I’ve got another question for you. Someone sent me a cake frosting recipe recently, and it included Crisco. I thanked her for the recipe, but said that I wouldn’t use that one because Crisco isn’t food. Then she pointed out something I never thought of: It’s kosher.
Well how about that. An actually good reason to choose Crisco over lard.
But then I thought to myself, “You know, Self … I’m sure Jewish people made pastries before the invention of Crisco. What did they use?”
Well that’s a very good question, Self. (Thank you, Self.) But I have no clue what the answer is.
So how about it, any Jewish bakers out there know of a good, kosher substitute for lard in pastries?
UPDATE: I got this via email and thought I’d share:
Goose Fat.Do it yourself with a Kosher goose:
You can special order it from a kosher butcher. It is easy to render. Cut the fat and skin and a bit of meat off – cut into small pieces place in simmering water and then, well, you render. When the water eventually boils off watch carefully and remove from heat when the cracklings turn a light golden brown – they will continue to cook. Jews in Hungary and the former Czechoslovakia were famous for their goose cracklings (teperto” in Hungarian). They are great hot, or you can store them in the fat.
As well, if you for some reason want to make a puff pastry for vol-au-vent or to wrap something for baking, and it’s meat – the goose fat can be used to make the puff pastry, much better than margarine. Just follow the directions in a decent recipe and substitute the rendered goose fat for the butter.
Shalom!
Michelle
Thanks, Michelle!
Oh, and as mentioned in a comment below, let the goose fat cool in the fridge overnight before trying to use it for pastry.
Want more like this? For more recipes like this, that you can hold right in your hands, and write on, take notes, tear pages out if you want (Gosh, you're tough on books, aren't you?) you might be interested in How To Cook Like Your Grandmother, 2nd edition, Illustrated. Or to learn your way around the kitchen, check out Starting From Scratch: The Owner's Manual for Your Kitchen.
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26 Comments
I'm not Jewish but I have just started using Spectrum coconut oil with good results. Reportedly this is a healthy product.
Jim
you can use any fat, really. It turns out different depending on the properties. i would assume kosher versions of Butter, margarine, avocado, etc.
Butter.
I do cakes from time to time and need a crisco substitute because you're right, crisco isn't food and makes me/other very sick when they have it. The spectrum Coconut oil is a great sub for crisco. It's a little soft, but works very well if you're careful. Otherwise, butter would work fine, i think, if it's used while very very cold. I'm not Jewish, so I don't know about the Kosher-ness of it all.
For Hungarian Ashkenazim, goose fat replaces lard, and is still used for a lot of recipes.
My orthodox Jewish co-worker said this: "I try to avoid crisco because it is very bad for you.
I bake a lot and I seem to do quite well with margerine and oil. I do try to use oil over margerine though because it's not quite as bad for you."
I believe they can eat beef, so beef fat (tallow) could be used if they are looking for something with similar properties. Butter or coconut oil can also work but the beef tallow can provide the better flakiness that lard provides. I also saw a blogger recently use bison fat too.
Drew, I haven't tried using the Spectrum Coconut Oil. Perhaps I could give that a try. Certainly Jews did bake before Crisco, but I think that its properties opened up new baking possibilities (and textures)for Kosher baking. At least for the recipe I submitted, I doubt that oil, butter, or margarine would work. I believe Crisco is now basically trans fat free, so while it may not be food, it's less bad for you than it used to be.
Schmaltz? http://www.sadiesalome.com/recipes/schmaltz.html I came across this article the other day and that recipe sounds yummy!
I always use butter. Or butter and cream cheese (I think the recipe is in Joy of Cooking). Never used lard, uck, and haven't used hydrogenated oils in a long time.
According to this website:
http://ohr.edu/ask_db/ask_main.php/239/Q4/
Butter is kosher. Butter has been around for a long time and I always bake pastries with butter. I use nothing else.
The best pie crusts I have ever made were made with bison tallow — the fat from the kidneys.
http://www.cheeseslave.com/2009/07/06/the-flakiest-pie-crust-ever-my-secret-ingredient/
It's even better than leaf lard from pigs.
It depends on how kosher you keep but if you eat any kind of beef ("The Jewish Torah states that Jewish people may eat any animal that chews its cud and has cloven hooves.") then you can use any kind of bison or beef tallow.
If you only use kosher beef ("Kosher beef is beef that is slaughtered and prepared in accordance with Jewish tradition and the religion's rites.") then I think you could use the fat from a kosher beef to render tallow.
We abandoned Crisco a long time ago for coconut oil, palm oil and/or butter. Hands down butter is our favorite, flavor and workability.
Wow, lots of replies.
Okay, the goose fat doesn't surprise me, since I was already thinking of schmaltz. But if goose fat is similar in consistency, then it's much more liquid at room temperature than Crisco. And the flakyness in a pastry comes from flour surrounded by fat, rather than flour that has absorbed fat. With oil, or a "solid" fat that has melted, you get tender instead of flaky.
Beef tallow is much harder than lard, so I'm not sure how I would combine it. I have to be careful with my pastry cutter as it is to make sure I don't bend the blades if the butter is still very cold.
Bison tallow is a complete surprise. I don't imagine it was terribly common in 19th-century New York — which is what I picture when I think "Jewish bakery" — but farther west that's probably what they used.
Another problem with beef tallow is you couldn't have your pie ala mode. (If I remember my kosher laws correctly, you can't eat beef and dairy at the same meal.)
The coconut or palm oils are good from a health perspective, but I'd question the texture, same as with melted fats.
Thanks for all the great suggestions. I've got plenty of direction for research now.
PS: Cara, lard is better for you than Crisco or margerine. The only reason people think it's "uck-worthy" is decades of advertising by the corn oil manufacturers. Okay, getting off my soapbox now.
Butter for baking, and schmaltz for everything elsr.
The Joan Nathan Kosher cookbook features the use of margarine extensively.
Linda, "just butter for baking" sounds like the kind of nice, simple rule that people would pass on to their kids.
rap, I guess I'll have to find older cookbooks, then, because margerine isn't much better than Crisco. Time to hit the library again.
I noticed you have that new piece about goose fat at the end. Great advice, but you might want to add, for your less kitchen-savvy readers, that you need to allow the fat to cool and harden in your fridge before you use it as you would butter or margarine. Liquid goose fat, while delicious and wonderful to use in many recipes, isn't going to make good pastry!
Please learn to optimize your site, Drew. Your site is now so "fat" to load that this will be the last time I come here.
Usually crashes my browser. I'm lucky it didn't this time.
Also. . .to be honest. . .your web site name implies a certain authority with my grandmother.
However, you're asking way too many questions of your readers to have that authority.
Can we maybe get back to real recipes without the "uh, I didn't do it right, can you suggest something better?" part?
Thanks.
Anon, sorry to hear that. I know it can take a while to load sometimes, but people seem to like the photos. No much I can do about that other than reducing the size or quality of them.
As for asking questions … well, I'll bet grandmothers used to talk to each other. Share ideas and recipes. Maybe even, you know, ask each other about their recipes. I don't want to pretend I'm an authority about things I don't know about. But if I ask people who do know, then we all learn.
Goose fat? Sounds like it would not only be VERY unhealthy…can't imagine it would taste very good, either! Another person here said coconut oil – I can say that this is the way to go – Coconut oil is MUCH healthier and has given me good results every time I have used it – though I haven't attempted to make pastries – I choose to make much healthier things in general – there are lots of luscious desserts to make that are better and healthier than pastries.
Goose fat? Sounds like it would not only be VERY unhealthy…can't imagine it would taste very good, either! Another person here said coconut oil – I can say that this is the way to go – Coconut oil is MUCH healthier and has given me good results every time I have used it – though I haven't attempted to make pastries – I choose to make much healthier things in general – there are lots of luscious desserts to make that are better and healthier than pastries.
Animal fats have gotten a bad rap, ever since vegetable oil producers started pouring tons of money into political coffers. Check out the Weston A. Price Foundation for the history.
I just read the ingredient list on a tub of Crisco not too long ago and I can assure you it is not trans fat free. It’s 2 main ingredients are vegetable oil and hydrogenated vegetable oil. Just because something says it is trans fat free does not mean it actually is. You have to actually read the label to make sure it doesn’t contain hydrogenated oils. Also, what about duck fat? I bought some lovely duck fat not too long ago. And yes, goose fat is healthy for you! I wish people would actually do some research on nutrition before posting.
Spectrum makes Palm shortening. we use it in baked good when another more liquid oil won’t do. it makes a lovely crust!
Spectrum makes Palm shortening. we use it in baked good when another more liquid oil won’t do. it makes a lovely crust! yes it’s kosher.