Which came first, the gribenes or the schmaltz?

Many an attempt has been made to elevate some of the peasant fare we Jews call food to the level of haute cuisine.  I've personally heard some of my more uppity suburban friends trying to pass off chopped liver as pâté... kreplach as gnocchi... and mandelbread as biscotti.  But there are certain things that absolutely defy all efforts at gastronomic gentrification.  Among them are two lowly (and related) delicacies; gribenes and schmaltz.

Gribenes, which I'm told means 'scraps' in Yiddish, is simply fried chicken skin.  This is the Jewish equivalent (l'havdil) of that redneck staple; fried pork rinds. 

Gribenes is a crispy, salty treat that is prepared by simply taking the scraps of chicken skin that the butcher trims off when cutting up your whole fresh chicken (or when preparing chicken breasts for schnitzel), and cooking them up in a frying pan.  I usually call ahead and ask the butcher to start putting aside the chicken skin scraps for me since the few pieces from the one or two chickens I buy each week will not be nearly enough for a batch of gribenes.

Schmaltz, or chicken fat, is actually a byproduct of preparing gribenes.  You see, as you slowly heat the chicken skin in a nice big skillet, the schmaltz is released and begins to fill the pan.  The more hot schmaltz fills the pan, the faster the scraps of chicken skin turn into golden brown gribenes!

Late in the process some people like to toss in some onion and a pinch of salt.  I forgo the onion.

Once the gribenes is a deep golden brown, you fish it out of the hot schmaltz with a slotted spoon and place it on a dish that has been lined with a couple of paper towels.  Once all of the gribenes is on the plate, another couple of paper towels are placed on top and any excess schmaltz is blotted away.

In this day of 'lite' cooking, schmaltz has all but disappeared from the Jewish kitchen... but I always keep some on hand.  After the last of the gribenes has been removed from the skillet, I let the schmaltz cool a little bit and then pour it into a container that lives on the freezer door.  When the schmaltz freezes it turns a pure white and can be neatly spooned out whenever needed.

Now as a responsible host, I think a couple of warnings might be appropriate at this point:

First of all, while gribenes is a delicious treat, it is just that; a treat.  It is truly one of the most unhealthy snacks imaginable if consumed in large quantities or with any kind of regularity.  I cook up a batch maybe twice a year when my schmaltz supply runs low.  When I do, each member of the family gets a small handful of crispy gribenes to munch... and that's it until next time.  If you make a habit of eating these things you're likely to end up with a comma in your cholesterol count!  No joke!

Same goes for schmaltz.  Gone are the days when this delicious condiment was shmeared thickly on a thick deli sandwich (yes, my 'standing order' at Shmulke Bernstein's on Essex Street was Roast beef and chopped liver on club with onion, tomato, lettuce... with extra schmaltz!). 

Schmaltz should be used very sparingly as a soup-starter... to add flavor to couscous or rice... to enhance chopped liver... or to grease the skillet before frying up some onions or a batch of salami and eggs.  A tiny amount of schmaltz goes a very long way.

I've gotten to the age where I have to watch my cholesterol (my LDL is borderline, but luckily my HDL is in exceptionally good shape), so I indulge much less frequently than I used to.  But as much as we use a lot of the healthier oils in our day-to-day cooking, I honestly can't imagine a Jewish kitchen without schmaltz... or without the occasional treat of gribenes from which it was created.