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KS_HasRead t1_j5yv7yi wrote

Reply to comment by MaxMMXXI in The British aisle in my American grocery story (Publix, North Carolina) by MarcoNoPollo

Well the one you know now (mysterious lump in a jar) was actually made in the age of refrigeration. the original type of gefilte fish was interesting (if you like fish). Gefilte means stuffed in yiddish. You'd take a whole fish with skin on. You'd flay it open and pull out all the insides and carefully de-bone it. But you'd keep the skin intact. Then you'd add veg (onion, garlic, matzah etc) to the fish meat you'd pulled out. Then stuff it back in the skin. Then roast the whole thing. So when you put it on the table it was a very elaborate presentation of a complete fish. But the inside was basically fish meatloaf.

The jar goop came around during the 1940s and 50s along with tv dinners. No more laboriously flaying out a fish. You could just grab it from a jar. So modern!

(In the spirit of the real story of gefilte fish, I make a fish croquette mix from fresh fish basically and use a cookie cutter to shape them like fish. Then deep fry it.)

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MaxMMXXI t1_j5zh990 wrote

So it wasn't a preserved fish until it was unnecessary to preserve it as grey lumps in a jar of glop? I wondered why those were called "gefilte" too, so thanks for answering that mystery.

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KS_HasRead t1_j5zhkc1 wrote

>So it wasn't a preserved fish until it was unnecessary to preserve it as grey lumps in a jar of glop?

yep. lol. It originally was something you might make ahead. But it also was very pretty and tasty. https://memod.com/BabiesBriefsAndBooks/putting-the-gefilte-back-in-gefilte-fish-5890

Then the 1940s f*d it up.

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MaxMMXXI t1_j601g6h wrote

As the writer in your link rightly said, gefilte fish has been done a disservice by modernity. I can check this one-of-those-things-I-wonder-about off my list.

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