h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Schmalz can mean various things here: Gänseschmalz (goose fat, expensive), Schweineschmalz (pork fat, cheap), Butterschmalz (clarified butter), Ohrenschmalz (earwax), and Schmalz in a figurative sense: songs or novels can be schmalzig (schmaltzy).

Sufganiyot are known as Krapfen here (or, if you come from the north, as Berliner). You can buy them throughout the year, but they're most popular around New Year's Eve and during lent. It is said the monks ate them during lent to make up for the meat they weren't allowed to eat between Shrove Tuesday and Good Friday.

Thanks for the additional information. Although adding Ohrenschmalz was naughty...

A friend of mine from the Eiffel taught me to eat Schmalz. She just called it 'Schmalz', although it was 'Schweineschmalz'. You put it on bread...okay, everybody get grossesd out, but when you're cold enough, it's yummy.

It is true that Schmalz is mainly associated with pork fat if not specified. However, if somebody gives you a recipe and just says '100g of Schmalz, it makes sense to ask which one: from geese or from pigs.

We loved Griebenschmalz when we were children. It was pork with fried bacon crums, roasted onions and apples and spices.

You can nowadays buy a very yummy vegetarian alternative: Holstener Liesel.

Not pork, but pork fat.

That sounds good. Better than that suet stuff in a mince pie, anyhow.

But Lady P isn't going to agree...

Oh, the vegetarian stuff is a really great alternative: it tastes better, and it is healthier.

Yeah. And if it's pure vegetarian, then it's pareve, which means you can eat it with meat or with milk, either kind of meal.

It is vegan, glutenfree and soyafree.

Thanks for the additional info, Bel!
We use the figurative meaning as well, to say that something is kitchy and saccharine. So, I suppose 'schmalz' is any kind of fat, then? Or just clarified fats (and earwax)?


Also I think something important that got lost in the formatting of this article is that 'which is a staple of Jewish Eastern European cuisine, if you ask me...' was supposed to be two sentences - i.e., it really _is_ a staple, that's not a matter of my opinion here, and the second part is missing the very important smiley: ', if you ask me...'
I don't know, it's odd I guess that I am totally fine with eating bread and butter, or bread and olive oil (), but the idea of schmalz is gross to me. And yet, it is. Cultural differences, I guess.
By the way, your talk of 'Griebenschmalz' reminded me of another thing - I'm not 100% sure of the name (we're mostly Sephardic in my house, at least as far as cooking is concerned, so I never ate it) but it's something like griebelach. It's the leftover bits of chicken skin you have left after rendering the fat, fried in said fat until they are crispy. Again, sound dreadful to me personally, but it apparently used to be a pretty popular snack in [Jewish] Eastern European homes. Any of you have any idea what I'm talking about?

That sounds tasty to me, Lady P, from the point of view of a Southerner... We always loved fried chicken skin.

And I apologise for getting your text wrong.

S'alright. What you better apologise about is putting parsley in your latkes! Ooh, if my mum were to know about that... don't need any of that stuff in _her_ fritters! Potatoes and onion and egg and a little flour, and salt and pepper to tatse, that's all you need.

Now, the last time I had latkes that we didn't make, it was at a Hanukkah get-together with a young lady who was teaching Yiddish for the Workmen's Circle.

She put parsley in her latkes... (Me, I'm with your mom.)