Schmaltz

When my dad talks about Schmaltz his eyes kind of glaze over and he gets this funny look like he's talking about a long lost love. What he's really talking about is rendered chicken fat. And the thing is, it's not just my wacky dad who feels adoration for the stuff most people throw out of their roast chicken. Anyone who grew up eating food cooked in schmaltz wishfully remembers the days before reduced sodium packaged turkey breasts and nonfat half & half (how is that even possible?) Arteries shmarteries; Pearl's Kitchen is committed to learning the art of using rendered chicken fat.

So I called Aunt Ethel, my grandfather's sister who's the last living relative of that generation from the Bronx side of my family. Not surprisingly she lives in Florida and was watching Turner Classic Movies when she answered the phone. So we talked schmaltz (and chicken liver and matzoh balls.) She wearily emphasized that once I cooked with schmaltz nothing would ever taste as good again. But she qualified that by saying that I must eat it in moderation, because of course, its bad for your arteries. She politely didn't focus on the fat ass ramification.

One of the biggest challenges for me has been finding enough chicken fat to render. I've called my meat market in the Mission who only carries rendered duck fat for $7/lb. I went into Whole Foods and they told me they absolutely do not carry rendered chicken or goose fat and there's no place in the city to get any. Yeah right. Whole Foods Shmole Foods.

Most whole chickens these days don't have much fat on them, but Aunt Ethel said you need to find an old chicken which she kept calling a fowl. Somehow I think they don't sell old chickens anymore.  I just found this blog which says you can use all the skin on the chicken to create your schmaltz. I had been under the impression you needed to get only the pure soft white pockets of fat you find. But naturally, when you fry chicken skin you're gonna get a lot of fat and so I'll definitely try it.

What I have right now is the fat scrapped off two batches of chicken soup that I recently made. This could be enough for a batch of matzoh balls. I also know that there's a guy at the Ferry Building Farmer's Market who makes schmaltz and sells it in quaint looking jars which probably cost like 20 bucks. And I called Israel Kosher Meats who also sells homemade schmaltz. But of course I called on Friday evening at 6pm and she sounded like she wanted to say...."Ummm hello, its Shabbot, this is a kosher freaking shop, I'm not supposed to answer the phone, who the hell are you to be looking for schmaltz, you shouldn't be on the phone either!" So maybe we'll pop over there on Sunday when they reopen.