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Fats
Appears in
By Laila El-Haddad and Maggie Schmitt
Published 2021
Back when most Palestinians were farmers, meat was an expensive luxury, as it has now become again in Gaza. As several of the older Palestinians we met told us, people ordinarily ate meat only for festive occasions—holidays and birth celebrations—when the wealthy slaughtered sheep and distributed thirds to neighbors and to the needy.
Eating meat daily was almost unthinkable; instead, the prized tail fat was rendered, preserved with salt, and stored in clay jugs. This fat, called liyyeh, was then used sparingly throughout the year for making tiqlaya, the fried garlic or onion so often used to finish stews.