[Sca-cooks] schmaltz

[Terry Decker]

"Schmalz" is German for "cooking fat" or "lard."  "Schmaltz" is the Yiddish
form.  The differentiation between lard and chicken fat is religious, as you
surmise.  When you deal with older texts it can be a little tricky to
determine which is meant since the spelling was often phonetic.

Bear


>Ok, I guess it's been a while. So time for another Stefan question.
>
>
>What is "schmaltz"? I take it that it is a Jewish word (although it sounds
>German, Yiddish?) for rendered chicken fat? How is it used? To fry
>things in, like lard is? How does cooking in it compare to lard? Is it
>not more common because chickens don't have much fat or is there some
>other reason? I realize that the Jewish folks may simply accept any
>additional difficulties since they avoid the more common pork fat/lard.
>