Gefilte fish anyone?

[Yael]

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Ode to gefilte
An ode to our love-hate relationship with that very Jewy of foods -- gefilte fish.

by Adi Shulman and Shoshana Israel April 19, 2004









This generation has almost completely forgotten about gefilte fish. Type it into any online search engine and you get bubkes. No statistics, no fun facts, no history. Nothing. When was the last time you ordered gefilte fish off of a menu? Even Shabbat dinner tables are now adorned with sushi instead of our beloved whitefish. Well, that's all about to change. To make sure the tradition never dies, we found out all you'd ever want to know about the food that our bubbies and zaydes grew to adore.

It starts with a little fish, a pinch of salt, some carrots and onions, and a lot of love. Ah, yes, gefilte fish. It is the smelly food with a Jewish past, a Jewish present, and swimming its way into a Jewish future. One could even say it represents the Jewish people. Gefilte, like the Jews, has changed over time, spread throughout the world, and reflects a plethora of customs.






Three things every Yid should know about gefilte fish:

1. Manishewitz alone sells more than 1.5 million jars nationally and internationally -- that's one jar for every ten Jews in the world.

2. Los Angeles is the leading gefilte fish market in the world.

3. Gefilte fish is typically low carb, low fat, low saturated fat, high in protein, and contains Omega 3. Just what the Dr. Atkins ordered.






Literally meaning "stuffed fish" in Yiddish, gefilte fish originally referred to the custom of preparing fish for the Sabbath. It originated from two needs: adherence to Jewish law, along with lack of resources. The Torah law of borer prohibits on the Sabbath the separation of edible parts of an animal from the inedible. The separation of fish from its bones falls into this category.

In the late Middle Ages, Jews in Eastern Europe prepared their Sabbath fish on Friday. Unfortunately, their fish didn't last so long, considering the refrigerator was invented centuries later in 1803. So, to preserve the fish, it was discovered that adding onions kept it from going bad for a little while longer. Thus, in preparation for the Sabbath in the Middle Ages, Eastern European Jews removed the fish from the bone, added onions, and hoped the house didn't smell like a fish factory. Most gefilte today is served as skinless fish cakes.

"Gefilte fish was the perfect solution," explains Zvi Ehrentreu, the manager at Perl's Meat Delicatessen. "Because the fish is ground and minced, there are no bones to worry about, so it's both kosher and easy to eat."

Moish Friedman, the owner of Friedman's Fresh Fish in Toronto, says that carp, which fill the Eastern European waters, are known for their countless bones. He gives a practical answer in addition to Ehrentreu's religious one. "The Jews couldn't feed the bones to their young kids, so they took the fish apart so they could have edible food for the whole family to enjoy," he says. Friedman's sells gefilte both raw and cooked.

Joe Hartman, owner of Hartman's Kosher Meats, sells roughly 30 loaves of gefilte fish each Friday afternoon, and says the delicacy is lost on the younger generation. "These kids don't appreciate what goes into making gefilte fish," he says. "They don't put their heart and soul into it like their parents or grandparents did. It takes lots of work, but now you can just walk into any supermarket to buy it."

Yet, gefilte lovers don't always opt for the retail offering. Both Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews adapt gefilte fish recipes to their families' preferences. Traditionally, freshwater, white-fleshed fish such as pike, carp, or whitefish is used. Some like a peppery fish broth and savory fish; some like it sweetened with sugar. Changes are made all the time, whether it is the kind of fish used, the broth in which it is cooked, or the toppings.

Most North Americans prefer their gefilte fish served with horseradish, while Latin American Jews cook the gefilte fish in tomato sauce. Some like mayonnaise as a dipping sauce; others enjoy it straight-up.

Despite these modifications and alterations, gefilte fish has endured, amazingly. While not nearly as popular as other Jewish foods such as the bagel, kugel, knish, falafel, or matzah balls, gefilte remains a symbol of celebrated survival.

As for that omnipresent jelly goo found in gefilte fish jars ... well, that's another story.

This was an article from the site www.jewsweek.com in the society section.

[Henaynei]

Hey!! Really Kewl article!! I really like homemade gefiltefish - really can't stand the canned stuff!! And *give me horseradish!!*


http://www.gefiltefish.us/site_images_user/spot1.gif (http://www.gefiltefish.us/index.cfm?fuseaction=browse&id=2637&pageid=27) I like THIS gefilte fish (http://www.gefiltefish.us/index.cfm?fuseaction=browse&id=2637&pageid=27)also - you will know it is MY white minivan when you see this and my "Adpot a Greyhound" sticker on the back!!! LOL

(Greyhoundhttp://www.animalden.net/images/animated/dogs/greyhound.gif, the only dog mentioned by name and the only dog mentioned favorably in the scriptures - hehehe)

[Yael]

A little over a year ago I could barely do anything but a watered down version of horseradish. I can now keep up with the best of them. I had some prior training with the hot sauces from Mexican and Aisan dishes, though.

My lastest kick has been Salmon. It has been waving to me from the fresh fish section. :wave: :yum: ;)

[simchat_torah]

I still can't tolerate horseradish... blech.

[Henaynei]

I still can't tolerate horseradish... blech.
LOL - are you SURE you're Jewish??? - LOL

[Henaynei]

I started eating horseradish on crackers with my grandma at the age of four. I now crave the stuff and can't get enough of it! :yum:

However, gefilte fish... hmmmm, perhaps today is not the day for me to talk about it because I am getting over a bad case of food poisoning from last night that kept me away from work for the first time. I am still recuperating. All I know is that food poisoning is worse than the flu... TRUST ME. :sick:
I have a battery of smilies that would discribe your day to a "T" - but I have restrained my self and not let my plebian sophmoric tendancies rule the keyobard!!!

[Sephania]

.

[debi b]

My husband looooooves gefilte fish! (me fish in general not so much :blush: ) So being the looooving wife that I am.....I thought he loves salmon too, so I found a place that I could get salmon gefilte fish. Oh what excitement and joy I had thinking about how much he would enjoy it! He ate on it for awhile (had to order it from out of state so I bought a case) and finally told me the flavor of the salmon was overpowering his horseradish and he kinda liked the other kind better :P .

[Sephania]

.

[P_G]

I love Gefelte fish
and the gelationous stuff
heat it up like a soup
it gets that way from the marrow of the fish bones.

And if you want some real horseradish let me make you up a jar
and send you some.

Common Yafet just one forkfull it will be good for you
Grows hair on your chest!
Ask your wife she would like you to have a hairy chest.

Of course son as you get older and keep eating it you will get
hairy back, ears, nose and this whole one eyebrow thing that is just really
bad but HEY live for today!


I make the fishes from pickkrels that I catch myself


Pastor George
Charismatic/Messianic/Calviminian/Mennonite with a solid Roman Catholic upbringing :wave:

[Sephania]

.

[debi b]

Ingrate! :mad:




:D


LOL ^_^

ps - he was very kind about his comment....

[Sephania]

.:eek: :D

[P_G]

Zayit

If you attend service tommorow I will see to it we have some
Gefeltefish and horseradish there for fellowship afterwards.


By the way

If anynoe is interested we do cross net cast the service from Nehemiah Center on the 2nd and 4th Friday of the month via Pal Talk. Service starts about 8:00 or when people mostly get there till Ruach Ha'Kodesh says it's done.

If you are interested in listening in send me a PM and I will explain how.


Blessings

Love

Pastor George :wave:

[jeshohaia]

I enjoy my fish...but...never have I had a taste for Gefilte... Is there something I am missing out on? A way to eat it? Anything?

[Plan 9]

...you will know it is MY white minivan when you see this and my "Adopt a Greyhound" sticker on the back!!! LOL

(Greyhoundhttp://www.animalden.net/images/animated/dogs/greyhound.gif, the only dog mentioned by name and the only dog mentioned favorably in the scriptures - hehehe)


Do whippets count, Henny? I could feed mine gelfite fish, if that would help? ;)

http://sevenofnine.cherrytaco.com/Miscellanea/Avatars/Avatars_Hotshot/Whippet_Blitzen_Hotshot.jpg

http://sevenofnine.cherrytaco.com/Miscellanea/Avatars/Avatars_Hotshot/whipppet.JPG

http://sevenofnine.cherrytaco.com/Miscellanea/Avatars/Avatars_Plan_9/Avatar_Psinka_Snooter_Nales.jpg

[Henaynei]

Do whippets count, Henny? I could feed mine gelfite fish, if that would help? ;) LOL do you really think they'd eat it? Remember it HAS to have horseradish!!!

Whippets count with me!! and that last pix even makes the one look like a grey!!! ;)

[Plan 9]

LOL do you really think they'd eat it? Remember it HAS to have horseradish!!!

Yes, they would! The aftermath might not be pleasant, though. ;)


Whippets count with me!! and that last pix even makes the one look like a grey!!! ;)

That my favorite, too. A Polish friend made that one for me, so that's my psinka avatar. LOL

I lost all my pics of my own whippet family, but my cousin has posted a pick of the one I gave him on his homepage, so as soon as I have a chance to download it and then upload it onto mine, I'll show her to you.
The two breeds are very similar in looks and temprament, and both are raced. Whippets are smaller, of course, and are the sprinters. They can beat greyhounds over the course of an eight mile, but over the quarter mile the greys prevail.
My personal opinion (please don't hurt me!) is that both breeds, along with some others, share common descent from the original breed mentioned in the Bible, which may no longer be with us, which was about the size of a whippet, but would have had prick ears like the Ibezian hound.

[Henaynei]

hurt you dear ??? I am not THAT invested in the ancestry of my dogs - LOL - to cause any one *pain* :)

[Aethelsige]

I think they are best raised in no more than groups of 12 in living water. They seem to come in a variety of colors. It is fun watching the Gefiltefish swim around counter clockwise, at least in the northern hemisphere. The way the males white fins droup down when motionless. The females have a strange process of cleansing the rocks before laying their eggs. It looks almost like a tin foil substance on the bottom when they are done. Funny thing is how they all form 4 groups in the tank 3 times a day. Does anyone have pictures of native Gefiltefish in the wild habitats?

[Henaynei]

I think they are best raised in no more than groups of 12 in living water. They seem to come in a variety of colors. It is fun watching the Gefiltefish swim around counter clockwise, at least in the northern hemisphere. The way the males white fins droup down when motionless. The females have a strange process of cleansing the rocks before laying their eggs. It looks almost like a tin foil substance on the bottom when they are done. Funny thing is how they all form 4 groups in the tank 3 times a day. Does anyone have pictures of native Gefiltefish in the wild habitats?
ArrrrggggHH!! :P

What is a Gefilte Fish (http://www.hoolinet.com/gefilte.html)
http://www.judaism.com/gif-bk/81020.gif

You might try looking here: "The Legend of the Mighty Gefilte" (http://www.hoolinet.com/gefilte2.html)

Then there is the endangered Great White Gefilte (http://www.aspendailynews.com/Search_Columns/view_column.cfm?OrderNumber=315). And beware of the Mad Gefilte Fish Disease (http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=22235). And please don't tell me you have missed "Gefilte Fish: The Movie" (http://www.epinions.com/content_25336778372)
http://store2.yimg.com/I/mysticaldragon_1772_31556544
For the sportsmen among us here is how to catch the gefilte fish (http://www.cyber-kitchen.com/recipes/Gefilte_Fish_Story.htm). Once caught here is how to prepare your gefilte fish! (http://www.kosherquest.org/html/Gafilta_Fish.htm)

Enjoy!!

[Plan 9]

hurt you dear ??? I am not THAT invested in the ancestry of my dogs - LOL - to cause any one *pain* :)


Greyhound lovers sometimes have a great deal invested emotionally in the belief that theirs is the oldest of the sighthound breeds, and I found this out THE HARD WAY. :eek:
History records that Queen Hatchepsut (sp?), had the first brought to her by an expedition returning from Punt. It's the amazing care that the Egyptians took in creating the domestic cat, so that they could have a representative of Bastet as part of their family, which leads me to believe that their domestic canine of choice would have had prick ears, like Anubis, and their art seems to show this, but it's very stylized; and scale was unimportant, so that we can't determine size. A friend showed me an entry in her Funk & Wagnals which stated that a number of doggy mummies had been exumed from their cemetary in 1987, and that they were the approximate size of whippets.
I like studying the changes we have made to our animal friends via artificial selection, but what really matters to me is that our contemporary sighthound friends be happy, healthy, and good tempered, rather than that they be 'perfect' in confrmation, or that my breed be the progenitor of the rest; some of the sighthound breeds have so much in common in looks and the proper temprament to be part of a human family (often taking their place as benevolent tyrants), that they are all probably descended from the greyhound of the Bible.
A man called me when I put my first litter up for sale, telling me that he had had four greyhounds who had died of old age, and that he wanted four new friends. He called me once to inquire, and once for directions, and both times he asked me anxiously if whippets were as spirited as greyhounds, each time asking me this question twice. Was I sure they were as spunky?
Usually, since we kept them in the basement, and brought them up, one by one, for several hours at a time, to socialize. This made the other six feel left out, so that we had to leap a childgate, race them up the stars and slam the door in their faces, lest all seven of them join us at once.
When they had a visiter due who might want one, we ordinarily let them upstairs and played with them all before the arrival of this VIP, risking serious breakage (we also had an antique shop in our home), so that they would not be so excited as to forget their manners.
In this case, however, I waited to let them out until the gentleman arrived and they went so far as to tear his shirt off in the process of greeting him. I was afraid I had subjected him to too much of a good thing, but he played with them for hours, and went home with the four of his choice (or their choice), wearing his tattered shirt proudly, like a flag. :)

You do know that this time it's your fault I'm off-topic and I would get my whippets (well, one is a [wash my mouth][wash my mouth][wash my mouth][wash my mouth][wash my mouth][wash my mouth]), and myself some gefilte fish (with horseradish), except that when I sent my home help aid for halvah, she was sceptical that the store carried it, and didn't return with any. I was sad. It looks as though it's going to be even harder buy Kosher food than it is to buy Starbucks. She's a great shopper otherwise, but has trouble discerning between brands of bagged coffee, and I think she's going to find the Kosher section an equal mystery. When I told her I was attempting to celebrate Shabbat, she took it well, though. :)

[Plan 9]

ArrrrggggHH!! :P

What is a Gefilte Fish (http://www.hoolinet.com/gefilte.html)
http://www.judaism.com/gif-bk/81020.gif

You might try looking here: "The Legend of the Mighty Gefilte" (http://www.hoolinet.com/gefilte2.html)

Then there is the endangered Great White Gefilte (http://www.aspendailynews.com/Search_Columns/view_column.cfm?OrderNumber=315). And beware of the Mad Gefilte Fish Disease (http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=22235). And please don't tell me you have missed "Gefilte Fish: The Movie" (http://www.epinions.com/content_25336778372)
http://store2.yimg.com/I/mysticaldragon_1772_31556544
For the sportsmen among us here is how to catch the gefilte fish (http://www.cyber-kitchen.com/recipes/Gefilte_Fish_Story.htm). Once caught here is how to prepare your gefilte fish! (http://www.kosherquest.org/html/Gafilta_Fish.htm)

Enjoy!!



AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! HENNY, YOU'VE OUTDONE YOURSELF THIS TIME! ROTFLMBO!
Pardon me while I clean the Dr. Pepper I was drinking from my keyboard and monitor...

[Henaynei]

Well, *somebody* had to get the thread back on track .........

;) [my best innocent look] http://www.weddingchat.com/images/smilies/innocent.gif (http://www.weddingchat.com/misc.php?do=getsmilies&wysiwyg=1#)

[Aethelsige]

I was wondering when fishing for Gefilte fish whether you had to down rig your lure. And if they are in the Gulf of Mexico.

[Henaynei]

I was wondering when fishing for Gefilte fish whether you had to down rig your lure. And if they are in the Gulf of Mexico.
Now, see??That is what happens when you don't take the time to read the links provided!!! In how to catch the gefilte fish (http://www.cyber-kitchen.com/recipes/Gefilte_Fish_Story.htm) it specifically says they live in the Great Gefilte Lakes (located Upstate New York somewhere in the Catskill Mountains) !! Of course they would HAVE to be cold water fish - That is why you keep them in jars in the frige!!

[Aethelsige]

Is it cheating to use dynamite when fishing for the clever Gefilte?

[Henaynei]

somehow I think the result would not be kosher, but it would shorten the grinding time ;)