Anybody who wants to make truly authentic Ashkenazi Jewish cuisine must first learn how to make schmaltz and gribenes. Schmaltz is rendered chicken fat, which is an important component of many traditional recipes. Sometimes referred to as “Jewish bacon,” gribenes are crispy, salty, sinfully delicious morsels, a byproduct of the fat rendering process.
To the modern health-conscious cook, schmaltz and gribenes might sound like a heart attack waiting to happen. Schmaltz is a high cholesterol fat, but it adds a very unique flavor to dishes that is unmatched by any other type of oil. While many people find gribenes delicious, others might consider them too strange or unhealthy to enjoy.
Take them or leave them, schmaltz and gribenes are quintessentially Jewish. Schmaltz in particular adds an authentic flavor to many Ashkenazi Jewish recipes, including matzo balls and chopped liver.
Though richly flavored, both schmaltz and gribenes were born of frugality. In Eastern European countries, chicken meat was an expensive treat. When a chicken was purchased from the butcher, every part of the bird was used. Schmaltz and gribenes are two creative ways of using parts of the chicken that might otherwise be thrown away.
Schmaltz is collected by slowly sautéing chicken skin and fat, then collecting the liquid fat that melts as it cooks. Most of the time onion is added to the mix, which flavors the schmaltz and makes the gribenes extra tasty.
As the schmaltz collects, the chicken skin, fat, and onion to produce a batch of crispy little gribenes. They can be snacked on as-is or added as a condiment to other dishes.
You might be wondering, “Where do I get a whole pound of chicken skin and fat?” Well, you can collect it from your everyday chicken recipes (store it in the freezer and thaw before using). You can try asking your butcher if they have any for sale. Or, you can buy a bunch of bone-in skin-on chicken thighs, which are the fattiest cut of the chicken. Remove the fat and skin, then reserve the thighs for another dish.
As for rendering the fat, I have outlined two easy methods below. You can also collect schmaltz by cooling chicken soup in the refrigerator, then skimming the solid fat that rises to the top.
If you’re a fan of schmaltz and gribenes, most likely you grew up on chopped liver. Check out my recipe here, which incorporates both schmaltz and gribenes in the mix.
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Schmaltz and Gribenes
Ingredients
- 1 pound chicken skin and fat, cut into narrow 1/2 inch pieces
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 medium onion, sliced into thin 1/4 inch pieces
NOTES
Instructions
Skillet Method
- Rinse the pound of chicken skin and fat, pat dry, then chop it into small 1/2 inch pieces.
- Toss the chicken skin pieces with 1 tsp kosher salt and 1/4 tsp black pepper. Place the skin and fat into a skillet on the stovetop (make sure it's cast iron or nonstick!) and turn heat to medium low. Cover the skillet and let it cook on medium low for about 15 minutes. Liquid fat will start to pool at the bottom of the skillet.
- Uncover the skillet and raise heat to medium. At this point you can add onion, which will give you an onion-flavored darker colored schmaltz, or you can render the fat without onion for a cleaner, purer fat with no onion essence. Most Jewish cooks prefer to render the fat with onion. Let the skin and fat cook for another 15-20 minutes, breaking the pieces apart with a spatula and stirring frequently, until the skin starts to brown and curl at the edges. At this point there should be quite a bit of liquid fat at the bottom of the pan—this liquid is your schmaltz.
- Remove pan from heat. Pour the schmaltz from the skillet into a container, using a mesh strainer to catch any small pieces of skin. A golden oil will result—this is called schmaltz. It can be used in a variety of Jewish dishes or as a cooking fat.
- If you cooked the onions as the fat rendered, your oil will be a darker golden color with an orange hue. The schmaltz will stay liquid at room temperature; it will become solid and opaque if you refrigerate it.
- If you cooked the skin and onion together, return to medium heat and continue cooking in the skillet until the skin is deeply golden, curled and crispy, and the onions are dark brown. Drain on a paper towel and serve.
- If you did not cook the onions with the skin, you can cook them after the schmaltz is collected. Return the cooked chicken skin and fat to the skillet.
- Turn heat to medium and sauté the mixture for about 20 minutes, stirring frequently. Don’t leave them alone for long or they’ll burn! Adjust heat lower as needed to keep from blackening too much.When pieces are dark brown and crispy, remove the gribenes from the skillet with a slotted spoon and drain them on a paper towel. They become crispier as they cool.
- Gribenes can be snacked on as-is or added to other dishes as a topping.
Baking Sheet Method
- Rinse the pound of chicken skin and fat, pat dry, then chop it into small 1/2 inch pieces.Cut your onions into slices, then cut slices into pieces around 1/4 inch long.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Toss the chicken skin and fat with 1 tsp kosher salt and 1/4 tsp black pepper, then spread it out into a single layer on an ungreased baking sheet.
- Place baking sheet in the oven and let it roast for 20 minutes, until the skin starts to turn golden and curl at the edges. Fat will have started collecting on the sheet.
- Add onions to the hot baking sheet, spreading them out evenly throughout the chicken skin.
- Return to oven and continue roasting for another 40-50 minutes until the skin is golden brown and crispy and the onions are dark brown. When stirring, make sure to move the pieces on the outside towards the center, and move the center pieces out towards the middle, so the pieces evenly brown.
- When the pieces become crispy, remove from the oven and let the tray cool down. Strain the fat from the tray through a mesh strainer into a collection container.
- The gribenes are delicious to snack on or used as a topping. The schmaltz should be saved and used in a variety of savory dishes. In will keep for several weeks in the refrigerator.
lene hartmann brodersen says
Thank you for your reply! Yes,it is funny how we use the same basic cooking techniques all over the world. In Denmark we love (some off us) duck Smaltz, but it is too fluid to spread at the open sandwiches so we have to mix it with fat from the pig and this is done every chrismas by old housewifes.
lene hartmann brodersen says
Hey Tori! I am an old Danish woman who has enjoyed all the writings above. Today I watched Nigella`s foodprogram at tv and wondered what is schmaltz and gribiness? Now I know and I can tell You, we do nearly the same in Denmark but use fat and skin from a pig. In Winter we eat roast pork where the skin is cut in ribs and everybody fight to get the crispy skin called flæskesvære. We melt fat with chopped onions, Thyme and minced skin and sometimes with an apple. The fat taste the best if we put fat from a duck in it. This must be our schmaltz. the minced skin is crispy and we use it on leverpaste, potato on open sandwiches. Its called fedtegrever.This must be gribiness. We do not eat these colesterol bombs daily even if it taste delicious. Funny that we do the same. I know I will like your food and understand that you cannot eat Pork. When I make chickensoup I later use the fat to make chinese dishes. Hope you understand my 50 years old school English. Love Lene
Tori Avey says
I understand perfectly Lene, thank you for sharing! I love hearing how different cultures approach the same basic cooking techniques. Duck schmaltz is super tasty!
Carl says
I remember eating gribenes at my great-grandmother’s house, it seems there were always some on Sabbath. I make them on very rare occasions due to having to keep my cholesterol down. Although I do keep schmaltz from my home made chicken soup. As an aside I have and use her Sabbath Candle sticks which were a wedding gift in 1905. I plan on giving them to my grand daughter so she will have her great-great-great grandmother’s Sabbath Candle sticks.
Tori Avey says
What a neat way to honor your family history Carl!
Rick says
I am not a member of the tribe nor, as an aging agnostic, am I ever likely to be. Schmaltz, however, has been on my round toit list for quite some time since it is on the paleo list of good fats. Your blog finally inspired me to break out all of the fat left over from making cat food and make some schmaltz. I’m glad to have it in the pantry but I suspect that it will never supplant bacon fat on my go to list.
Gribenes on the other hand!! There must be a law about anything that good.
Marty J says
I often think of how I ended up in the U.S. and the hardships endured by the ones who struggled to get us here. My mom would often reminice about the old country. Her pet chicken having to be eaten when food became scarce, starting to smoke cornsilk rolled by her brothers when she was 5 and hungry.Being sent to the SawMill when there were a few potatoes to feed her and her brothers. The mill operator was fond of this little girl and gave her as much of the fine sawdust she could carry home to be used as flour for verenikas. Times are hard for many these days and there is a lot of uncertainty and it`s easy to forget how lucky we are to have gotton here.Marty
Polina says
My background Eastern European and my babushka always used schmaltz in her chicken hazel (staff chicken skin,here you call it kishka,she staff it with matzo meal and schmaltz .Even mash potato and shmaltz
I remember black bread with shmaltss and bit of salt .Incredible taste
Kristie says
Thank you for sharing your wonderful recipes and ideas! And to all of the people who left comments, thanks to you as well. I learned much today, and look forward to trying my first taste of schmaltz and gribenes. I confess to being a Gentile, but hope I will be forgiven once I embrace additional traditions from my Jewish friends. Your traditions and celebrations are inspiring, and I have incorporated several into my own. Mazel tov!
Kelly says
Thank you so so much for a great technique! I had only vaguely remembered hearing about schmaltz (not being of Jewish decent) but as my husband and I have a small farm and raise our own chickens I just couldn’t stand the thought of throwing out all of the trimmings from the processing and wasteing any part of our animals after we’re worked so hard to raise them so I went in search of a recipe for schmaltz and your lovely site came up. I’ll definitely be having a dedicated fat bowl come next springs processing and look forward to trying some of the recipes mentioned. In the meantime I’ve the salvaged skin from tonight’s poached chicken bubbling away on the stove and it smells wonderful.
Jack E says
Candy:
After some research I found a Deli in SLC that may accommodate you…check out 9thsouthdeli.com…it’s not a Kosher Deli, but it is a Jewish deli…corned beef and pastrami, rye bread, and there is mention of schmaltz in their Matzoh Ball soup on the menu…you may be able to sweet talk the “moishe” behind the counter into selling you some schmaltz…of course, you could make your own also, just a little bit of work…but they do not have any smkoed fish (lox, nova, sable, chubs, etc) or bagels…I’m from the Philly/South Jersey area, and a deli is not a deli without those things, but after all, you are in SLC…if you must have KOSHER, it appears there is a Chabad related deli called “Kosher on the Go” @ 1575 South 1100 East in SLC…no rye bread, but Challah…they may be able to advise you where to go for some good deli as well…they do have lox and bagels. Happy hunting!
Candy Davila says
To the Shiksa-Put me on your mailing list! Yesterday! My dad brought my little farm Kansas girl mom to NYC where they lived in a predominantly Jewish neighborhood. When I was born, we were still there; now I live in SLC and can’t buy Jewish rye bread, challah, or schmaltz. Any ideas??
Elizabeth says
Sorry this reply is a little late, but Harmons grocery sells fresh baked challah bread. I think they make it on Fridays. I would call your closest store to double check.
Marty says
Candy, I`m a little late with my suggestion but in case the Shiksa hasn`t already helped you I`ll add my two cents. I didn`t taste store bought challah for all the years Grandma Shandel lived and spoiled us with her Iron Chef talent. No I can`t give you her recipe since she couldn`t write. My mom asked for her to tell her the recipe. hearing mom tell a friend one day she wrote Grams recipe down I asked her to find it and give it to me. Every one was pretty much the same. an example…..Take some flour and add a bissel… She never used a recipe since after 60 years and perhaps thousands of challahs it was automatic up until the last year of her life. She never made rye bread or bagels but considered challah easy to make. My first stop would be The Shiksa site and, or, google, asking perhaps for prize winning challah recipes. As a last resort drive to a synagogue and ask the Rabbi or better yet his wife for suggestions. marty
Ivy says
My post is even older than Elizabeth & Marty’s, but I just found this site. Candy, if you haven’t yet found this restaurant, it Feldman’s Deli at 2005 East 2700 South, Salt Lake City, UT 84109 (801) 906-0369. He and his family came to Utah for the 2002 Winter Olympics and stayed and then opened the restaurant. Flies in the meats from NY, but get the breads from local bakeries. Hope you enjoy.
Jim Lyle says
You can freeze schmaltz! Frozen, it will keep for up to a year. I like to add a little garlic with the onions…
Alan Eisenberg says
I’m 65 and have been eating this since my eyes open.One can’t make good chopped liver without schmaltz and the grib(v)eners chopped fine and added and that blessed onion.Also on a slice of Jewish rye bread from the homeland, Brooklyn,NY–toasted with schmaltz-ahhhhhhhh
Linda says
Nothing better that potatoes fried in schmaltz. I am not Jewish and could not figure out why the home fries at this one restaurant was so good.. I had to ask and they said “schmaltz” I said what is that.. and they told me. I now save it off the stock that i make. So good! And a little will not hurt you.. Moderation!
LAURIE COWALL says
PLS ADD ME TO YOUR E MAIL LIST
Tori Avey says
I have added you Laurie. Thanks for subscribing!
ricky ross says
Oh and I have plenty of pictures of the process if you’d like to see em, thanks again.
ricky ross says
Just made the gribenes and it turned out great, I think so anyway. I have a friend at a local high grade butcher shop and he saved me the skin and fat. I took longer than the 15-20 mins to brown them after I drained the schmaltz, about 30 mins total, just saying, don’t be discouraged if they’re not brown after the 15-20, just stick with em and they’ll get there, remember, anyone can tell you that the timer is beeping, but only experience and dedication will tell you when its done right. Thanks for this recipe, the chopped chicken livers recipe is next, obvi. Betayavon.
Rebecca C says
I came across your recipe. I have wanted to find some way to use the chicken fat and skin from the whole chickens I buy (it’s just less expensive to cut it yourself). I just finished this and am excited to use the fat in cooking, maybe in beans or potatoes, or maybe I can find some fun recipes on your site. The gribenes, I just tried, and they were great. Also my toddler loved trying them too. Maybe I can throw them on a green salad like bacon bits? Thanks for the ideas and I enjoyed the comments too.
Mark State says
Do you pronounce this gry-“beans”, or more like the Italian ending gry-“benais” (as in bene! bene! [good, good])?
heh, heh, heh.
Really, shouldn’t there be at least a double ‘s’ on it? When I was a kid growing up, we pronounced all the ‘e’s as ‘i’s. Well, that’s just an accident of a difference in accent. But the double ‘s’ really does need to be there for folks who didn’t grow up eating this kind of stuff, don’cha think? For easy pronunciation’s sake?
I’m making a pile of gribiness for a whole bunch of Caribbean folks tomorrow out of the chicken skin they ordinarily throw away (!) when making jerk. They also throw away the lungs (I think they’re lungs, at least) of the chicken we used to call “a gutte zoch” (a good thing)! They’re still my favourite part of the chicken. Meanwhile, my band mates’ve tried to shock me with things like chicken feet soup, and can’t believe I grew up on the stuff! My sister used to chase me around the kitchen while working the tendon to make the feet claw in and out. Turns out that same thing was going on in kitchens with kids all over the Caribbean (now I think about it, probably all over the world). They can’t believe anyone would eat what I explained to them was gribiness and useful schmaltz; but many of them can’t wait to try it at our steel band party in Oakville Ontario tomorrow.
Thanks for your recipe. I’m using it. Now…where are those scissors…
ursula says
i grew up in germany and id trade my grandmother for a piece of black bread with goose schmalz!
Tori Avey says
Ooooh, black bread sounds amazing! I might have to cover this in a future blog… great idea Ursula! 😉
Jack says
Tori…I am loving this site & blog…My dad’s mother from Lithuania always made gribenes after the schmaltz process…we would eat it on bread shmeared with the schmaltz…it’s a wonder I’m still alive…she was a sweet woman (grandmother) but spoke not one word of English…still, she would “schtupp” me with yummy goodness every time I saw her…to this day, nobody’s food tastes like hers…I guess it’s hard to reproduce “granma’s food”, no matter how hard you try or how kosher the ingredients…I remember her picking out live fish from a barrel at her fishmonger in Philly, then clubbing them with a stick and bringing them home to make her own gefilte fish…OMG, so good! She also used to make some sort of baked fish, that was a little sweet and may have had some cinnamon and other spices…I sure would like to know what that was and try to duplicate…it was awesome…too bad there’s no one left in my family to ask, so I’ll throw it out here on the blog and see if anybody knows!!! Everytime I think of her (she passed in the early 70’s), all I can hear is “Jakeleh…esse gezundteheidt”…damn I miss her!!!
Tori Avey says
Wow, Jack, what a great post! I’m so happy the blog is bringing back some happy family food memories for you. It’s as if your grandma is in the room, the way you describe her… I can just imagine her with the fishmonger. Talk about fresh gefilte fish! I don’t know the particular cinnamon fish dish you’re talking about, but I do have some Jewish friends with a Lithuanian background that I can ask about it. If I find out the recipe I will definitely let you know! (Alas, I can’t promise it will ever taste as good as when grandma made it…) 😉