When gefilte fish - gefilte means “stuffed” in Yiddish - emerged in medieval German-Jewish cookery, the flesh was removed from the bones, mixed with matzoh meal or bread and onions, seasoned, and stuffed into the skin, which was then sewn up and roasted.īy the 16th century, Ashkenazic cooks in Germany eliminated the stuffing step and instead poached the fish mixture in fish broth. Indeed, the jarred variety with which most people are familiar “seemed to have been fashioned, golem-like, from packing materials and crushed hope,” said Rebecca Flint Marx, a food writer, when describing the version from her Midwest childhood. Millennials Jeffrey Yoskowitz and Liz Alpern are leading the way with “their mission to reimagine Eastern European cuisine.” Their cookbook, “ The Gefilte Manifesto,” is filled with Old World recipes including herbed gefilte fish, baked terrines of fish and poached gefilte “quenelles,” as well as the original deal: Old World Stuffed Gefilte Fish.Īs author Stephen King wrote, “Sooner or later, everything old is new again.” As it is with life, so it is with gefilte fish.Gefilte fish, the oval-shaped balls of ground fish most commonly associated with the Passover holiday, might resemble quenelles, the French comestible often linked with the cuisine of Lyon, but you won’t find gefilte fish in Escoffier’s “Le Guide Culinaire.” All you had to do was boil water with carrots, onions and celery, then pop in the frozen loaf.Īs many of us have begun to look back on our roots, the food of the shtetl has made a comeback in recent years. The bottled stuff was just palatable, but in the late 1970s, consumers were offered the chance to make their own fresh gefilte fish without the fuss, muss and odor: Frozen loaves of ready-made gefilte fish swam in to save the day. Old World met New in mass-produced jars of gefilte fish. Mother’s was joined by Manischewitz, Mrs. Shortly before the Second World War, Sidney Leibner, the son of a fish store owner, began selling ready-made gefilte fish under the name Mother’s Fish Products - first canned, and later in glass bottles. ![]() Others were happy to move on.Īnd that’s when some enterprising Jewish businessmen moved in to fill the gefilte fish void. Did you really want a carp in your bathtub waiting for its end? Did you really want your home reeking of the malodorous scent of fish? For some, preparing it was a triumph of old school cuisine. Over time, gefilte fish lost some of its appeal. And it heralded the start of the Passover seder, too. Thursday’s fresh carp became Friday night’s first course. They were purchased from the fishmonger early in the week and left to frolic in the tub before their home sacrifice. They were surrounded by well-stocked rivers, streams and lakes.Īs the Eastern European Jews left their shtetls, they brought their cuisine with them. Many of us have heard stories of fresh carp swimming in bathtubs on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Plus, for the Jewish communities in Germany and Eastern Europe, it was easy to gain access to the fresh, sweet fish that is ground to make the dish. The rabbis considered fish to be the perfect food to kick off a Sabbath or holiday meal, since fish symbolize the coming of the Messiah and fertility. It was a popular dish for Catholics during Lent, when eating meat was forbidden.īy the Middle Ages, that Catholic dish had migrated into the Jewish kitchen under the moniker gefilte (stuffed) fish. The first mention of gefuelten hechden (stuffed pike) comes from a 700-year-old, non-Jewish, German cookbook in which poached and mashed fish was flavored with herbs and seeds, stuffed back into the skin and roasted. The funny thing is that gefilte fish didn’t start out as a Jewish food. For good reason - it’s been part of the Eastern European Jewish diet for hundreds of years. Some see gefilte fish as a delicacy, others as something too disgusting to contemplate. Either way, it would probably appear on most people’s short list of classic Ashkenazi foods. This article originally appeared on The Nosher, 70 Faces Media’s Jewish food site.
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