Potato Latkes Face-off: Grater vs. Food Processor

Eating latkes—aka potato pancakes—is the favorite part of Hanukkah for many people. But making them, oy vey (or not so much fun). While traditionalists love the taste of latkes made with a box grater, you can't beat a food processor for speed, ease, and safety—and no scraped knuckles.  Consumer Reports has tested both graters and food choppers and processors, so here's the news on whichever tool you choose.

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By hand

In our tests of kitchen gadgets, we found three that will help with the latkes. For peeling potatoes, we liked the Kyocera Perfect Peeler, $18, which has a comfortable handle and sharp ceramic blade that adjusts to left, right, and center positions. The blade is horizontal. If you prefer the more familiar vertical blade, opt for the Oxo Good Grips Serrated Peeler. It only costs $8.

On to the shredding. Oxo Good Grips also makes an $18 box grater that our testers found convenient. It has multiple grating surfaces, a soft grip, nonslip base, and an optional storage container with measurement markings. Do you add onions to your latkes? Then opt for the Cuisinart Mini Prep Plus DLC-2A, $40, a 3-cup chopper that combines very good value with solid performance.

By machine

The Breville BFP800XL/A, $400, aced our shredding and chopping tests, perfect if you shred half of the potatoes and then do a coarse puree on the other half with the metal blade. Plus its 16-cup capacity means plenty of latkes to go around. The Cusinart Elite Die-Cast, $300, also holds 16 cups and was very good at shredding in our tests.

A recipe for "Crispy Potato Latkes" by America's Test Kitchen recommends "shredding the potatoes on the large holes of a box grater" and adds if you decide to use a food processor, make sure to "cut the potatoes into 2-inch lengths so you're left with short shreds." And may we add, don't forget to pass the sour cream and applesauce.

—Celia Kuperszmid Lehrman