Gefilte Fish 101
What even is a gefilte fish and how did this dish come to be?
In Yiddish, gefilte means stuffed. So while you may have grown up thinking that a gefilte fish was a uniquely Jewish species, in reality, gefilte fish refers to a method of preparation. With origins in Ashkenaz (Germany and Northern France) during the Middle Ages, gefilte fish was originally prepared by removing the flesh from a whole fish, mixing it with spices, bread crumbs and sometimes nuts and/or eggs, stuffing the mix back into the skin of the fish and roasting or grilling it whole.
While Jewish cooks weren’t necessarily the first to try their hands at this culinary technique (Catholics got very creative with fish dishes during lent!), the Jewish community ultimately adopted gefilte fish because it solved some kashrut conundrums and corrected for economic shortcomings. In the words of scholar Nora Rubel:
“Jews have traditionally eaten fish on the Sabbath, and due to prohibitions against ‘sorting’ or ‘selecting,’ bones must be removed prior to sundown on Friday. This style of ‘filled’ or ‘stuffed’ fish allowed for Sabbath consumption and, with the addition of bread or matzo meal as a binder, allowed for the cook to stretch the fish to go further and feed more people.”
In other words, a tiny fish could be a dramatic centerpiece on the holiday table, when enhanced with a few extra ingredients. And for poverty-stricken Ashkenazi Jews, this was significant, as was the opportunity to serve fish on a special day. And with so many Jews involved in the carp trade in Eastern Europe, gefilte fish became increasingly associated with the dish and the technique. In Poland today, gefilte fish is even referred to as Jewish-style carp.
Fast forward a couple of centuries and the stuffing technique was mostly replaced with the simpler poached fish balls that many of us know today. The characteristic gel is a byproduct of the poaching liquid containing the skin and bones of the fish. While the gel may not be popular today, it was still so popular in the 1960s that a patent for synthetic gel was approved, and the jar we know today was born.
In England, they fry it. In Mexico, they cook it in a tomato sauce. In Argentina, they bake it. When we first started making gefilte fish, we loved baking in a terrine.
And you?!