# greaves (food)



## Encolpius

Hello, I wonder what do you call *greaves* [unmeltable residue left after animal fat has been rendered] and if people in your country know and eat that unhealthy food or give it only to dogs. thanks a lot. 

Hungarian: töpörtyű (we eat it)


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## Chazzwozzer

*Turkish:* *don yağı *(we eat it, _well I personally don't._)
*Dutch: kaantjes *(they eat it)


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## IkHouVanPulcino

It seems in  *Italian* we call them *Ciccioli* (funny word by the way ) and it seems we eat them, even if I have never heard of them and never tasted them 

Simona


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## K.u.r.t

This is a traditional Czech dish. We call it *škvarky*. Eaten with bread and salt.


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## irene.acler

IkHouVanPulcino said:


> It seems in  *Italian* we call them *Ciccioli* (funny word by the way ) and it seems we eat them, even if I have never heard of them and never tasted them



I agree with you..it seems we eat them .
I've seen them but I think I'll never eat them!!


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## Ilmo

Encolpius said:


> Hello, I wonder what do you call *greaves* [unmeltable residue left after animal fat has been rendered] and if people in your country know and eat that unhealthy food or give it only to dogs. thanks a lot.


Why do you call it unhealthy?
I think the fat rendered when frying bacon is more unhealthy than the delicious "residue" that I eat with my fried eggs or put on the toast.


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## Encolpius

IkHouVanPulcino said:


> It seems in *Italian* we call them *Ciccioli* (funny word by the way ) and it seems we eat them, even if I have never heard of them and never tasted them


Very interesting answer. So, Cicciolina is from ciccioli?


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## parakseno

Romanians call them "jumări" ("jumară" in the singular). People here eat them too, in fact being one of the traditional foods (consumed especially in the winter).
Seems that the word is of Bulgarian origin "_žumerki_".


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## IkHouVanPulcino

Ahahahahah, it seems Cicciolina is more famous than I thought 
Don't think it comes from there though 

Simona


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## DrWatson

Ilmo said:


> Why do you call it unhealthy?
> I think the fat rendered when frying bacon is more unhealthy than the delicious "residue" that I eat with my fried eggs or put on the toast.



Ok, I'm a little confused here about the subject itself. Is there a Finnish word for it because I seriously can't figure out what "greaves" is?


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## Thomas1

K.u.r.t said:


> This is a traditional Czech dish. We call it *škvarky*. Eaten with bread and salt.


I guess we have common origin with Czech folks; in *Polish* we call them: *skwarki*, and yes, we eat them too.
 
* *
Tom


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## Ilmo

DrWatson said:


> Ok, I'm a little confused here about the subject itself. Is there a Finnish word for it because I seriously can't figure out what "greaves" is?


 
I'm as confused as you are. My dictionary (WSOY: Hurme etc) gives only the explanation "rasvan tai talin tähteet", that is, "residue of fat or grease". I know that when ham (or a whole pig) is smoked in the traditional way in a sauna, a lot of fat is rendered, and besides of using it in preparing dishes, it is used at least in the Savo province as it is, only heated, with boiled 'talkkuna' (a kind of special mixture of oats and pea flour). And the residue, in this case, is simply called ham or smoked ham.


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## Encolpius

Dear Finnish friends, the answer is very simple and that was partly the reason of my question. Some nations just don't know or eat greaves. Greaves are from pork or sometimes from duck.


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## robbie_SWE

parakseno said:


> Romanians call them "jumări" ("jumară" in the singular). People here eat them too, in fact being one of the traditional foods (consumed especially in the winter).
> Seems that the word is of Bulgarian origin "_žumerki_".


 
Or Parakseno, the origin could be from the German _*Schmarren*_.  

 robbie


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## Maja

K.u.r.t said:


> This is a traditional Czech dish. We call it *škvarky*. Eaten with bread and salt.





Thomas1 said:


> I guess we have common origin with Czech folks; in *Polish* we call them: *skwarki*, and yes, we eat them too.


In Serbian: *čvarci* (чварци)!!! And it is a common dish (of course )!!!

However, my dictionary says they are called  "cracklings" (meat left after fat has been rendered). But I guess it is the same  thing!


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## Thomas1

Encolpius said:


> Dear Finnish friends, the answer is very simple and that was partly the reason of my question. Some nations just don't know or eat greaves. Greaves are from pork or sometimes from duck.


To my knowledge they are mainly made of pork, perhaps aslo of beef and other kinds of red meat, but I as far as I know people in Poland don't made them from poultry.


Tom


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## Encolpius

Maja said:


> However, my dictionary says they are called "cracklings" (meat left after fat has been rendered). But I guess it is the same thing!


yes, cracklings, greaves. I don't know myself if the English speaking world knows that food.


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## imbay

In thai
Greaves = หนังหมูทอด ( năng mŏo tôt )


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## Lugubert

Perhaps this excerpt from the Swedish National Encyclopedia is useful for our eastern neighbours:


			
				NE said:
			
		

> *fettgreve*, protein- och fetthaltig bindvävsrest som erhålls efter smältning av svinister. Fettgrevar används i vissa charkuterivaror.


So, basically, protein and fat contaning connective tissue residues after melting lard. Used in some delicatessen products.

Fettgreve is singular, fettgrevar plural. There is (was?) a dialect word, *pôrer*.

From some Internet travelling (I had seen the word, but never encountered the material), it seems that it can be found in some brands of dog food, and that a small number of Swedish humans have tried greaves as well. Most of the few didn't like it.

Despite the Swedish homonymity greve = 1) greaves, 2) Count (the title), there is no connection. Greaves seems to be of Germanic origin; *greub- which might be related to for example German _grob_ (English _coarse_).


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## badgrammar

Aaaah!  Cracklings!  now I now what this thread is about.  I don't know if I've ever eaten them. It's a Southern dish in the U.S., and I guess I, rightfully or wrongfully so, associate it with African American cooking from times past (50+ years ago).  Cracklings are obviously inexpensive, as are many of the other things associated with this kind of cooking, like pig's feet (and ears), hog's maw, and any number of delectables made from intestines.  Many of which are probably absolutely delicious, but I haven't tried them. 

I used to love going to the neighborhood market in downtown Baltimore where you could get all those things and more.  

Didn't know you could get cracklings from duck fat, though.  Cool.


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## zaby

Badgrammar, do you have any idea of what it could be called in French ?
I still don't understand what it is but I doubt there may be some fat thing from pork that we French don't eat  

Je suis perplexe...

OK, I've found 2 words for that : *grillons* and *fritons *but they are not in the dictionary and come from local patois.
I guess the word used for _greaves_ is different from an French region to another.

_Grillons_ and _fritons_ also mean something that I know under the name _rillons_ : pieces of pork (or duck) cooked in their fat to make some kind of very fat _'rillettes'_. As the cooking is long, I think this fat becomes what you call _greaves,_ thus this double-meaning for _grillons/fritons._
Et voilà, la boucle est bouclée _._


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## badgrammar

Grillons and fritons sound like they both probably describe the same thing.  Aren't they really just piece of meat/fat/grizzle/skin that have fried for a looooooong time?


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## tikwa

I was wondering what is greaves. It seems it's also know as "pork rinds" and/or 
"Pork scratchings" See Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pork_scratchings

In Bulgaria we have something called "slanina" (сланина) which is similar, but I think not the same thing. Slanina is usually sold in "blocks" or "slabs" and it's pretty tick (about 3-5 cm). It can have the pig skin or not. In one dictionary I have,  сланина is translated as bacon and to an extent it's correct. Slanina is pretty much just the white fatty portion of bacon.

Slanina is pretty salty. I assume part of the preparation calls for lots of salt so it lasts longer. It has been known to be eaten as is. There is a very tasty preparation for slanina called zapruzki (запръжки). It's basically heating up pieces of slanina in an open fry pan. As you can imagine they shrink a lot and are pretty fatty, but they are quite tasty.

AFAIK slanina in Russian is salo (сало).


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## mimi2

In Vietnamese:
*tóp mỡ*
(I don't eat it because it is very greasy.)


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## zaigucis

*Latvian*: dradži . Use to cook food.


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## Outsider

Searching the web, I found a definition of cracklings and several picture, and the Spanish word, *chicharrón*.

From the WRF dictionary I confirmed my suspicion that this is what we call *torresmos* in Portuguese. Yes, it's a common delicacy in Portugal.


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## OldAvatar

> In Bulgaria we have something called "slanina" (сланина)


In Romanian, it is also called "slănină" or sometimes, simply, "slană". It is often a general term for animal fat and it is definitely from Bulgarian.

@parakseno
I also think that "jumări" is of German origin. It's having the particularity of the Sachsen people, who pronounce "Sch" as "zh".


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## daoxunchang

I like to eat them if they are well made(I'm not sure what verb to use here. Hope "made" would not be too ridiculous). 
My English-Chinese dictionary calls it 脂渣 and crackling (Thanks for Encolpius. I was wavering in whether to identify greaves with what I know to be crackling) 油渣. In my experience we call it just 油渣, and I personally feel 脂 is too academic and doubt whether people in daily life would call it by it, but of course it's possible it does not sound absurd in some dialects --- I sometimes suddenly realise that some expressions in my dialect is very much "archaic".


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## Krümelmonster

In German: "die Grieben" (I don't know how common it is to eat greaves, I don't eat it )


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## Tolovaj_Mataj

In Slovene: ocvirki
One of the most important ingredients of the traditional Slovene cuisine. Potato or meal dish (_žganci_) may not miss it. It must be also on the top of sauerkraut and sour turnip.
It can be also found as a filling of the traditional festive bread _potica_, which is called _ocvirkovka_. 

I personally don't like it.


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## Nizo

In *Esperanto*, they are _grivoj _-- the unmelted residue left after animal fat has been rendered.  Yum! J


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## suslik

In Estonian we call them *kõrned, *and I think that some people do eat them, but I've never done that. It sounds kinda ugly thing to eat


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## deine

Lithuanian: spirgai or spirgučiai. 

We eat them


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## barbiegood

In Danish it is called
Flæskesværd

And it is located right next to the chips and salty peanuts...


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## VirginiaGentleman

Greaves are a by-product of the fat rendering process. Cubes of pork fat are rendered, resulting in lard and a residue of little browned, crispy bits. These bits are the greaves. I was not familiar with them in this country, but when I lived in the Stuttgart area (Schwaben), some people would spread the lard on their bread, add a little salt, and, if available, top the lard-spreaded bread with some greaves. These are known in German as "Grieben", in Swabian dialect as "Gruiben", both words are related, and, in fact cognate with English "greaves". I imagine they could also be put in a salad, much as we might use bacon bits. My source for this information is sharing bread prepared this way and my Swabian cookbook. This is no doubt a recipe from Grandmama's more frugal era, when peasant farmers sold their butter in the market in order to get the cash needed to pay their bills. They were left with the schmalz. Lugubert is right about the root, *ghreubh-, but is wrong in his supposition that it is related to German "grob"; that origin is *kreup-.


Lugubert said:


> Greaves seems to be of Germanic origin; *greub- which might be related to for example German _grob_ (English _coarse_).



Lugubert, you are right about the root, *ghreubh-, but wrong in your supposition that it is related to German "grob"; that origin is *kreup-. Greaves on bread and schmalz are actually quite tasty, if perhaps not very healthy for modern people who tend to be more sedentary.


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## apmoy70

In Greek it's called *«ξίγγι»* or *«ξύγγι»* (both spellings are equally common) [ˈk͡siɲɟi] (neut. nom. sing.) and we eat it (I personally do not like eating it).

-MoGr neut. *«ξίγγι»* or *«ξύγγι» *[ˈk͡siɲɟi], aphetism of Late ByzGr neut. diminutive *«ἀξούγγιον» ak͡soúngion* & *«ὀξύγγιον» ok͡sýngion* < ByzGr fem. *«ἀξουγγία» ak͡soungía* < Lat. axungia.

Edit: In Northern Greece and in Crete, _greaves_ is *«τσιγαρίδες»* [ʦ͡iɣaˈɾiðes] (fem. nom. pl.) and they are the left-over browned crispy bits or rendered pork fat. The word is mediaeval, a deverbative noun, deriving from the v. *«τσιγαρίζω»* [ʦ͡iɣaˈɾizo] --> _to brown, sauté (something)_ and an onomatopoeia (from the sound of simmering).
Ιn some other regions (e.g. Aegean isles) _greaves_ is *«γλίνα»* [ˈɣlina] (fem. nom. sing.) < Koine fem. *«γλίνη» glínē* --> _any glutinous substance, oily sediment_ (probably a European Wanderwort cf OHG klenan, OE clǣman, OIr glenim, Lat. glittus).


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## bibax

Slovak: *oškvarky* (plur. Czech škvarky; sing. (o)škvarek)
Austrian German: *Grammeln* (Wiener Knusper Grammeln in Billa)

They are made mostly from raw pork fat (not streaky), but also from raw goose fat. The main product of the process is (rendered) lard, of course.


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## djmc

In the UK I have never come across greaves. For me they are the leg protection of armour. When meat is roasted, the residue (both the fat and the gelatinous part were called dripping  and used either to cook other things or spread on bread, in the way that they do with graisse salée in Brittany. Pork crackling is the skin when roasted. If it is cut and rubbed with salt it becomes brittle and is served with the meat. Pork scratchings are also found. These are small trimmings and roasted to be crispy. Rillettes and rillons are cooked slowly. The meat melts and may be blended into the surrounding fat.


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## Stoggler

This is my experience too.  My parents used to have bread and dripping even wen I was a kid, a throwback to their upbringings in the 50s when money and food was short and you ate what was a available.


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## merquiades

I've never heard of "greaves" and cannot even imagine what they are  I can understand "drippings" and "lard" smear although I find it revolting to eat that.  This is probably why the word is not part of my culture.  The fat white part of meat is "gristle" 
Someone mentioned "bacon bits" if this is similar.  You fry the bacon until all the fat is melted and only the crunchy part of the bacon is left which can be crumbled.


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## bibax

merquiades said:


> Someone mentioned "bacon bits" if this is similar. You fry the bacon until all the fat is melted and only the crunchy part of the bacon is left which can be crumbled.


The main difference is that bacon is already a cured product (salted, smoked, often streaky). The Grammeln, škvarky, čvarci, etc. are made from the layer of raw subcutaneous fat. So in theory they are healthier than bacon.

You can grind and blend them with pork lard to make a spread, or with dough for making (a kind of) pancakes (škvarkové placky).


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## Dymn

*Catalan*: _llardons_ (from _llard _"lard"), we eat it.


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