>>>I don't use it, and doubt too many do today. But it used to be commonly used in many of the ways that non-Jews use lard. Often, gathered from skimming soup.
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>>:O
>>One get an imagination how poor the folks must have been. The chicken fat on a soup is not much for the soup itself, especialy considering how many persons must have shared one chicken .... And the chicken used for soup are not the fat ones anyway ...
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>You must be way too north to know how the Donauschwaben like their hens and their soup :).
>
>The best ones for the soup are the old ones - we say "matora koka, dobra supa" (old hen, good soup), and that's actually a kind of innuendo when mentioned so that the lady to whom it relates should hear it said accidentally but without obvious intention... I've also heard ladies of certain age declare that themselves.

Donauschwaben, a eastern tribe of southerners stuck to century old traditions? No, I know nothing about them.

Old hens are not fat, they are chewy. That's why I think there is no much to skim.

And yes, you need those hens to make a good soup. I regulary do five of them in one pot, this gives chicken bouillon as well as several loads of chicken fricassee. With capers.

Nowadays cuisine is with roast chicken but that's wrong. It's a bit of a problem to get old hens (strange world this)

BTW
We had tasty jacket potatos this evening. After a while my wife came out with a glass of lard! With cracklings! Yum²! A gift from friends that must return to the U.S. They couln'd keep it. Poor folks ...