How do you render chicken fat for cooking?

Question

Has anyone attempted to render chicken fat, also called schmaltz, as a form of cooking oil? How is it done?

Answer 1

Oh yeah, it's freaking amazing. Too bad it takes a bit of time to build this much skin cause where I live they don't sell just the skin.

Answer 2

It’s better to lay out the chicken skin flat because you can use it like bacon instead of chewing on a thick, wadded up piece.

Answer 3

One of my favorite fats to cook. I use the fat for pie crust for chicken pot pie

Answer 4

Austria here, if you want to make schnitzel fry it in schmalz

Answer 5

Duck fat is MY vibe

Answer 6

It’s actually used for hair styling

Answer 7

It’s not an alternative! Those are the 3 top oils/fats to use in a kitchen.

Answer 8

That crispy chicken skin after fat has been rendered is the best chip in the world.

Answer 9

The same with duck is a starter in France "Grattons de canard"

Answer 10

I'm more amazed at the etymology of the common word "Schmaltz"!

Answer 11

Yes, all the time. I prefer duck fat.

Answer 12

holy hell i need that

Answer 13

As a German. Schmalz is literally any high viscosity rendered animal fat. The correct spelling would omit the t. In other words, it's just Lard. Same as Speck isn't actual ham but technically only the fatty tissue. With Bauchspeck (Belly Speck) including some of the musculature.

Comments

Maybe you spell it that way in German, but it's not spelled that way in English.

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…it’s a German Word :D

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Yes, but it was borrowed via Yiddish most probably. Since chicken and goose fat is a staple of Ashkenazi Jewish cuisine, and not of the German one (Germans used to use lard way more than poultry fat as far as I know). Hence the "standard" American/British way of conveying the German/Yiddish "ts" sound - via "tz". Otherwise the temptation to pronounce the lone "z" in a regular English way.

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very well be but Schmalz is any type of high viscosity fat, be it chicken, pork, goose, or in early Germanic cuisine dog. And as a German, believe me we have been using all of that (except dogs) for literal millennia :D

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Schmaltz used to be the old German spelling. If you look at recipe books from the 1800s or early 1900s you’ll still find it spelled that way. The spelling has simply changed.

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I'm not contesting your history of the word "schmalz." I'm sure you are correct. But again, "schmaltz" comes to English primarily from Yiddish. It's a loanword from Yiddish. Which is why it has, in English, a different spelling and meaning.

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The expression probably comes from Yiddish because chicken fat is kosher.

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. The expression comes from the Middle High German word for “to melt” (smalz)

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. English has specific words for rendered beef fat ("tallow") and pork fat ("lard"). Having one for chicken fills an open lexical spot. But ultimately, the fact that in German schmalz means all rendered animal fat doesn't change the fact that, in English, the word's definition is limited to chicken. This sort of semantic shift is common in loanwords.

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This is the etymological source, since Yiddish is the Jewish variant of Middle High German. But the borrowing source in English is most probably Yiddish, not standard German.

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.-..because? English and german have been in contact quite a bit. We have been borrowing words off each other for centuries. Ingredients and recipes too.

Answer 14

How long does it keep for?

Answer 15

We cook with all fat in the Southern United States, and I've read a ton of a Taste of History.

Answer 16

*lowly and *slowly - don't be afraid of adverbs, you speak English, not USA English

Answer 17

Use seasoned crispy chicken skin on a BLT instead of bacon

Answer 18

I learned as a kid schmaltz meant goose fat, til it could be chicken fat too

Answer 19

Love, peace and chicken grease.

Answer 20

Thank you! What's the shelf/fridge life?