# Duck Fat Needs a Name
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duck-fat-needs-a-name/914716
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [July 8, 2020, 9:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duck-fat-needs-a-name/914716 "2020-07-08T09:01:17Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2020, 9:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duck-fat-needs-a-name/914716/1 "2020-07-08T09:01:17Z")
Ya got yer butter, lard, ghee, shortening … then along comes _“duck fat”_ like an unloved stepchild with no endearing nickname. It squats in the middle of fancy menus with their frou-frou descriptions, bereft of any Francophile flourishes.
Yes, yes, I realize duck just doesn’t have the same importance to the American table, which is why the meat doesn’t have a special name the way beef, mutton and veal does.
Well, Dopers, we got some spare time, right? Let’s remedy this tragic situation!
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### Author:  [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2020, 10:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duck-fat-needs-a-name/914716/2 "2020-07-08T10:14:20Z")
“Graisse de canard.”
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### Author:  [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2020, 10:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duck-fat-needs-a-name/914716/3 "2020-07-08T10:16:08Z")
> [@purplehorseshoe](#):
>
> Yes, yes, I realize duck just doesn’t have the same importance to the American table, which is why the meat doesn’t have a special name the way beef, mutton and veal does.
I’m fairly sure those words entered the English language about 700 years before America was a thing.
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### Author:  [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2020, 10:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duck-fat-needs-a-name/914716/4 "2020-07-08T10:17:57Z")
Duck meat is “Viande de canard.”
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### Author:  [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2020, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duck-fat-needs-a-name/914716/5 "2020-07-08T21:05:20Z")
“Adorable bird murder goo.”
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### Author:  [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2020, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duck-fat-needs-a-name/914716/6 "2020-07-08T21:12:30Z")
We should have just stuck with Rind-, Schaf-, and Kalbfleisch.
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### Author:  [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2020, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duck-fat-needs-a-name/914716/7 "2020-07-08T22:15:21Z")
Wiktionary accepts ‘schmalz’ as English (cf. Gänseschmalz, Entenschmalz). That’s not very French but neither is a word like ‘shortening’. Or just stick with graisse de canard, saindoux, … on your menu that for some reason cannot be in English (so ghee should still be OK since it’s called that in French as well as Hindi and so on)
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### Author:  [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2020, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duck-fat-needs-a-name/914716/8 "2020-07-08T22:29:04Z")
> [@DPRK](#):
>
> Wiktionary accepts ‘schmalz’ as English (cf. Gänseschmalz, Entenschmalz). That’s not very French but neither is a word like ‘shortening’.
Neither are ghee (Sanskrit) or butter (plain ol’ English). The only French word there is lard.
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### Author:  [@VOW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VOW)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2020, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duck-fat-needs-a-name/914716/9 "2020-07-08T22:29:55Z")
@DPRK
I understand that _schmalz_ is Yiddish for chicken fat.
~VOW
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### Author:  [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2020, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duck-fat-needs-a-name/914716/10 "2020-07-08T22:30:08Z")
Daffy Taffy
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### Author:  [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2020, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duck-fat-needs-a-name/914716/11 "2020-07-08T22:40:53Z")
> [@VOW](#):
>
> @DPRK
>
> I understand that _schmalz_ is Yiddish for chicken fat.
It doesn’t have to be chicken fat, though, does it? The _OED_ has
> 1951: L. W. Leonard Jewish Cookery vi. 42 (heading) “Rendering chicken or goose fat (schmaltz).”
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### Author:  [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2020, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duck-fat-needs-a-name/914716/12 "2020-07-08T23:06:33Z")
> [@DPRK](#):
>
> It doesn’t have to be chicken fat, though, does it?
> **[Schmaltz Finds a New, Younger Audience (Published 2014)](https://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/10/dining/schmaltz-finds-a-new-younger-audience.html)**
>
> A new generation revives a fat shunned by their parents.
> A Yiddish word that actually refers to rendered poultry skin of all kinds (goose, chicken or duck), schmaltz is a staple ingredient for matzo ball soup, chopped liver and latkes.
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### Author:  [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2020, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duck-fat-needs-a-name/914716/13 "2020-07-08T23:09:17Z")
I’m pretty sure that article is wrong.
> **[Gribenes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gribenes)**
>
> Pages for logged out editors learn more
>
> In Ashkenazi Jewish cuisine, gribenes or grieven (Yiddish: גריבענעס, \[ˈɡrɪbənəs\], "cracklings"; Hebrew: גלדי שומן) are crisp chicken or goose skin cracklings with fried onions. As with other cracklings, gribenes are a byproduct of rendering animal fat to produce cooking fat, in this case kosher schmaltz.
> A favored food in the past among Ashkenazi Jews, gribenes is frequently mentioned in Jewish stories and parables.\[citation needed\]
> Gribenes can b...
Is the rendered skin - Schmaltz is what it is cooked in.
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### Author:  [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2020, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duck-fat-needs-a-name/914716/14 "2020-07-08T23:13:42Z")
> [@beowulff](#):
>
> Is the rendered skin - Schmaltz is what it is cooked in.
The _Times_ makes that distinction earlier in the article:
> When it’s properly made, schmaltz has a brawny, roasted character that comes from the bits of poultry skin that brown in the pan. (Those crunchy, golden fried pieces of skin are called gribenes, and they are an addictive snack in their own right.)
>
> Some cooks brown onions in the fat as it renders, which adds a layer of honeyed sweetness.
Yeah, it could have used some editing to be less confusing.
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### Author:  [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2020, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duck-fat-needs-a-name/914716/15 "2020-07-08T23:21:24Z")
For those who have never had them, Gribenes are perhaps the most addicting food ever invented. Properly made, they are almost supernaturally delicious.
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### Author:  [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2020, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duck-fat-needs-a-name/914716/16 "2020-07-08T23:26:08Z")
> [@purplehorseshoe](#):
>
> … then along comes _“duck fat”_ like an unloved stepchild with no endearing nickname.
Duck Butter.
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### Author:  [@VOW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VOW)
#### Post date: [July 9, 2020, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duck-fat-needs-a-name/914716/17 "2020-07-09T00:28:50Z")
@needscoffee
Nah. My mind then conjures up a weird picture of a duck being milked…
~VOW
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### Author:  [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)
#### Post date: [July 9, 2020, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duck-fat-needs-a-name/914716/18 "2020-07-09T00:33:49Z")
Udderly ducky?
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### Author:  [@ThisIsTheEnd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThisIsTheEnd)
#### Post date: [July 9, 2020, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duck-fat-needs-a-name/914716/19 "2020-07-09T00:41:22Z")
In the UK they call it Daffy. As in Daffy Chips (fries).
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### Author:  [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)
#### Post date: [July 9, 2020, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duck-fat-needs-a-name/914716/20 "2020-07-09T00:54:58Z")
I’m sure I’d like Gribenes, as when I was a child when we had whole pieces of chicken for dinner, I would refuse to eat anything but the skin and any portion of the meat that happened to come along with it.
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