[Sca-cooks] schmaltz

[Seton1355 at aol.com]

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Schmaltz is rendered chicken fat. It is a Yiddish word. It is used as a
flesheig (meat) fat source. I guess like one would use lard.... but I'm not
quite sure how one would use lard. Yes, you fry things in schmaltz. My
grandfather, in the Old Country, would put some on bread for his lunch on
Fridays when his mom didn't want anyone under foot while she was preparing
the Sabbath.  How does it compare to cooking with lard? Not a clue, you'd
have to ask someone else.

It was totally common to use as a fat for meat dishes up until the end of the
1960s (at least in my neck of the woods -Philadelphia). Then people became
more health concious and turned to healthier alternatives.  The Jewish
*balabusta* would render all the fat from the chickens (and there was always
plenty) every Friday when she made the Sabbath dinner.  (She would also make
*gribnis* from the skin.)   All this fell out of favor, as I say by the end
of the 1960s.
Phillipa

> 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