Schmaltz

Schmaltz

Schmaltz derived from geese
Type	Spread, cooking fat
Main ingredients	Fat (chicken or goose)

Schmaltz (also spelled schmalz or shmalz) is rendered (clarified) chicken or goose fat used for frying or as a spread on bread in Central European cuisine, and in the United States, particularly identified with Ashkenazi Jewish cuisine. Rendered waterfowl fat is also used in the cuisine of Southwestern France. As an effect of cross-cultural influences of the Jewish Ashkenazi, Polish, and Ukrainian cuisine, it is also popular in Poland and Ukraine, where rendered fats (including lard) are called smalec, with schmaltz derived from geese being popular as gęsi smalec.

The English term "schmaltz" is derived from Yiddish, and is cognate with the German term Schmalz, meaning "rendered animal fat", regardless of source: both tallow and lard are considered forms of Schmalz in German, as is clarified butter. English usage tends to follow Yiddish, where it means poultry fat.

The term "schmaltz" entered English usage through Yiddish-speaking Ashkenazi Jews who used it to refer to kosher poultry fat; the word שמאַלץ shmalts is the Yiddish word for rendered chicken fat. The word is common to the High German languages, including both Yiddish and modern Standard German, and comes from Middle High German smalz, a noun derived from the verb smelzen, meaning "to melt". The verb can be traced back to the Germanic root "smeltan", which survives in the Modern English verb "to smelt".