By Eric Wolf Schoen
With the weather still a bit chilly, it’s hard to believe that spring is upon us with Passover starting this weekend and Easter right around the corner. Long gone are the days of family members searching through the house with a feather for those last few crumbs of bread that may scattered around,
It’s amazing the traditions each family has for Passover. But one thing that always draws controversy is gefilte fish. What is gefilte fish? It is a dish made from a poached mixture of ground deboned fish, such as carp, whitefish, or pike. It is traditionally served as an appetizer by Ashkenazi Jewishhouseholds. Popular on Shabbat and Jewish holidays such as Passover, 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-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 quenelles or fish balls.
Now that doesn’t sound too bad does it? And yes, all the fish needed for this dish must be caught somewhere. So next time someone tells you jokingly they are gefilte fishing, it’s true because if someone didn’t go fishing we wouldn’t have what some consider a delicacy.
To make the modernized “gefilte fish” fish balls, fish fillets are ground and mixed with eggs (some recipes exclude eggs), matza crumbs, spices, salt, onions, carrots, and sometimes potatoes, to produce a paste or dough which is then simmered in fish stock.
Carp, pike, 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.
Gefilte fish may be slightly sweet or savory. Different preparations and taste preferences may reflect Ashkenazi Jews’ specific ancestral origins in Europe. The preference for sweet gefilte with sugar was popular among Galician Jews from central Europe, while gefilte fish with black pepper was preferred by the more northern Litvak Jews.
Sweet gefilte fish with sugar can be traced to the turn of the 19th century, when the first sugar 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.
The idea of putting sugar into anything else was absurd. Polish Jews began to put sugar into all dishes including peppery kugels. stuffed cabbage and gefilte fish.
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, Mrs. Adler’s, Rokeach and others.”
What separates the men from the boys is the stock the commercial gefilte fish is packaged in. Some is packaged in a liquid while other is packaged in a jelly broth. The jelly brother isn’t the most appetizing thing to look at!
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 sodiumcontent is relatively high at 220–290 mg/serving. Low-salt, low-carbohydrate, low-cholesterol, and sugar-free varieties are in the market.
Can you believe this jelly, which some love and some have no use for has a patent? The patent for this jelly, which allowed mass-market distribution of gefilte fish, was granted on October 29, 1963, to Monroe Nash and Erich G. Freudenstein.
Gefilte fish has been described as “an acquired taste.” Grocery stores also sell frozen “logs” of gefilte fish. Some with raisins in it to sweeten it. I don’t know about that!
Many Jewish families haven’t a clue what gefilte fish is Having never served it for Passover. It really has no symbolism like so many other things on the Passover table.
Well, the holidays are here and so is Spring. I hope I have convinced you that yes, you do have to go fishing to make gefilte fish.
May you and yours have a joyous Passover and an Easter filled with beautiful traditions passed down from one generation to another.
Reach Eric Wolf Schoen at ewschoen@icloud.com.
