schmaltz \shmahlts, shmawlts\,
noun:
1. Informal. exaggerated sentimentalism, as in music or soap operas.
2. fat or grease, especially of a chicken.
The declining use of schmaltz, once a favored ingredient for spreading, frying, and flavoring, is a case in point. Formerly common delicacies, well loved among the immigrant and second generations, are relegated to the status of fond memory.
-- Anne Kaplan, Marjorie Hoover, Willard Moore, "The Minnesota Ethnic Food Book," 1986
"...And I'm not going to argue with you because you can argue the schmaltz out of a matzoh and I haven't got the strength for that today."
-- Rhoda Lerman, "God's Ear: A Novel," 1989
Schmaltz comes from the Yiddish shmalts and the German Schmaltz meaning "fat." It entered English in the 1930s.
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