Chicken fat fries????????????

[hitnspit]

Ok people i have been processing poultry for people now a few months. I heard that a few people keep the fat and extra skin and cook it all down to render it to useable oil. I have keeped some fat from the customers that do not want it and tried it myself. Will be making fries with it soon. Now my Question is how many people really do this and is there a strong market for it......I did see were it sells for almost a $1 an OZ........jim

 

[heather112588]

i've never heard of that but interesting...let us know if they turn out

 

[Denninmi]

Oh, you're talking about "schmaltz" -- the Yiddish term for rendered chicken fat. I'm not Jewish, but I live in a community that is about 1/3rd Jewish, plus a lot of immigrants from Eastern Europe, so I'm pretty familiar with this and other food products from those cultures.

I've done this before, but because of concerns over cholesterol we don't eat in my house. Very easy to render it, just put the skins into a large kettle over low to medium heat, and let them render. They will bubble and pop at first, so be careful. As more of the water comes off as steam the popping will diminish. In the end, you should end up with clear, yellow oily fat and a lot of "cracklings" -- the crispy skin, much like fried pork rinds.

Its actually a great fat for frying or even to cook with as an ingredient, but most people now use vegetable oils for health reasons, although its kind of debatable whether or not this is for real, sometimes I think its just as healthy to eat the real thing, like real butter.

If you do a google search of "schmaltz" you'll find all kinds of websites about how to make it, how to use it, store it, purify it.

I don't know what kind of market there would be, or if you would need special equipment, licenses, or facilities to sell it.

 

[hitnspit]

Well the fries came out very nice. I had rendered the fat about a week ago and was able to try it today. All the fat is free to me seeing i do mobile proccesing for people. Most of my fat came from around the gizzard and clump of fat that suroud the gizzard. ....jim

 

[carrlr]

Not sure if there is a market for it or not. There is a place (Shaved Duck) in St. Louis that uses duck grease for their fries. I must say they are pretty tasty.

 

[ShadyHoller]

Denninmi got it right-on.

I would just add: schmaltz is delicious! It might not be as healthy as olive oil, but it turns out the margarine that everyone thought was a "health food" ended up being a hydrogenated heart attack.

We toss potatoes in schmaltz and broil them (essentially french fries) but we also mix it into venison sausage, because venison starts out so super-lean. Without a little extra fat, it's easy to dry it out when cooking. Schmaltz is really a hit with loose breakfast sausage. It's also an incredible shortening for baking - I snuck a couple of tablespoons of turkey schmaltz into a big batch of cornbread, and there were no leftovers!

In summary: don't throw that stuff away!

 

[yinepu]

When my mom was little they ate "goose grease" instead of butter.. she told me that one of their usual lunches for school was goose grease and sugar sandwiches..
You also have to take into consideration that she was born in 1927 to a farm family that had 13 kids... so no "fancy" peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for them!

 

[RoosterGeek]

I don't know about that, but I have talked to a few Chefs that say Duck grease drippings is absolutely amazing to cook with and sometimes pay a pretty penny if they can find it.

 

[jenny_kap]

Quote:
duck grease is a delicacy. they use it a lot in the french kitchen. the chicken fat i use it to vegetables soups, to add flavor and taste.

 

[booker81]

I like to cook down whole DP chickens sometimes, skin and all, and will make stock with them, and once it's done, I'll set all of the stock in the fridge in pitchers to let the fat float to the top. Once it's done settling, all the stock goes in 2 cup baggies, and the fat all goes into a tupperware container that stays in the fridge. I use the fat in place of butter for a lot of dishes that benefit from it's rich flavor - potatoes, cooked greens, etc. It's awesome stuff, and it will last a long time