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It has been part of the Eastern European Jewish diet for many years, but gefilte fish began as a Jewish food.
This article was originally published on The Nosher, 70 Faces Media’s Jewish food site.
Some fish for gefilte as a delicacy, others as something too disgusting to behold. Either way, it would probably be on most people’s shortlist of ancient Ashkenazi foods. For good reason: it has been a part of Eastern European Jewish nutrition for many years.
The funny thing is that gefilte fish didn’t start out as a Jewish food. 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. It was a popular dish for Catholics during Lent, when eating meat was forbidden.
By the Middle Ages, that Catholic dish had migrated into the Jewish kitchen under the moniker gefilte (stuffed) fish. 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. 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. They were surrounded by well-stocked rivers, streams and lakes.
The Gefilte fish even fulfilled some devout commandments. It is prohibited to light a fireplace and start cooking on Saturdays and maximum holidays. Fortunately, gefilte fish can be ready before the Sabbath, refrigerated, and eaten cold. There is also a court order against plucking thorns from the flesh on the Sabbath. Sabbath, as is done when eating fish. With gefilte fish, you get boneless fish.
The problem with gefilte fish is that it takes a long time to prepare. This pain, however, is offset by economic gains: it takes a small amount of fish to feed many people. Before the ground fish is cooked, it is combined with seasonings, egg, and bread or matzo flour to bind it and stretch it a little further. Poor families can only ask the fishmonger for the head, skin and bones of the fish. The skin was stuffed with bread and other fillings, while the bones and head flavored the broth.
Given the time it took to grind the fish back to the skin, a new type of stuffed fish eventually emerged: a fish that wasn’t filling at all. The call remained; The focus has changed. The fish were shaped into patties and poached in a seasoned fish broth.
Over time, gefilte fish has become synonymous with shtetl, Sabbath meals, and festivals. There were many permutations on the plate, some of which indicated his ancestry. German Jews made it with pike. Polish Jews used carp and/or white fish. British Jews used saltwater fish such as cod or haddock. Jews in southern Poland and northern Ukraine served sweet fish, as sugar beets were plentiful there. The Lithuanian gefilte fish, rich in pepper. The Jews of Russia and Belarus put beets in the poaching liquid to obtain a broth and pink-colored fish.
As 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. They were purchased from the fishmonger early in the week and left to frolic in the tub before their home sacrifice. Thursday’s fresh carp became Friday night’s first course. And it heralded the start of the Passover seder, too.
Over time, gefilte fish has lost some of its appeal. Did you need to have a tent in your bathtub while you waited for it to finish?Did you need your house to smell bad of fish? For some, its preparation was a triumph of old-school cooking. Others were content to move on.
And that’s when enterprising Jewish businessmen came here to fill the gefilte fish gap.
Shortly before World War II, Sidney Leibner, son of a fish shop owner, began marketing ready-made gefilte fish under the name Mother’s Fish Products, first in cans and then in Array glass bottles. The mother joined through Manischewitz, Mrs. Adler, Rokeach and others. Old World meets New in mass-produced gefilte fish jars.
Bottled products were simply tasty, but in the late 1970s, consumers were presented with the opportunity to prepare their own new gefilte fish without complications, mold or odor: frozen breads of ready-made gefilte fish. The work swam to save the situation. All you had to do was boil water with the carrots, onions, and celery, and then bring up the frozen bread.
As many of us begin to remember our roots, shtetl food has made a comeback in recent years. Millennials Jeffrey Yoskowitz and Liz Alpern lead “their project to reinvent Eastern European cuisine. ” Her cookbook, “The Gefilte Manifesto,” is filled with Old World recipes, adding herbed gefilte fish, baked fish terrines, and poached gefilte “quenelles,” as well as the original provision: Old Man’s stuffed gefilte fish. World.
As Stephen King wrote, “Sooner or later, everything old becomes new again. ” » The same thing happens with life and with the gefilte fish.
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