Photo: Ditte Isager
Hanukkah is the festival of lights, and of indulging in crispy, golden, delicious fried foods. Latkes and jelly doughnuts are the perennial classics, but with deep-fried favorites like fried chicken, French fries, falafel, elephant ears, samosas, apple fritters, empanadas, corn dogs, fish and chips, fried cheese, chicken fried steak, beignets, potato chips, and tempura, the oil-cooked options are almost endless. But, we want you to tell us:
What’s your favorite fried food?
Photo: Krek Holy/Getty Images
What’s more American than fried foods and fairs? With summer just around the corner — and outdoor carnivals popping up around the nation — we’re taking a look at the history of a mandatory carnival must-have: hot and crispy funnel cakes.
Despite debate on the true origin of funnel cakes, it is popularly believed that these crispy-fried confections were created by the Pennsylvania Dutch, a group of German immigrants who landed in Pennsylvania before the 19th century. (The first ever recipe resembling a funnel cake showed up in a German cookbook in 1879.)
The name “funnel cake” was derived from the method of squeezing batter through a funnel in a circular pattern into hot oil to achieve a dizzying pattern of crispy-fried dough. The oldest recipe for a funnel cake in an English cookbook appeared in 1935, which instructed the cook to turn “the stream around in a gradual enlarging circle” and “serve hot with any tart jelly.” Continue reading
