fat fat wonderful fat

[coraa]

Watching the Food Network -- a kosher cook just called schmaltz (rendered chicken fat, used frequently in kosher cooking) "Jewish truffle oil."

Having tried and used schmaltz -- and loving it so much that I now save scraps of chicken skin and fat to render down -- I have to concur. It's as rich and wonderful as truffle oil -- not the same, but as good -- at a tiny fraction the price.

(Yes, it's a saturated fat. But a little bit of wonderful is better than a lot of bland -- and a little bit of good animal fat goes a long way. I also use homemade tallow to make french fries, and homemade lard in biscuits. I just don't eat them all the time.

I would provide my method for rendering fat, but I'm not sure that's the kind of thing most of you would be interested in. But let me know if it is.)

Comments

[erik]

..And bacon fat is schmaltz with a southern accent.

A while ago I bought a pound of bacon that (upon frying a few strips for breakfast) I didn't much care for. So it sat in the fridge getting old for a while. This afternoon I fried it all up; I'll use the bacon itself for crumbling up in things like salads and carbonara. But the reason I cooked it up instead of just pitching it was to get the bacon fat.

I would be happy to learn your method for rendering fat.

[coraa]

Oooh, yes, bacon fat! I have a little jar of the stuff in the fridge (I pour off the fat whenever I make bacon), and it's amazingly good for things like spinach salad or sweating the onions for chowder. Yum yum yum.

[erik]

(Ironically, I keep my bacon fat in a little jar that originally held gefilte fish)

[coraa]

Ha! That's pretty funny.

(I don't think I've had gefilte fish, but I adore pickled herring. Yay, preserved fish....)

[skywardprodigal]

How do you render fat?

[theinated.livejournal.com]

natural saturated fats when eaten in sensible amounts will do you no harm.

artificial trans fats will do you loads of harm.

yeah. i'm with ya here.

[sithjawa.livejournal.com]

I'm the kind of person who would likely be absolutely fascinated by learning about rendering fat. :)

The captcha would like to inform us: "Lark-like stout."

[canis-ridens.livejournal.com]

I would provide my method for rendering fat, but I'm not sure that's the kind of thing most of you would be interested in.

Yes it is!

[thegreatgonz.livejournal.com]

I can't hear the word schmaltz anymore without thinking of The Fifth Elephant.