Schmaltz and the Fat Substitution System
I
Origin
Kashrut (Jewish dietary law) prohibits the mixing of meat and dairy — a prohibition that had profound culinary consequences for Ashkenazi Jews, who could not use butter for cooking meat dishes. The solution: schmaltz — rendered chicken or goose fat, produced by slowly cooking chicken skin and fat until the fat renders out and the skin pieces (gribenes) become crispy. Schmaltz became the defining fat of Ashkenazi cooking and produced flavours that butter cooking could not have produced.
II
Description
Schmaltz production and its culinary applications.
III
The Thread
—Indian ghee (same rendered animal fat replacing butter for religious dietary reasons — the parallel is direct: both traditions prohibited certain fat-protein combinations for religious reasons and dev
IV
Flavour Context
Not yet written for this entry.
Pillars V — VII
The full training pages are part of membership.
Quality hierarchy, sensory tests, and where the dish lives or dies — on every entry in the Library.
Enter · from $49 a year