Oy…sometimes its good to be Jewish!!! The other day, on visiting my local butcher's shop I saw one of the young butchers cleaning about a dozen geese. To my surprise, he was removing the skin and trimming the fat of each of the geese and when I asked was informed that this was the way the client had ordered them. Just why anyone would want their geese skinless and fatless eludes me but fair enough, for when I asked what was to be the fate of the skins and fat I was told that they would be relegated to the garbage pails.
Believe me, not Freud, not Einstein, and not Woody Allen could accept such a thing. Indeed there was no way I would allow that to happen, so I requested those discards, had them packed (no charge for either the skins, the fat or the wrappings) brought them home and made both schmaltz and gribenes.
For those sadly uninformed, schmaltz is rendered goose fat and gribenes (or if one prefers cracklings) the further rendered chunks of solid material that remains in the skillet. The schmaltz goes for use not only in cooking but for spreading, as is, with nothing more than a bit of salt on the best challah or country style white bread that one can find and the gribenes, popped into the mouth with the fingers are one of life's truest and greatest delicacies. .
To play just a bit on words, to feast on gribenes and to spread schmaltz on fresh, thick sliced challah is to know that God's in her heaven and all's well on earth. As to cholesterol and fat content one simply does not question such things when feasting on gribenes and schmaltz
Best
Rogov
