The Book of Schmaltz: Love Song to a Forgotten Fat

Everything you want in a cookbook: detailed instructions, pictures, and even a decent background story about the book. Not only does the book have pictures, but it has before, during and after photos to guide you, which is a great help. I think this cookbook is a great idea, since every cookbook I have that has a recipe for schmaltz is brief and intimidating, so I never attempted to make schmaltz. This book explains the process in more detail than probably ever before, so any fear is removed, and the chance for success is great.I went to the local kosher supermarket and got two pounds of chicken fat and skin. I attempted the schmaltz recipe in an all-clad 13" stainless steel skillet and ended up with what looked like beautiful schmaltz, and it smelled great, too. I haven't used it in a recipe yet, but there is a potato knish recipe in the book that I will try. I may try to use my Le Creuset cast iron skillet next time, since the stainless steel pan had a lot of browned pieces stuck to it and I was scared they would burn by the end and ruin my schmaltz, but I don't believe that happened. The author does recommend to use a non-stick pan, but I do not cook with non-stick cookware.To sum up, if schmaltz is something you are interested to make, this is the book you should get, unless you have a grandmother that can show you.Edit: 10/18/13- I attempted to make the potato knish recipe. I believe I followed the directions very carefully. I weighed the ingredients to be as accurate as possible. I used a pastry cloth as the author recommends to get the dough very thin. Now the problem I had was that the directions state to bake the knishes in a 400 degree farenheit oven for 15 to 20 min until golden brown. I checked them during that time frame but the knishes were not getting brown, and I let them stay in the oven longer but by the time they were golden brown they were too dry and didn't taste good. The next batch I took out at 16 minutes and they were not dry but not golden brown either. I'm not deducting any stars because perhaps this was my fault, but I wasn't satisfied with the results. I guess it's more of a heads up not to bake them too long even though they may not be brown enough, probably because the dough is so thin.

Michael Ruhlman is writing great books about food, chefs and cooking. He is passionately interested in the subject, and it shows in his work. I don't have this book any more--I had it for a couple of days and was contemplating which dishes to cook when a Jewish friend came to dinner. She looked at the book and talked about the recipes--dishes her grandmother used to fix that she had grown up with but had not tasted for years.The book talks about schmaltz, which is rendered chicken fat, and the traditional Jewish recipes made with it. I've cooked with schmaltz a bit, and like it--it's almost liquid at room temperature and is very easy to work with. If you're interested in making a truly traditional Jewish chopped chicken liver dish, this book will show you how to do it. It'll also teach you-in Ruhlman's careful, easy to understand style, how to prepare a number of other traditional dishes that are made with schmaltz.Needless to say, once our friend had browsed the book, she left with it, so I don't have it any more. I'm happy that it has a home where it's treasured. And I will order another book. I've read a number of Ruhlman's books and liked them, so may well go ahead and get all of them.

Love the book. It opened my eyes to completely new culinary experiences I would not otherwise have encountered in a typical cookbook. We raise our own chickens and this gives us a great way to utilize products from the older birds that might otherwise go straight to the stewpot.

Great history of origin of chicken fat and rendering of same. I use it quite often for certain recipes instead odm bacon fat. However, short on recipes for dishes using chicken fat except for the traditional ones. Would have liked to see more uses as substitute to improve other traditional dishes. Overall a great book to have in my library. Would like to render chicken skin/fat as substitute for pork rinds. I love crispy chicken skin; usually denude wholw roasted chicken before carving and eat skin by itself. Not great for the arteries but once in a while a great treat.

Awful

I'm not a chef but I was searching for chicken recipes when I ran across this (hardback) book, so I ordered it. Great education on this subject. Thank you. I have to say as a long time photographer, that the photographic illustrations by Donna Turner Ruhlman in this book are way above average for a cooking related book. Extremely high quality photographic work here that makes you hungry from looking at it. Congratulations on that.

The Book of Schmaltz , of which I ordered two, were given as gifts for Christmas. I looked through them and enjoyed reading what I had time to read before giving them away. The recipents were delighted with the different kind of cook book. Thank You

VERY GOOD FOTOS IN THE BOOK, AND SOME GREAT RECIPES. TRY AND FIND SOME SCHMALTZ, GOOD LUCK, EVEN AT PASSOVER!!

Interesting topic by one of the best writers in the genre. I had heard of Schmaltz but even most of my Jewish friends hadn't. The though it was simply an expression.I have used recipes from this book and have been very satisfied with it. I now have a jar in my fridge that is full of rendered most of the time.

the content is slim. the subject matter is everything. make schmaltz, people. do it now!

This is as essential to cooking as is the jar of it in the fridge. Well done.