08/22/2026
Potato pancakes. The secret is the wringing to remove moisture.
Potato pancakes in Wisconsin are a German thing, a Polish thing and a Jewish thing all at once, and which name people use depends entirely on whose kitchen the recipe came from.
The German version is kartoffelpuffer, brought over by the immigrants who filled Milwaukee and the eastern counties in the 1800s. The Polish version is placki ziemniaczane, which came with the families who settled the south side of Milwaukee and the mill towns. The Jewish version is latkes, tied to Hanukkah and fried in oil for reasons that go back to the holiday itself. All three are essentially the same object.
The method does not vary much. Grate raw potatoes, grate an onion in with them, wring out as much liquid as you possibly can, then bind with egg and a little flour or matzo meal. Season with salt and pepper. Fry in a hot pan with enough fat that the edges go dark and lacy.
The wringing is the step people skip and then wonder why their pancakes fell apart. Old cooks put the shreds in a dish towel and twist until their forearms burn. Some let the drained liquid settle and scrape the potato starch off the bottom to add back in.
The topping question splits rooms. Applesauce or sour cream, and there are people who will do both on the same plate while others consider that a failure of conviction. German households in Wisconsin tend toward applesauce. Some families serve them alongside sausage or pork roast as a side rather than a dish of their own.
You find them at Milwaukee's ethnic festivals, at supper clubs, at church fish fries where somebody decided to expand the menu, and at Mader's and the other old German restaurants downtown.
But mostly they show up at home, in December, in a kitchen where the windows are fogged over and somebody has been standing at the stove for forty minutes making batch after batch while everyone else eats them straight out of the pan before they reach the table.
