For those of you who don’t know, gribenes are a byproduct of making shmaltz, or rendered chicken fat.
I recently made my own schmaltz because 1) after buying nearly-whole-chicken-parts I had lots of stuff from which you make schmaltz and 2) I’d been meaning to do the family chopped liver recipe which, among other things, uses schmaltz (it’s from the kosher side of the family).
The schmaltz came out fine, between memories of mom making it (who, ironically, grew up a Catholic girl before running off to marry a Jew) and a bit of research. I don’t remember gribenes from mom’s cooking, I suspect she just tossed them (can’t ask mom, she’s no longer around). But I thought, what the hey, I could try them as a garnish on, say, my cream of potato soup or something.
Everything said my gribenes should have been golden-brown and sort of crispy chewy. They’re not. They’re all beige and squidgy.
Huh.
Well, any ideas of what I might have done wrong, and/or how to fix these bad boys? Too low a cooking heat perhaps? Something else?
They haven’t fully cooked through. Keep cooking until they no longer bubble, that’s how you know you’ve driven out all the moisture. They should brown more as they cook as well.
This may be, literally, the schmaltziest OP in the history of the Dope.
I’ve never prepared this particular dish, but if the physics of cooking it are similar to preparing any other dish of crispy fried skin, I’d hazard to say your cooking temperature is too low.
You haven’t finished cooking it. Hoom hoom, don’t be hasty!
finish cooking it!
Your question is similar to, “everyone tells me chicken should be white all the way through but mine’s pink. What should I do?”
er… cook it until its finished?
It’s not complicated, but it does take much longer than you think. You’re supposed to leave a good bit of fat in the pan so that its almost deep frying. Also, did you chop the chicken skin? It shouldn’t be in big old sheets but rather bits and strips.
Not cooked long enough? I cooked it for an hour and a half!
Probably too low a temp. I didn’t want to keep cooking longer because the fat was starting to get darker, and stuff was burning/sticking on the bottom of the pan. Well, not bad for a first try, right?
Any ideas on how to finish cooking these, or should I just toss and try again next time? Can I finish them off in the microwave like bacon or saute them in a pan? I don’t have a deep fryer.
Oh aha. Yes, your temp was too low. Put it in a pan with a little fresh oil (it doesn’t have to be swimming in oil, just enough to cover the bottom) and finish the job on heat high enough to spatter water. For the future, there’s no need to keep the temp so low when rendering fat.