries and not latkes, so I really liked them! I even ate them with ketchup!
2. Streit's Vegetable Potato Pancake Mix
I was especially curious about this one since it's flavored with vegetables (the ingredients list says there are onions, carrots, celery, tomatoes, and white pepper in it). The mix did look quite festive with the red and green bits in it (wait, wrong holiday...).
Anyway, the main difference I saw with this mix was that it was harder to work with. First of all, the powder did not mix in well with the water and eggs; it was very clumpy, so I had to break up the lumps first. Also, the batter was very wet and hard to form pancakes with it by hand like I did with the first batch. So those points made me like the first brand better (at least at first).
Since I had latke-making experience after the first go-around, I did a few things differently. I heated up the pan first before putting the oil in (the first time I just heated everything at once), and I used a lot more oil; the oil didn't burn either, so I guess waiting until the pan is hot is a good idea. And the first time I was shy about making too many latkes in the pan at once, but for this second try I felt confident to put a bunch in there at one time. And I didn't burn any of them!
Decision: These were much more flavorful then the first ones. Those veggies add a lot to the mix! The texture was very much the same (like a pancake french fry), and I was really pleased with how these turned out. Yum!
3. Streit's Potato Pancake Mix
Just like its vegetable sister, this mix was clumpy and somewhat difficult to blend into a homogeneous mix. I did try something new with this one: I let the mix sit for a full ten minutes before trying to turn them into pancakes. But, this didn't seem to make a difference. The mixture was still quite wet, to the point that I didn't even bother trying to form pancakes. I just put handfuls of the stuff into the pan. These didn't seem to need a full five minutes on each side to cook; perhaps it's because I used more oil, but I actually had the pan on a slightly lower heat, so I'm really not sure.
One distinction I noticed was that this mix seemed to eat up the oil more. In the first two, it mostly looked like I had the same amount of oil in the end as I did in the beginning. But with this one, there were parts of the pan that had no oil at all on them by the 20th latke (yes, this mix made exactly 20 latkes like the box said it would).
Decision: In general I thought this one tasted much like the other two. But this one was softer and thicker (probably because I ate the last one I made, which was the one where I just shoved all the leftover mix into one latke), and I really liked that texture. It wasn't as crispy on the outside, which I kind of missed, but the soft center made up for that.
Verdict of comparison: I liked all three! If I were to make them again, I suppose I would make the vegetable one, just knowing those latkes might be a little healthier since they have veggies in them. Or honestly, I would simply buy the cheapest mix...
*Note that none of the recipes tell you what heat your burner should be on (I set mine to medium heat), or how long you should cook each latke (the internet says 5 minutes per side, which seemed about right). In doing this research, I came across an awesome video to show you when a pan is hot enough for oil:
Who knew water could do that?!
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