 Gefilte fish topped with thin slices of carrot | |
| Course | Hors d'oeuvre |
|---|---|
| Region or state | Central and Eastern Europe,United States,Israel,Argentina |
| Created by | Ashkenazi Jewish communities |
| Main ingredients | Ground fish,matzo meal (sometimes), eggs (sometimes) |
Gefilte fish (/ɡəˈfɪltəfɪʃ/; fromYiddish:געפֿילטע פֿיש,German:Gefüllter Fisch / Gefüllte Fische, lit. "stuffed fish") is a dish made from apoached mixture of ground deboned fish, such ascarp,whitefish, orpike. It is traditionally served as an appetizer byAshkenaziJewish households. Popular onShabbat andJewish holidays such asPassover, it may be consumed throughout the year. It is typically garnished with a slice of cooked carrot on top.
Historically, gefilte fish was a stuffed whole fish consisting of minced-fishforcemeat stuffed inside the intact fish skin. By the 16th century, cooks had started omitting the labor-intensive stuffing step, and the seasoned fish was most commonly formed intopatties similar toquenelles orfish balls.[1]
InPoland, gefilte fish is referred to askarp po żydowsku ("carp Jewish-style").[2]
Gefilte fish likely originated in non-Jewish,German cooking. The earliest historical reference togefuelten hechden (stuffed pikes) comes fromDaz Buoch von Guoter Spise (The Book of Good Food), aMiddle High German cookbook dating to circa 1350 CE.Gefuelten hechden consisted of poached and mashed pike that was flavored with herbs and seeds, stuffed back inside the fish skin, and then roasted. This dish was popular with German Catholics duringLent, when it is forbidden to eat meat. By the Middle Ages, stuffed fish had migrated into the cuisine ofGerman andEastern European Jews.[3][4][5]
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Gefilte fish was traditionally cooked inside the intact skin of a fish,[6] forming a loaf which is then sliced into portions before serving. More commonly, it is now most often cooked and served as oval patties, likequenelles. In the United Kingdom, gefilte fish is commonly fried.[7] Gefilte fish is typically garnished with a slice of carrot on top, and ahorseradish mixture calledchrain on the side.
To make the modernized "gefilte fish" fish balls,fish fillets are ground and mixed with eggs (some recipes exclude eggs), breadcrumbs ormatza crumbs, spices, salt, onions, carrots, and sometimes potatoes, to produce a paste or dough which is then simmered infish stock.[8]
Carp,pike,mullet, orwhitefish are commonly used to make gefilte fish; more recently,Nile perch andsalmon are also used, with gefilte fish made from salmon having a slightly pink hue.[9]Catfish is not used, however, because it is notkosher.[10]
Gefilte fish may be slightly sweet orsavory. Different preparations and taste preferences may be a proxy for reflecting Ashkenazi Jews' specific ancestral origins in Europe. The preference for sweet gefilte with sugar was popular amongGalician Jews from central Europe, while gefilte fish withblack pepper was preferred by the more northernLitvak Jews. The boundary separating the two camps was dubbed "the Gefilte Fish Line" by Yiddish linguistMarvin Herzog in the mid-1960s.[11][12]
Sweet gefilte fish with sugar in Galicia can be traced to the turn of the 19th century, when the firstsugar beet factory opened in southern Poland. The sugar industry, which involved many Jews, grew rapidly, and sugar was included in many foods in the region. Culinary historianGil Marks quipped that, '"Other Jews had savorynoodle kugels. You didn't have sweet challah. The idea of putting sugar into anything else was absurd." But Polish Jews began to put sugar into all of these dishes. Previously peppery kugels. The now-sweet-and-sour stuffed cabbage. And gefilte fish.'[12]
The late 1930s brought a brand named Mother's from "Sidney Leibner, the son of a fish store owner."[6] This ready-to-serve fish was followed by "Manischewitz, Mrs. Adler’s, Rokeach and others."
The post-WWII method of making gefilte fish commercially takes the form of patties or balls, or utilizes awax paper casing around a "log" of ground fish, which is then poached or baked. This product is sold in cans and glass jars, and packed in jelly made from fish broth, or the fish broth itself. Thesodium content is relatively high at 220–290 mg/serving. Low-salt, low-carbohydrate, low-cholesterol, and sugar-free varieties are available. The patent for this jelly, which allowed mass-market distribution of gefilte fish, was granted on October 29, 1963, toMonroe Nash and Erich G. Freudenstein.[13]
Gefilte fish has been described as "an acquired taste".[14]
Grocery stores also sell frozen "logs" of gefilte fish.[6]
Among religiously observant Jews, gefilte fish has become a traditional Shabbat food to avoidborer, which is one of the 39activities prohibited on Shabbat outlined in theShulchan Aruch.Borer, literally "selection/choosing", would occur when one picks the bones out of the fish, taking "the chaff from within the food".[15]
A less common belief is that fish are not subject toayin ra'a ("evil eye") because they are submerged while alive, so that a dish prepared from several fish varieties brings good luck. Moreover, because submersion in the water protects the fish from the evil eye, in the Middle East, fish "became popular for amulets and miscellaneous good luck charms. In Eastern Europe, it even became a name, Fishel, an optimistic reflection that the boy would be lucky and protected."[16]
Gefilte fish is often eaten on the Sabbath. However, on Sabbath, separating bones from meat, as well as cooking, are forbidden by rabbinical law. So usually, the dish is prepared the day before and served cold or at room temperature.[16] With gefilte fish being a Sabbath dinner staple, and the commandment in Genesis for fish to be "fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas",[16] fish at Sabbath meals took on the patina of an aphrodisiac, the sages believing that "the intoxicating [fish] odor on the Sabbath table would encourage couples to 'be fruitful and multiply'—which in Jewish tradition is encouraged on Friday night."[17] Moreover,dag, the Hebrew word for fish, has thenumerical value of seven, the day of the Sabbath, further underscoring the serving of fish on that day.[17] However, since Jewish law forbids the separating of the flesh of fish from its bones,[15] pre-made fish cakes such as gefilte fish obviate the need to perform such separation, thus making a preparation such as gefilte fish a regular Sabbath staple, and the perfect vehicle for the requisite fish aphrodisiac.[16][17]
In somePolish Catholic homes (more commonly in the northern regions near theBaltic Sea), gefilte fish (Polish:karp po żydowsku,lit. 'Jewish-style carp') is eaten onChristmas Eve (fortwelve-dish supper) andHoly Saturday, as these are traditionally meatless feasts.[2]
In the public imagination of both Americans and Poles, it is frequently gefilte fish—particularly sweetened gefilte fish—that has outdistanced matzoh as the food that first comes to mind when Jewish food is discussed (Cooper 1993; dc Pomianc 1985). Gefilte fish is sometimes referred to askarp po żydowsku or "Jewish carp, ... Many restaurants in Cracow and Warsaw that are in no other way marked as Jewish offerkarp po żydowsku as either an appetizer or a main course. Stranger still,karp po żydowsku has become a traditional dish in many Catholic Polish homes for Christmas Eve and Holy Saturday, traditionally meatless feasts. (p. 109)Also published as:Jochnowitz, Eve (January 1, 1998)."Flavors of Memory: Jewish Food as Culinary Tourism in Poland".Southern Folklore.55 (3):224–237.ISSN 0899-594X.ProQuest 1311641274. RetrievedOctober 21, 2021.
Instead of the traditional whitefish, this gefilte fish is made with salmon and a Western white-flesh fish, giving it a prettypale pink color and rich flavor. [Italics added.]
All segments of Judaism consider catfish a non-kosher fish, as the Torah explicitly proscribes fish that do not have both fins and scales.
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