Latkes (LAHT-kez), potato pancakes, are a traditional Hanukkah food, but you needn't be celebrating the Jewish festival of lights (starts Dec. 5) to appreciate these crisp, golden cakes of shredded potato (and sometimes other things) fried in oil.

Oil and oily foods are part of the Hanukkah tradition because they symbolize a miracle at the Temple of Jerusalem. The Jews had just a day's worth of consecrated oil for the temple's eternal flame, yet the flame burned for eight days, the time needed to press and consecrate new oil. To represent that today, Jews often eat latkes (deep-fried potato pancakes) and jelly doughnuts (also traditionally deep-fried). It's easy to recognize a perfect latke. It's not so easy to make one.

"An excellent latke will be soft in the middle and crunchy around the edges," says Hunter Walker, assistant editor at www.Gridskipper.com, which offers a "Latkes of New York" guide to the city's best potato pancakes.

Walker says "the crisp factor" is the key to superb latkes. But there are many potential pitfalls on the road to latke greatness. Your potatoes could turn black. The latkes might fall apart while frying. They could come out greasy or soggy.

Here are five tips for achieving latke perfection, using whichever recipe you choose.

1. Discoloration. When peeled potatoes are exposed to air, "oxidation turns the potatoes gray," says Don Odiorne, vice president of food service at the Idaho Potato Commission.

So get everything else ready (line up your equipment and prep your other ingredients) before you start peeling, slicing and shredding the potatoes.

Onions can help block oxidation by coating some of the potato cells, Odiorne said. That's why some cooks alternate adding potatoes and onion to the mixture rather than doing all the potatoes first.

2. Demoisturize. "Potatoes are typically 80 percent water and 20 percent solids or starch," according to Odiorne.

To avoid soggy latkes, take the potato-onion mixture a handful at a time and literally squeeze the water out, the way you would wring out a wet washcloth. Sure, you could get fancy with a strainer and a cheesecloth. But squeezing them in your fist works just fine.

Then add the eggs, flour and salt.

3. Shape right. Use a large, long-handled oval metal spoon to shape your patties, cupping each patty with the top of your hand. They will have a slightly rounded dome.

Then gently slide the patty off the spoon into the pan of sizzling oil, and gently pat down with the back of the spoon to flatten the oval pancakes into circles. Each latke will be about the size of your palm.

Don't crowd them when frying. This cools the oil (resulting in oily latkes) and makes it hard to get the spatula in the pan.

4. Golden, not greasy. There's nothing more disgusting than a grease sponge pretending to be a latke. But if you cook them right, latkes come out golden-brown without being oily.

Before you put the patties in the pan, the oil should be hot enough so that a drop of water bounces or a shred of potato sizzles. If the oil is smoking, it's too hot.

Cooks differ on how much oil to use. Some say a few tablespoons; others say the oil should be 3/4-inch deep in the pan. If you use too little oil, the latkes will stick. Use too much and the latkes will soak up the oil.

There should be enough oil to reach the halfway point up the side of each latke — between 1/4-inch and 3/4-inch deep in the pan.

Opinions also vary on the type of oil. Odiorne says canola is a popular choice because of its heart-healthy properties. It also is less expensive than peanut or olive oil, and can handle higher temperatures than olive.

5. When to flip. Latkes need about 4 minutes per side (sometimes less on the second side). You'll see them browning at the edges and when the bottom crust is formed, the spatula should slide under them easily. If you peek and they're not golden, leave them another minute or two before flipping.

But keeping latkes crispy also depends on what happens after they leave the pan.

Set latkes on paper towels to drain the oil. But put a layer of newspaper underneath the paper towels, so the oil has somewhere to go when it seeps through the paper towel.

And if you're expecting a crowd for your Hanukkah party, you may not want to serve the latkes until you have a dozen or two ready, or until most of the guests arrive. But how do you make sure the early batches don't get cold and soggy?

Easy. After blotting the latkes on paper towels, transfer them to baking sheets in a 300-degree oven. The oven time will crisp the edges even more while keeping the insides soft and hot. And that's the ultimate in latke perfection.

Traditional accompaniments are sour cream and/or applesauce, but relishes, chutneys, even ketchup have been known to appear.