Homecookin

Today Conker got:

Turkey back scraps (meat and bone) with pork meat, beef kidney and liver and a chicken heart.


Some while ago when I was still in St. Louis I made some lard.  Then I made chicken lard.  I like to call the chicken lard schmaltz even though I technically don't make it correctly and it's just rendered chicken fat, but schmaltz sounds a lot better.

Anyways, I made some more chicken lardfat last night.  It took a couple hours but the end result was good.  I probably used something like 3+ pounds of chicken fat and skin I've accumilated over a period of months since I strip off half of it from Conker's chicken.
I didn't take any pictures during the rendering since I was busy watching Band of Brothers with my bro, and because I was lazy.  But I do have a couple pictures of the end product.

The rendered fatlard is on the bottom, the "fried" chicken skins on top.
For those of you who've never made lard and think it's gross, tell me that after you've had some fresh trout cooked in pork lard, or some crispy veggies sauteed in chicken fat.  Amazing.

The chicken fatlard slowly cooks off the skins and it simmers in a bit of water that eventually steams off and leaves just the lard.  You are left with two products, lard and skins.  The lard I use instead of cooking oil when I make veggies, meat or whatever in a pan.

The skins, some people just throw out.  I eat them as a snack fresh from the pan, cold or after they've been nuked for a couple seconds.  They are also great additions to salads or dishes like a veggie and meat mix I saute in a pan. 


Although the chicken schmaltzfat isn't of use to my dog since I wouldn't feed a dog rendered chicken skins or lard, the dogs wouldn't leave the kitchen or immediate area while it was being made.  They all wanted it so bad, so I imagine if you had to give them a pill just coat it in lard and they'll slurp it up right away.