Austrian Grammelschmalz (Pork Lard Spread)

Here comes a quick recipe for a traditional Austrian Grammelschmalz spread with onions, parsley and store-bought rendered pork fat (lard) and pork cracklings.

Grammeln and Grammelschmalz are traditional Austrian food items made from pork belly or fresh bacon. In English, they are commonly known as "pork cracklings" and "pork lard" or "pork dripping."

This spread is a typical appetizer or spread at the traditional Viennese Wine taverns (Heuriger). It is served on a loaf of bread, together with onion rings and some more prok cracklings ;D.

The spread will keep for a few days to about a week in the refrigerator.

Grammeln and Grammelschmalz are one of those "classics" that I personally don't eat often, but at the Viennese Wine Taverns (Click here more Heurigen Recipes) then all the better for it. The recipe is as simple as a recipe can be: Chop everything and mix together, done!

I used a lot of parsley, because that gives the greasy spread a "fresher" note.

It is served best with a good rustic bread. Garnish the whole thing with a few onion rings and even more Grammeln - enjoy!

Ingredients

For the Grammelschmalz spread you need the following ingredients. The exact quantities can be found in the printable recipe card at the very bottom of the article.

• Grammeln ("Crunchy Pork Cracklings") - can be bought at the butcher or in the supermarkets in the meat and refrigeration department. To make them at home, you'll need to render some pork belly or bacon fat. See here, how to render lard and make pork cracklings at home. It is not difficult and you only need a saucepan. But however, it can take some time and your house will smell like it's been fried for a few days ;D.
• lard (pork fat)
• onion - for this recipe, I prefer red onion
• parsley
• ground caraway seeds
• salt - finely ground salt
• pepper - black, ground

Video

Instructions

About 1 hour before making the recipe, take the lard out of the fridge, so you can mix it better with the other ingredients. Alternatively, heat it up for a short time, to make it softer.

Wash and chop the parsley. Peel and chop the onion. Coarsely chop the pork cracklings.

Mix in a large bowl with the salt, pepper and ground caraway.

Add the soft lard and mix until everything is well combined. I do this with a cooking spoon, you don't need any special equipment. - Enjoy!

Homemade lard and crunchy pork cracklings

The preparation of lard is not difficult, only takes some time. Here is a very good instruction from thehealthyfoodie.com . I've always wanted to render my own lard once, and make crispy lardons myself. But I didn't dare yet, because I'm afraid my house would smell for days. (But it's definitely still on my to-do-list.) Here, however is now a recipe for homemade Austrian greaves lard spread with bought lard and greaves, which I prepared for a party recently.

Shelf life & Freezing of Grammelschmalz Spread

The Pork Lard Spread will stay fresh for a few days in the fridge.

You can freeze this spread, but when thawing, it might not be as crunchy as it should be. To thaw, I would leave it in the fridge overnight.

Pure lard (just the fat without onions etc.), in contrast, has a shelf life of at least a few months and does not need to be refridgerated.