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Schmaltz


porcupine

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Simple question: how do you render chicken fat?

I have a pot of stock going (backs, necks, feet, and legs).  After skimming the scum off I skimmed much of the fat off - but of course there's some water in it, and it isn't 100% scum-free.  What's the next step?  Can I make schmaltz from this?

Thanks.

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take skin and chop into pieces about 1" x 2" if you like big gribenes, 1/2 by 1 if smaller is your preference.  As in many things, size matters but some prefer smaller gribenes.

Take 2# skin and fat, 1/2 cup water and put in heavy pot in 250 oven and cook til the gribenes are crispy, stirring from time to time.  The fat should never bubble.  Adjust eat downward to prevent.  Some like to add some chopped onion.  At the end, take out, drain.  The fat is ready to cook with.

But the real point of htis exercise is the gribenes.  Put the gribenes on a paper towel and heat at 350 till they render out to crisp.  Eat the gribenes alone in the kitchen with salt, going Mwahhahahaha! Unless someone has been spectacularly nice to you.  If so, then share.

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Recently, I've read a few of the new/artisan deli cookbooks (Mile-End Cookbook and The New Artisan Jewish Deli) - think DGS Deli - and they not surprisingly with their back to the roots mentality advocate making schmaltz.  Their recipes start with solid chicken skin and fat cut off raw chicken per Dean's original post above.  I've never actually made schmaltz that seems to be the common method - rather than starting with separated liquid fat from stock or a roast.

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Where can I buy chicken skin? Recipes recommend removing skin from chickens you buy, but I prefer to cook chicken with the skin on. Recipes also suggest asking your butcher to save you some. I emailed Fields of Athenry but was told that they do not have extra skin, I assume because they use it in their chicken broth. Hankering for latkes fried in schmaltz.

BTW, Michael Ruhlman's book, Schmaltz, isn't available in Kindle format. He sells an iPad app, which I dowloaded. It crashes every time I try to open it. Grrrrr. Don't know how I will get a refund.

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You might try Wagshall's.  FWIW I did make schmaltz by heating the fat layer skimmed from a pot of stock until all the water was driven off.  I didn't have gribenes, of course, but I did end up with lovely, golden, chickeny fat for cooking.  Stashed some in the freezer and if it kept well, I'm making latkes for dinner tonight.

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Splendid Table article suggested to try a kosher butcher.  I called Shalom Market, in Wheaton, and they saved some for me.  When I picked it up, the man who got it for me, I think the manager, acted surprised that the butcher was giving it to me no charge and seemed to question him, so I wouldn't expect to get it no charge again, but who knows?

Far more than I was expecting, the pack was at least a food long, eight inches wide, and stacked high.  Since it was Sunday night (we also made a Penzey's run since we were sort of in the neighborhood) when we got home, split the pile in half and froze both.  Will make one batch Saturday, then use the gribenes for chopped chicken liver and the schmaltz for latkes.  Yeah, Hannukah is tomorrow, but we're not Jewish.  One of the guys who works with me is Jewish, when I told him of my projects he was horrified by the idea of all that artery-clogging fat.  I sent him some of the recent medical journal articls debunking the artery-clogging myth, but he continues to shake his head in horror.

I will bring him a latke anyway.  Bet he won't turn it down.

Yeah, when I first started eating saturated fat again, I was afraid that I was going to go to cardiovascular hell, but all my lipid markers improved.  Husband's, too.  Go figure.

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Old medical myths die hard.

When you make your chopped liver, you'd do well to saute the onion in chicken fat. The aroma of onions cooking in schmaltz is intoxicating, and it will make your chopped liver taste even better. Plus, you are making latkes? I hereby declare you and your husband are honorary Ashkenazim--Eastern European Jews, the people of the gribenes.

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Haven't made it yet but yesterday spent a long time researching recipes.  Came across one that looked interesting, did not use water but calls for pouring off the fat as soon as it renders, then browning just the skin and onions.

Many of the recipes don't call for using water, but the Ruhlman method does.  Now I am wondering, why water?  And would pouring off the fat early obviate whatever problem the water is meant to prevent.

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Using some water is a method designed to prevent the fat from burning before it has completely rendered. Lard is done that way, as well. When I made schmaltz the other day, I waited until all the fat was rendered out and the water had boiled off before adding the onion, because I didn't want the onion to overcook. The problem with draining off the fat before cooking the onion is that all of the schmaltz will not have the wonderful flavor of cooked onion. I had a hard time getting some of the gribenes as crispy as I wanted them to be, so I drained off the fat through a strainer, then I picked the larger cracklings out with a pair of tongs, layed them on a paper towel-covered plate and microwaved them like bacon until they were all good and crisp. The onions and cracklings stayed together, the perfectly clear, onion-flavored schmaltz was in a separate container. We've been eating some mighty tasty chopped liver for the past few days, made with the schmaltz/gribenes re-combined. And I added a tablespoon of schmaltz to the oil that I cooked latkes in yesterday, for a flavor boost.

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First attempt. Tried Ruhlman's method. Should have listened to Dean. Probably put in too much water. Forgot to chop up the skin before it started rendering. Took it out, chopped it up, put it back. Did it on single burner induction cooktop in a big cast iron chicken fryer. Probably added the onions too soon. Kept the temp at 210. Not much going on. Bumped to 250. Started having dark brown bits in with rawish skin, started to stick. Poured off schmaltz, about a cup of lovely gold fat with undercooked onion taste. Transferred skin and onion to Calphalon skillet on electric stovetop, put a chair next to the stove, stirred and watched it like a hawk. Eventually decided that there were always be undercooked bits if the rest of it wasn't going to be burned.

I could try crisping further in the oven, but afraid that paper towels will burn, and parchment paper won't absorb fat. At any rate, while I tasted enough that I don't want dinner, I am not having the mwahaha effect. Of course, I have no idea how they should taste. But I do have schmaltz.

Edit: son's girlfriend really likes the gribenes.

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