Schmaltz
Gallus gallus domesticus (rendered chicken fat) · Meat
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Schmaltz is rendered poultry fat — most often chicken, sometimes goose — melted down slowly, usually with sliced onion, and strained to a clear golden cooking fat. The defining cooking fat of Ashkenazi Jewish kitchens, it is spread on bread, stirred into chopped liver, folded into matzo balls and used to fry and enrich a whole tradition of Central and Eastern European Jewish food.
Picking a good onedrag
Clear gold, sweet-oniony, a dry jarRancid: painty, or mould-spotted
Sealed or in useEveryday bestStrained clear it is near-pure fat, with no water for bacteria. Fat still standing on onion and solids is not that: strain it, keep it cold.
Colour of the set fatDeeper amber-gold: goose fat, or a longer onion render
How it sets in the jarFirm from the fridge, still smooth and even throughout
Melted, held to the lightClear, with fine browned specks of onion and skin below
Smell at the jarMilder and flatter, still clean, nothing sharp