Schmaltz, Olive Oil, Butter, and Other Fats

Appears in
Jewish Holiday Cooking
Jewish Holiday Cooking

By Jayne Cohen

Published 2008

  • About

More, perhaps, than they longed for the pomegranates, the dates, and the figs, the Jews of Central and Eastern Europe missed the olives and the rich, green-gold oil made from them in eretz Israel. In Europe, olive oil was expensive to import; when the Jews could buy it, they reserved it for ritual lamps or medicinal purposes.

For their daily cooking needs, they adopted the butter of their Gentile neighbors for dairy meals, and they turned to schmaltz, fat rendered from geese or chickens and flavored with onions, for meat meals.