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Gefilte fish (; from yi, געפֿילטע פֿיש, lit. "stuffed fish") is a dish made from a poached mixture of ground deboned fish, such as
carp Carp are various species of oily freshwater fish from the family Cyprinidae, a very large group of fish native to Europe and Asia. While carp is consumed in many parts of the world, they are generally considered an invasive species in parts of ...
, whitefish, or
pike Pike, Pikes or The Pike may refer to: Fish * Blue pike or blue walleye, an extinct color morph of the yellow walleye ''Sander vitreus'' * Ctenoluciidae, the "pike characins", some species of which are commonly known as pikes * ''Esox'', genus of ...
. It is traditionally served as an appetizer by
Ashkenazi Ashkenazi Jews ( ; he, יְהוּדֵי אַשְׁכְּנַז, translit=Yehudei Ashkenaz, ; yi, אַשכּנזישע ייִדן, Ashkenazishe Yidn), also known as Ashkenazic Jews or ''Ashkenazim'',, Ashkenazi Hebrew pronunciation: , singu ...
Jewish households. Popular on
Shabbat Shabbat (, , or ; he, שַׁבָּת, Šabbāṯ, , ) or the Sabbath (), also called Shabbos (, ) by Ashkenazim, is Judaism's day of rest on the seventh day of the week—i.e., Saturday. On this day, religious Jews remember the biblical storie ...
and Jewish holidays such as Passover, it may be consumed throughout the year. It is typically garnished with a carrot on top. Historically, gefilte fish was a stuffed whole fish consisting of minced-fish forcemeat 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 into patties similar to ''
quenelle __NOTOC__ A quenelle () is a mixture of creamed fish or meat, sometimes combined with breadcrumbs, with a light egg binding, formed into an egg-like shape, and then cooked. The usual preparation is by poaching. Formerly, quenelles were often us ...
s'' or fish balls. In an article "Gefilte Fish in America", Tamara Man Tweel writes: "Born in Europe out of religious obligation, poverty, and ingenuity, gefilte fish survived in America due to bottling technology, innovative advertising, and an American Jewish desire to experience faith through the large intestine." In Poland gefilte fish is referred to as ("carp Jewish-style").


Origins

Gefilte fish likely originated in non-Jewish, German cooking. The earliest historical reference to ''gefuelten hechden'' (stuffed pike) comes from ''Daz Buoch von Guoter Spise'' (''The Book of Good Food''), a German cookbook dating to circa 1350 C.E. ''Gefuelten hechden'' was 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 during
Lent Lent ( la, Quadragesima, 'Fortieth') is a solemn religious observance in the liturgical calendar commemorating the 40 days Jesus spent fasting in the desert and enduring temptation by Satan, according to the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke ...
, when it is forbidden to eat meat. By the Middle Ages, stuffed fish had migrated into the cuisine of
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...
and Eastern European Jews.


Preparation and serving

Gefilte fish was traditionally cooked inside the intact skin of a fish, forming a loaf which is then sliced into portions before serving. More commonly, it is now most often cooked and served as oval patties, like
quenelle __NOTOC__ A quenelle () is a mixture of creamed fish or meat, sometimes combined with breadcrumbs, with a light egg binding, formed into an egg-like shape, and then cooked. The usual preparation is by poaching. Formerly, quenelles were often us ...
s. In the United Kingdom, gefilte fish is commonly fried. Gefilte fish is typically garnished with a slice of carrot on top, and a horseradish mixture called chrain on the side. To make the modernized "gefilte fish" fish balls, fish fillets are ground and mixed with eggs (some recipes exclude eggs), breadcrumbs or matza crumbs, spices, salt, onions, carrots, and sometimes potatoes, to produce a paste or dough which is then simmered in
fish stock Fish stock or stock fish may also refer to: *Fish stocks are subpopulations of a particular species of fish. * Fish stock (food), liquid made by boiling fish bones with vegetables, used as a base for fish soups and sauces * Fish stocking, the practi ...
.
Carp Carp are various species of oily freshwater fish from the family Cyprinidae, a very large group of fish native to Europe and Asia. While carp is consumed in many parts of the world, they are generally considered an invasive species in parts of ...
,
pike Pike, Pikes or The Pike may refer to: Fish * Blue pike or blue walleye, an extinct color morph of the yellow walleye ''Sander vitreus'' * Ctenoluciidae, the "pike characins", some species of which are commonly known as pikes * ''Esox'', genus of ...
, mullet, or whitefish are commonly used to make gefilte fish; more recently, Nile perch and salmon are also used, with gefilte fish made from salmon having a slightly pink hue. Catfish is not used, however, because it is not
kosher (also or , ) is a set of dietary laws dealing with the foods that Jewish people are permitted to eat and how those foods must be prepared according to Jewish law. Food that may be consumed is deemed kosher ( in English, yi, כּשר), fro ...
.


Sweet vs savoury

Gefilte fish may be slightly sweet or
savory Savory or Savoury may refer to: Common usage * Herbs of the genus ''Satureja'', particularly: ** Summer savory (''Satureja hortensis''), an annual herb, used to flavor food ** Winter savory (''Satureja montana''), a perennial herb, also used to ...
. Preparation of gefilte fish with sugar or black pepper is considered an indicator of whether a Jewish community was
Galitzianer Galician Jews or Galitzianers () are members of the subgroup of Ashkenazi Jews originating in the levant having developed in the diaspora of the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, from contemporary western Ukraine (Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, and Tern ...
(with sugar) or Litvak (with pepper); the boundary separating northern from southern East Yiddish has thus been dubbed "the Gefilte Fish Line". That this linguistic divide followed a line of sweet versus savoury gefilte fish preferences was first plotted by Yiddish linguist Marvin Herzog in the mid-1960s.
If you trace this sweet-savory divide, you begin to see more than just a difference in palates. In the mid-1960s, Yiddish language scholar Marvin Herzog was perhaps the first to observe that plotting the boundaries of two of the main Yiddish dialects—the central Polish/Galician (''Poylish/Galitzianer''), and the more northern Lithuanian (''Litvak'')—creates a map that lines up exactly with the sweet and savory culinary lines. It's a division that doesn't map to any other political or natural border—a strictly Jewish geography later dubbed "the gefilte fish line." Tell us how you eat your gefilte fish, and we'll tell you who you are. talics in original.ref name="sweet-savoury"/>
The nineteenth century trend of sweeter gefilte fish to the west of the divide has its roots in the rise of the
sugar beet A sugar beet is a plant whose root contains a high concentration of sucrose and which is grown commercially for sugar production. In plant breeding, it is known as the Altissima cultivar group of the common beet (''Beta vulgaris''). Together wi ...
industry in Poland.
"Other Jews had savory noodle kugels," notes ilMarks. "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.


Ready-to-serve

The late 1930s brought a brand named ''Mother's'' from "Sidney Leibner, the son of a fish store owner." This ready-to-serve fish was followed by "''
Manischewitz Manischewitz (; he, מנישביץ) is a brand of kosher products based in the United States, best known for its matzo and kosher wine. Founded in 1888, it became a public corporation in 1923 and remained under family control until January 199 ...
, Mrs. Adler’s, Rokeach'' and others." The post-WWII method of making gefilte fish commercially takes the form of patties or balls, or utilizes a wax 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. The sodium 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, to
Monroe Nash Monroe Nash (September 17, 1912 – July 26, 1997) was an American businessman in the kosher food industry. He and co-inventor Erich G. Freudenstein are credited with US Patent #3,108,882, "Method for Preparing an Edible Fish Product" for the jell ...
and Erich G. Freudenstein. Gefilte fish has been described as "an acquired taste," and twentieth century color-coded labels on jars of gefilte fish reflected this divide. Grocery stores also sell frozen "logs" of gefilte fish.


Religious customs and considerations


Jewish

Among religiously observant Jews, gefilte fish has become a traditional Shabbat food to avoid ''borer'', which is one of the 39 activities prohibited on Shabbat outlined in the Shulchan Aruch. ''Borer'', literally "selection/choosing", would occur when one picks the bones out of the fish, taking "the chaff from within the food". (Originally published at: MK Vaad News & Views, ''Newsletter'', volume 1, number 7 (no longer exists at original site, MK.ca).) A less common belief is that fish are not subject to ''
ayin hara The Evil Eye ( grc, ὀφθαλμὸς βάσκανος; grc-koi, ὀφθαλμὸς πονηρός; el, (κακό) μάτι; he, עַיִן הָרָע, ; Romanian language, Romanian: ''Deochi''; it, malocchio; es, mal de ojo; pt, mau-olha ...
'' (" 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." Gefilte fish is often eaten on sabbath. However, on sabbath, separating bones from meat, as well as cooking, are forbidden by the Talmud. So usually, the dish is prepared the day before and served cold or at room temperature. 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", fish at sabbath meals took on the patina of aphrodisiac, the sages believing that "the intoxicating
ish Ish may refer to: *Ish (name) also ancient Hebrew word for Man at Genesis 2:23, also Ish-shah for Woman *Chazon Ish, sobriquet of Rabbi Avraham Yeshayahu Karelitz *the Sanskrit for "lord", see Ishvara * ''...ish'' (audio drama), Doctor Who audio dr ...
odor on the Sabbath table would encourage couples to 'be fruitful and multiply'—which in Jewish tradition is encouraged on Friday night." Moreover, ''dag'', the Hebrew word for fish, has the numerical value of seven, the day of the sabbath, further underscoring the serving of fish on that day. However, since Jewish law forbids the separating of the flesh of fish from its bones, 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.


Catholic

In Polish Catholic homes, (more commonly in the northern regions near the Baltic Sea), gefilte fish ( pl, karp po żydowsku) is a traditional dish to be eaten on
Christmas Eve Christmas Eve is the evening or entire day before Christmas Day, the festival commemorating the birth of Jesus. Christmas Day is observed around the world, and Christmas Eve is widely observed as a full or partial holiday in anticipation ...
(for twelve-dish supper) and Holy Saturday, as these are traditionally meatless feasts. This follows a pattern in which a number of Jewish non-meat dishes were also eaten on Catholic religious days in Poland.
Also published as:


See also

* Fishcake * Polish cuisine * Israeli cuisine * Jewish cuisine *
Kamaboko is a type of cured , a processed seafood product common in Japanese cuisine. is made by forming various pureed deboned white fish with either natural or man-made additives and flavorings into distinctive loaves, which are then steamed u ...
*
Vorschmack Vorschmack or forshmak (from archaic German language, German ''Vorschmack'', "foretaste"Gil Marks. Encyclopedia of Jewish Food. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2010Forshmak/ref> or "appetizer" ) is an originally East European dish made of salty minced ...


References


External links

* In print, see * * Claudia Roden
"Gefilte Fish and the Jews"
''Jewish Heritage Online Magazine'' * Haym Soloveitchik
"Rupture and Reconstruction. The Transformation of Contemporary Orthodoxy"
(PDF and HTML). In: ''Tradition'', Vol. 28, No. 4 (Summer 1994). {{DEFAULTSORT:Gefilte Fish Ashkenazi Jewish cuisine Carp Christmas food Esox German cuisine Jewish culture Jews and Judaism in Europe Polish cuisine Salmonidae Shabbat food Yiddish words and phrases Stuffed dishes