Most of us associate Hanukkah with latkes, but in many parts of the world the holiday is also celebrated with cheese. Before latkes, Jews in Southern Europe would prepare a Roman cheesecake known as savillum. Read on to find the story behind this tradition involving salty cheese cakes, and a recipe for savillum cheesecake with orange-scented honey!

Everyone knows — or at least every Jew knows — the story of Hanukkah’s origins, the story of how just a tiny amount of oil miraculously burned for eight days. And they know that, in the spirit of that story, Hanukkah is celebrated in part by eating foods fried in oil, such as latkes and doughnuts. But in much of the world, Hanukkah also is celebrated by eating salty cheeses. And for that, there is another and equally fascinating — though in the U.S. lesser known — story.

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Photo by Scott Merrill