Smalec - how to make it?

all things are good ---In moderation

Apart from onions, you can also add some grated apple to it (sour, the kind that goes to aple pie or szarlotka, not sweet dessert stuff). Nobody has mentioned it so far.

Or finely cut prunes.

The best for me is to add some "skwarki" for added flavour.

I make smalec all the time. When in Poland this year I noticed that in fancier restaurants you get a little bowel of it with bread, kinda' like tepanade or butter. Well made smalec is very tasty and with my recipe it's better for you than butter or margarine. I did the nutritional charts to prove it. I use a lot of onions and apples - on a piece of home made rye - to die for.

I really wish people would stop saying "to die for." In the first place, that's a terrible, terrible metaphor. In the second place, too much of it and "to die for" becomes "to die from." Smalec is no more or less "healthy" than milk, cheese, chicken skin, chickenfat (another "schmaltz") or yogurt. But it's very, very good on bread as an appetizer. So please, folks, enjoy your smalec, but nothing is to die for.

that's a "factory" made smalec and i bet it's nothign like the real thing.. home made stuff has to have at least as much fat as butter.. it's all fat too


what? smalec is pure fat while the things i highlighted have hardly any fat in them... hmmm

You couldn't have farther missed my point had you been firing a slingshot at mars. The first part was about the expression, "To die for." I objected because it's trite beyond redemption, it's crass and it's abysmally dumb. It was old when The Golden Girls were still a sitcom. The second part was about dietary fat, and particularly saturated fat no matter where it comes from. What matters is not hair-slicing measurements of how much is in a particular food. It's in how much of that food you eat. In the meantime, smalec is still delicious on bread as an appetizer. That was the third part.

you seem to have missed the fact that i wasn't even arguing about your "death" talk but about the part that smalec is "healthier" then the things i bolded.. which of course is just rubbish.. pure fat will never be healthier, no matter what amount then those things..

I also enjoy having smalec loaded with fried bacon bits on some nice rye (żytny)bread.But I also realize smalec is very fatty and I eat it in moderation.

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No that is the nutritional label made for the smalec I make at home. At nutritiondata.com you can type in your ingredients and get a nutritional label. My recipies are based on what my grandmother made and are from the Kresy parts of pre WW2 Poland. We use 1 part fatty bacon, 1 part onions and 1 part fruit (usually apples but I have used peaches, pears, persimmons, etc). It make a very yummy snack on a some bread or a great addition to scrambled eggs. I have recipes here:

I'm avoiding Gazdówka like the plague as it serves up lard (smalec) before you have even eaten anything, providing you meet a minimum order amount. It has the tasty bits (z skwarkami) and they are just as laden with fat. Cheetos and beer are bad enough so lard is not even on the agenda.

the best way to eat smalec is on bread with slices of onion, dill pickle and hard-boiled egg on top - yum - then down it with a glass of dill pickle marinade (or whatever you call that liquid in English)

gumishu


don't forget to add a pinch of salt over smalec

Personally I like it as it is on good bread still warm out of the bakery and with a wee shot or two. But that's just me :)

I was brave and tried some smalec in Warsaw. My niece tried a bite. She ended up spitting it out.

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  Can u feel ur arteries clogging?
  

Actually folks, smalec is better for you than butter. It has less saturated fat and more unsaturated fat. Don't have to believe me, go look it up.

Presumably you mean dripping rather than lard (refined smalec). Neither are good for you, but the former does make good beef and (English) mustard sandwiches.

Smalec is very good. All of You should try. I know a good restauran in Poznan, Poland with one.

We all know it well, every shop sells it, however it is deeply unhealthy.

SMALEC with and pickled cucumber, and polish bread....lovely!!! anyway i love most polish food, much better than our english:(

who cares about calories or cholestroral its very tasty just had two slices Tiger bread with it spread on thickly!!!!!!!!!! Ahhhhhhhhh!!!

It's also poosibly the best thing to line your stomach before a night on the old Polish beer! As to wether it's healthy or not, smalec is near enough 100% fat (as opposed to butter which is about 95) but then fat is good for you and it is a required part of your diet. It's better to have a reasonable amount of smalec in your diet that the rubbish margerine that is all over the supermarkets!

besides spreading it (thinly!) on fresh rye bread, I found many other uses for smalec; cook with it! It makes rice taste better, sauteed greens, cabbage, broccoli sprouts... even scrambled eggs.

If you don`t have time to make smalec on your own, you can buy it, either supermarket or local butcher`s stuff. With various add-ons, like skwarki or fried onions. Even vegetarian smalec is available. :)

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