[Sca-cooks] Schmaltz

[jenne at fiedlerfamily.net]

>  Chicken fat is just not as necessary for all-purpose cooking fat/bread
>spread since the invention of pareve margarine.  [Pareve = neutral for
>purposes of milk vs. meat meals.]  Between that and the modern medical
>knowlege that animal fats are bad for you, schmaltz' days were numbered.
>Let's face it, the traditional Ashkenazy diet has probably killed more
>Jews throughout the centuries than Hitler and Haman combined, and much
>more insidiously!

Through the centuries? That's a bit much. Animal fats in _excess
quantities_ are currently thought to be bad for one.  However, the
quanitities in which animal fats are currently available to the average
person in Western Civilization are far in excess of what they were even 75
years ago. Animal fats in extreme moderation are considered pretty useful
for the body, even by the most rabid of 'no modern people should ever eat
animal fats again' diet doctors.

Note that there are some contentions that margarine is actually worse for
you than butter-- which would explain why, to the bafflement of my doctor,
I don't have high cholesterol even though I use butter (in addition to
canola and olive oils) to cook with and am definitely quite fat. So
perhaps animal fats aren't killers for everyone.

-- Jadwiga Zajaczkowa
jenne at fiedlerfamily.net OR jenne at tulgey.browser.net OR jahb at lehigh.edu
	"Index your brain."