Here’s a question from Ann:

I found a recipe that was my Mother’s and it calls for Chicken Fat. Can you purchase it in a grocery store and if so in what section would I begin to look. Thanks so much–Ann

Affectionately called “schmaltz,” chicken fat is a traditional ingredient in many savory, ethnic Jewish dishes and is often used as the fat of choice in meat dishes since it’s a no-no in Kosher cooking to mix milk products (like butter) in a meal that contains meat. Having said this, you certainly don’t need to be kosher, or even Jewish, to love the flavor that chicken fat gives to food. You might be able to buy rendered chicken fat from a very well stocked supermarket (in the refrigerated or frozen section) but you’d definitely be able to get it at a butcher shop. Sold in tubs, rendered fat means you get pure melted down chicken fat that’s had any bits of meat or skin removed. Although the plain rendered fat is fine to be used “as is,” I always flavor the fat with onions which elevates the taste immensely. To do this, melt a couple of tubs of the chilled fat down again in an uncovered skillet and, when liquefied, (it will have congealed to a firm, chilled butter-like consistency once refrigerated), add a cup or two of minced yellow onion. Continue to cook the fat with the onions, over low heat, still uncovered, until the onions have turned golden brown and your home smells like you never want to leave (ever!)–no joke, the aroma is that good.

Then, allow the fat to cool to just warm with the onions and strain through a fine-mesh sieve into a plastic tub and attach the lid. This can be frozen for many months. To use, just chip off a frozen piece, melt it down and stick the rest back in the freezer.

Now, if you can’t find chicken fat already rendered, each time you work with a whole chicken, pull off any wads of fat and cut off lose pieces of skin from the cavity opening and snip both into small pieces, using kitchen scissors. Then put these in a small, doubled freezer bag and freeze, continually adding to your stash until you have two cups or more. Then, melt the fat and skin, with the onions and follow the same instructions given above. When you do things this way (the second way) you will not only have wonderfully flavored chicken fat to use in your ethnic dishes but you will also get the prized pieces of crisp skin, called “gribenes.” These can be added to omelets, kneaded into bread, or simply popped into your mouth.

Hope this helps! Here’s a printable recipe for Rendered Chicken Fat. And, once you make up a batch, if you like chicken soup, why not try my delicious recipe for Matzo Balls.

Tags: chicken fat, chopped chicken liver, ethnic cooking, Jewish cooking

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Hi Lauren:

I bought a 3 1/2 lb bottom round for pot roast. I seared all sides then put it in a stainless steel heavy pot with carrots, celery, onion and aromatics plus I added water about half way and cooked very gently on low for 3 hours and its still not done!!! That was last night.

This morning I took it out of the frig and slowly brought it back to a simmer for another 2 hours and its still tough. HELP
Hope all is well with you and yours……Arlene

Hi, Arlene. So good to hear from you! So sorry, though, that your pot roast stayed tough. There are several reasons why this could have happened even after so much cooking. First, your choice of a rump roast could be a factor since cuts from the hind quarter are very muscular and, since muscles are the most resistant to breaking, this cut is quite stubborn when it comes to becoming tender. Muscular cuts are also leaner than those less used by the animal and have less connective tissue which is what’s prized in meats to be slow-braised. Connective tissue (which starts out as sinew, gristle, tendons and ligaments) are most abundant in cuts like brisket and chuck (not rump) and it’s the connective tissue that, when it reaches a temp. of 150F just begins to dissolve into gelatin and it’s THIS that helps to create the succulence you’re after. At that point, with continued very gentle “wet” cooking (and with a lid that is very secure) the meat will be on its way to becoming tender (160F is when succulence really starts to happen). Rump will work, eventually, if the meat itself was from a “good specimen.” Often, although a carcass is labeled “choice” or even “prime” by the USDA, this is not always indicative of a particular slab of meat since often the animal is judged in it’s entirety without having it’s individual parts inspected for quality.

Then there’s the slicing… which MUST be done against the grain across the lines of connection within the meat) or your slices will literally fall apart into a stringy mess! When it’s rump, you need to slice the meat very thin in order to not feel the “chew.”

What I always do when making a brisket (which I suggest you do with your rump roast) is to, after it’s initial cooking, let the meat cool to just warm in the sauce, then slice and lay the slices in a baking dish surrounded by the sauce. Then reheat this at 350F until piping hot which will give the individual slices more direct exposure to wet heat. This should help.

So, my suggestion is to, next time, purchase a brisket or chuck roast (for it’s abundance of connective tissue). After cooking, allow the meat plenty of resting time in the hot sauce since this will also allow the meat to continue cooking as it settles down. Slice the meat thin (you can slice brisket thicker, which I personally like) and reheat the slices in the sauce (which actually becomes a timing bonus since you can cook the meat a day or two ahead, leave it sliced in the sauce in the fridge and then bring it close to room temp and reheat fully.

I hope this helps!
LG

Tags: braising, brisket, choosing meat, chuck roast, cooking tough meat, rump roast

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Listen, I know the economy stinks but picking up “free” wild chestnuts and giving them out as edible gifts is NOT a good idea! Seriously, a few days ago a friend of mine, living in California, emailed me in the middle of the night (4:08 am, to be exact) to ask for my help, stating in the subject line “URGENT!” This is what the email said:

Dear Lauren,

I was horrified to just hear from a dear friend of mine out here that the chestnuts we gave them – found on a hike- are poisonous horse chestnuts! We told them to roast them and intended to do the same. (I’d almost emailed you to ask for tips…now I wish I had!)  They ate some before they Googled it….I’m a wreck! I never in my life have I heard of such a thing. I grew up in White Plains, New York picking them off the ground…Those were wrapped in a spiny, prickly cover. The ones we found on our hike were much larger and wrapped in a soft paper-like cover. I’m trying to Google info but not sure which is true…one site says inedible, another says no…PLEASE, help me if you can…I’m horrified!

(My friend wants to be kept anonymous and I don’t blame her.)  

 Okaaay, can we talk??

The first thing you must know is “is this species edible?”

Eating something (or giving it as an edible gift) that’s not 100% familiar, especially when it grows wild in an open field is NEVER safe unless you’re a trained forager or if you happen upon an orchard that’s run by real people who are actually there to vouch for the edibility of their crop. And you can’t always trust the internet! When my friend did her “research” she was looking at cooking sites, wanting to know how best to prepare chestnuts and, as you would imagine, there are lots of sites devoted to helping people come to a delicious conclusion when working with a food that’s deemed safe (as edible chestnuts certainly are). BUT, had she looked up “edible versus inedible chestnuts” she would have quickly learned that “HORSE CHESTNUTS ARE POISONOUS!” 

So, the first clue, stated in her email: ” the ones I had growing up were wrapped in a spiny, prickly cover…and THESE were much larger and wrapped in a soft paper-like cover.” … should have been more than enough to do the research to find out if this particular species is safe for human (or animal) consumption.

I’m writing about this because you could be like my friend (like most Americans) who believe that “bigger is better.” While this might be true in some instances, when it comes to wild chestnuts, or wild anything, size has little if anything to do with edibility. 

In the end, all concerned were ok since the taste was apparently very bitter so only a small amount was ingested (although the son of the “gift recipients” had to have blood tests to determine if there was any internal damage). Having said this, had they gone to a cooking site and learned ways to incorporate these poisonous chestnuts into a dish that could/would mask their bitterness, all of these people could have been in a lot of trouble.

Oh…and as an aside. When we spoke, my friend told me that when she called Poison Control in California, they never answered the phone!! Can you believe that? Then, she called the national center for poison control and was told that because of “cut backs” there is a shortage of trained poison control personnel to answer the phones… Just unbelievable.

So, to help you to help yourself, here are a couple of websites, one is a listing of poisonous plants alphabetically (but you’ll need to know the specific name of the species; for example, the word “chestnuts” aren’t included but horse-chestnuts are.

 Here is a link that specifically deals with horse chestnut trees (also called Aesculus hippocastanum  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aesculus_hippocastanum

Also, here’s a website hosted by an expert on foraging which has books dedicated to educating enthusiastic hikers everywhere: go to  www.wildmanstevebrill.com  (Although I, personally, would not take a subjective description or a photo in a book as gospel…)  

I commend my friend for wanting me to share this information with you because, as she said, “I want others to learn from my mistake, which could have had catastrophic effects. Hopefully, reading this will  make a positive difference to someone else.”

Anyway, be smart, be cautious, be safe!  

Tags: caution, edible or not, poison control, poisonous foods, wild chestnuts

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