Personally I cooked on electric for years and was so excited when we moved to this house where I now have a gas stove. I hope and pray I never have to go back to electric, at least for the stovetop. So that would be my vote unless it would set off your Dad too bad.

I've always preferred gas. We went halves with the landlord installing a gas stove to replace the seriously crummy electric one in one of the first houses we lived in, and when we bought this house one of the first things we did was to replace the electric stove with a gas one.

Would a portable induction burner help? Maybe someone who has one can chime in on whether or not their cooking pattern is steady. Here is a recent article about single portable induction burners. The one deemed “best” by Wirecutter is $70.

Portable induction units cycle on and off as well. One minute my porridge/pasta etc is bubbling, the next it's still.

:-/ Well, so much for that idea! Thanks for the info @Jasdip

What about an old school electric fry pan?

I have an electric frying pan. It would be the same issue - pulsing on and off to maintain the temperature.

I seldom fry anything but when I do, I use the burner on our gas grill (outside).

Pancakes fry fine on my glass top (electric) stove. The pan is important, I have a cast iron griddle that holds the heat well enough.

I've fried hundreds of latkes in both cast iron and stainless clad on old style ring induction. There are hot spots, but there are with gas too. The problem with portable induction isn't pulsing, it's a lack of power.

I've recently pan fried in cheap new cast iron on old fashioned electric coil and it was fine.

My mother used an electric skillet decades ago for pancakes, fried chicken, etc., and it worked fine.

There are new, electronic appliances that have fry settings using pan temperature sensors, but you don't need that. Get a candy thermometer and clip it to your pan. Adapt to your stove and you can fry. It's a stove. So long as the oil gets to 375° F, you can fry.

Dcarch, I don't disagree. I'm just saying that a cast iron frying pan will fry just fine on any surface. The thing about cast iron is that it's slow to change temperatures. I've fried on old fashioned electric, and it worked just fine. Just pay attention to the temperature of the oil (I just hold my hand over it) and how brown the food is getting on the bottom.

About $20. Cook outside and the ventilation is free. I use mine frequently.

Having and keeping a completely flat pan is key to good frying on ceramic cooktops. Over time and my carelessness, good pans warp but cast iron is reliable.

I learned as a child to fry chicken in an electric skillet to perfection but these days, like foas, I prefer frying outside

I have a small induction burner that I use specifically for frying. I use a cast iron pan or a cast steel pan. I am able to plug it into an outdoor outlet and take all the grease and smell outside (We live in California). The pulsing on and off doesn't seem to affect the frying process. I have the one recommended by Wirecutter.

By the way, how do you make those star-shaped Latkes?

I was going to suggest the same thing as foodonastump. If you don't fry very often, why bother with the expense of changing to gas? Also, cleaning up gas is a pain after induction. Mine doesn't pulse noticeably. Are you sure yours is working as it should?

All these years, I’ve thought I was so clever doing my frying outdoors, either using my electric skillet or the side burner on the grill. Seems like I’m just another in a very large group!

Perhaps a topic for another thread and/or forum but I’d carefully consider ROI for swapping over to gas. I know nothing about your house or your market, but if that kitchen is ready for a remodel then someone might not want to pay for your upgrade. The exterior penetration might even be a drawback if they want to reconfigure. Knowing gas is available could be all they need.

Or, convert to gas before new gas hookups are banned.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jul/23/berkeley-natural-gas-ban-environment

(That was a joke.)

(Sort of.)

There's already a gas line there. The big issue is installing the vent to the outdoors. I would really like a nice outdoor kitchen vent anyway, but it will be quite the project to install. Not much of an issue for my husband, who does that kind of thing for a living. But my Dad might freak. He is paranoid about holes in roofs leaking. Hubs say, "They don't leak if you do them properly." Also if they leak, hubs can fix. He's a great leak fixer, although he hates doing it. But he's great at getting to the bottom of leaks, not just temp. patching them.

I completely forgot that I have a small butane burner like FOAS posted! Got it at a restaurant supply store for just this type of application. I forgot about it because I mostly use it for car camping and have it out in the garage. I can use that out on the porch or in the kitchen with the windows open. Really would like to delay gas installation. We might get to it, but there are some other smaller projects I'd like to do first. Maybe will wait until next fall to decide. Not sure if we are staying in the house. We'd like to move, but aren't ready yet.

I probably need a better frying pan too. I wanted to do a lot of the pancakes at a time so as not to be stuck in the kitchen, but that's probably why the latkes cooked unevenly, the pan bottom was larger than the burner. Same thing happens when I try to do a lot of pancakes. I have a cast iron pan that fits the burner, but my biggest burner isn't very big. I have the same issue when canning, takes forever to boil the water in a traditional sized canning pot. I now have a smaller one of those though, since I don't can big batches anyway. I have been toying with getting an induction hot plate, but lack counter and storage space right now for it, which is why I have put it off. I haven't canned much the past couple of years, which is why I put it out of my mind.

Anyway, I think for now, that butane burner is going to be the perfect thing to tide me over.

"I can't fry"...

...yes you can. : )

Probably should try a new recipe for starters.

Use your heaviest bottomed pan that has a flat bottom. like an enameled cast iron. Heat low and slow, then bring your oil up to temp on medium heat. Patience.

365º-370º oil temp. Or toss in a popcorn kernel. When it pops oil is ready. (or just drop in a bit of potato)

Make them smaller and just three. Place one into pan, wait 15-20 seconds, another, then the third....when the first one comes out, another goes in, re-peat. Your oil will not have a chance to cool down by putting too many in all at once.

For just the two of us I use my 8inch dutch.

I use my neighbors recipe. With my twist that suits us. I'll write it down when I make them sometime this week. 6 to one. Potato to shallot/scallion, one egg, matzo flour.

This recipe is similar in method. linky HERE

(I've never made that many and use less egg)

Finding the propane burner should help but I've used so many stoves over the years...dislike so many but all can work for the most part.

I'm happy with my recipe, (if it's good enough for Jenny Grossinger it's good enough for me!) just not happy with the uneven cooking. I may try the parboiling method for the potatoes before grating, and also I didn't drain the potatoes and I used white ones instead of russets. But really, my latkes were delish, just unevenly fried and greasier than I would have liked. Next batch I'm going to make with russets, try parboiling and use the butane burner. I don't know if draining is as necessary with russets . . .

The big cure for the unevenness is a heavier, less conductive pan.

You're 100% right about the too big pan. You can't force this. Match the pan to your burner size and it will heat and stay hot much more evenly. Bigger will work for a stew, but not for pancakes! You said you had a cast iron that fit the butane burner, right? Perfect!

Remember that every time you add cool latke mix, it cools down your oil. I make up for this by forming each one and then dropping it into the oil. That way the temperature has a short time to recover while I form the next one. It's important to remember which one is which. I mark my start in relation to the pan handle and work clockwise, always, so it's easy to know. It's also important to pause between turnings to make up for the different timing on each latke. I get impatient. ;)

Temperature is the last issue. If you use cast iron it needs to be pre-heated, but the pan and the oil. It'll feel hot before it's stable hot. It'll look fine, with the cooking and the bubbling and all, but another fifteen minutes before you start will give you a much more stable temperature as the latkes go in and out. Don't wait to be low on oil to add more. It's better to add a little oil sooner. Then you only have to wait a minute or so for the oil to return to temperature.

As to the amount of time involved, it is what it is. Trying to rush it just wastes more time in the long run. I have an oversized induction double ring that fits my big frying pan, and a regular ring that fits my next size down, and use both. The smaller pan fits four. The larger one fits five. Better to have the pan that fits the burner than that one more latke per batch!

Go for it!

Hanukkah sameach!

Yes, and why I go for three at a time only making a dozen for the two of us. I find it quicker to keep up with it rather than one batch at a time, drain, then another...similar to my summer corn cakes. 12 small ones cook more even. 3 at a time. Smaller pan.

I've only made small latke appetizers 18-36ish a few times.

The link I posted has over a hundred different recipes. My neighbor uses the short boil and cold water method then oven half bake. But she makes a few hundred. They fridge and freeze great.

My favorite NYC place does it that way as well.

I should point out that my neighbor keeps a kosher kitchen and 50% of my county just north of NYC is orthodox. As well as most of my close neighbors.

My all time favorite recipe is Andrew Zimmern Killer Potato Latkes, which uses yukon gold mashed potatoes and russet grated potatoes, half pureed with the onion, half as whole gratings.

The recipe doesn't really matter, however, so long as it has potatoes, onions, seasoning and eggs. If the potatoes aren't really starchy, it helps to have some flour/matzah meal/starch as paste to help they eggs (glue) hold everything together.

Keeping kosher doesn't help the latkes either, nor does level of religious observance improve the quality of the cooking (though Orthodox are culturally more likely to cook at all than the Manhattan Jewish lady whose culinary specialty is "reservations").

Sleevendog, I believe that your latkes are great because you are a good and discerning cook!

And L, I think if you apply some self knowledge, like that you don't really like cooking, that you try to rush things and find shortcuts, and that you can get sidetracked, and apply them to a latke improvement project where you try to have fun--sing the song about Mrs. Macabeas--and take your time to do it right, and pay attention to each latke rather than leaving them to their own devices, that you, too, can make good latkes. They're easy and forgiving if you give them a chance!

We bought a gas 4 burner table top griddle like this one to use at the lake. It does a great job frying pretty much anything and can make 15-20 pancakes at a time depending on size. The price is under $300 if you include the propane tank.

Mine actually are not that great, but good. My neighbors are so good I eat cold the first couple then just heat the rest in the oven.

Last year I was smitten with some vegetable additions like golden beet, parsnip, celery root, radish...less potato but the potato was undercooked in the center. I know now what should work.