by Gil Marks
Since most central and eastern European Jewish communities were located a distance from the seas, and the Baltic Sea was too brackish to support more than herring, most of the fish available were freshwater varieties. Pike was the prevalent freshwater fish in Germany and it was commonly used in central Europe for gefilte fish. In Poland, the more common carp or, when available, whitefish was generally substituted or, when possible, the two or three were used in combination. This fish trio remains the favorites for this classic dish. Cooks who makes gefilte fish have their own preferences in the varieties and proportion of fish: Using more carp renders a stronger, richer flavor, while adding a larger portion of whitefish and pike creates a more delicate one.
English Jews typically use saltwater fish, particularly a combination of cod and either haddock or hake and, in addition, prefer to pan-fry small gefilte fish patties rather than poach them. In the American Northwest, the unorthodox salmon has become commonplace, producing pink-colored quenelles. In the nineteenth century, some Chasidim who had developed a custom of not eating fish during Passover, but so loved gefilte fish, created a mock form from chicken called falsche fish.
Various other differences in the dish developed over time. Raising the most passion is the amount of added sugar or pepper, which depends on personal preference and heritage. In general, those from Galicia (now southern Poland and northern Ukraine), the location of the first sugar beet factories in the early nineteenth century, developed a preference for a very sweet fish, while Hungarians and Ukrainians continued to make it savory, and Lithuanians added a pronounced amount of ground black pepper. This heated debate endures after two centuries. Some Ukrainians add ground bitter almonds or a dash of almond extract to the fish, while others mix in grated carrot and parsnip. Some Polish Jews put a few onion skins in the cooking liquid to produce a light brown fish. In Germany, gefilte fish was originally accompanied with vinegar and later mayonnaise, but in eastern Europe chrain (horseradish) became the principal and much-beloved condiment.
Originally, the fish was chopped by hand in a wooden bowl using a curved blade, called a hackmesser in Yiddish. The advent of the mechanical grinder in the 1860s made the job of preparing the fish easier—whether it was done at home or by the fishmonger—and led to a smoother, denser texture. Still, many grandmothers insisted on chopping the fish by hand, adamant that it was the only way to incorporate enough air for a proper fluffy texture. Yet shortly thereafter, as the twentieth century progressed and Jews experienced increasing economic growth as well as access to a wide assortment of prepared food, gefilte fish began disappearing from many tables. To be sure, in America, some housewives continued the Old World practice of making gefilte fish at home; they kept a carp alive in the bathtub to remove any muddy taste and killed it on Friday for that evening's gefilte fish. However, since the preparation of gefilte fish was too laborious for most and uninteresting to those less connected with their roots, for a while it seemed that gefilte fish would become the exotic province of delicatessens and Catskill resorts and a rarity in homes. Then the nature and fate of gefilte fish was altered with the emergence of mass-produced versions.
In 1883, Nathan Leibner (1843—1929), a clothing peddler, immigrated from Zmigrod, Galicia (now southern Poland), to New York City and within three years he had earned enough money to bring over his wife and their children. Around this time, eastern Europeans began popularizing gefilte fish in the New World. In 1910, Leibner began selling live carp, a standard food for the masses of eastern European immigrants, and eventually he opened a fish store on the Lower East Side. Nathan's youngest son, Sidney, later took over the business. Then, shortly before World War II, several small manufacturers began offering commercial gefilte fish in cans, products with poor flavor and quality. Leibner decided to offer a more palatable canned gefilte fish, in the sweet Galician style of his family, and called his business Mother's Fish Products. After the war, Mother's switched to glass bottles, which would quickly become the predominant form of container for American gefilte fish. In Israel, on the other hand, canned dagim memula'im, sometimes consisting of slices of fish with their cavity filled with gefilte fish, endured for many more decades.
In 1954, Manischewitz, then known for its matza, opened a processing plant in Vineland, New Jersey, and began producing its own gefilte fish in jars. Soon other Jewish food producers, notably Mrs. Adler's and Rokeach, began offering bottled gefilte fish. Since the equipment for making and bottling gefilte fish was specialized and expensive, initially only the early two companies possessed it; all other brands rented their facilities for production, although each brand used a slightly different recipe. To suit blander tastes, carp was reduced or eliminated in many versions. The fish typically contained matza meal year-round so as to be kosher for Passover. As a result of mass-production, shoppers in America could easily find gefilte fish on grocery shelves and this availability made it typical Sabbath and holiday fare.
Around the time that gefilte fish appeared in bottles, forty million Americans were introduced to the dish on the first Jewish television sitcom, The Goldbergs (1949—1956), a highly popular show derived from an earlier radio program. The particular episode revolved around Molly Goldberg's inability to provide exact measurements to a large food manufacturer for her homemade gefilte fish. A recipe for gefilte fish did, however, appear in the bestselling Molly Goldberg Jewish Cookbook (1955). Thus this classic and distinctive Ashkenazic food became a well-known, but still recognizably Jewish, dish. As noted by American humorist Calvin Trillin in his collection of essays, Feeding a Yen (2004), "Roughly corresponding to the time it took our girls to grow up and move to California, bagels had become assimilated. Gefilte fish was still Jewish food, but not bagels."
Indeed, gefilte fish was subjected to deprecation and mockery. Some of this resentment was a result of discomfort with some elements of their Jewish identity, but for others it was due to the inferior quality of commercial products. The patties of early canned and bottled gefilte fish tended to crumble, discolor, and undergo a loss of flavor during storage, while the broth was thin, liquefying at room temperature. To help mask the flavor deficiencies and to appeal to the sweet-loving American palate, producers began adding more sugar, sometimes in copious amounts.
The appearance and flavor situation was improved, when on October 29, 1963, Monroe Nash (yes, he was Jewish) was granted a U.S. patent for preparing gefilte fish with jellied broth that included carrageen, which allowed the gel to remain stable on store shelves. The jarred fish torpedoes were improved, but still a pale imitation of homemade gefilte fish.
Beginning around 1977, kosher fish stores in the New York metropolitan area and manufacturers introduced a more old-fashioned product that could be cooked at home—raw ground fish, without the chemicals and preservatives, that had been formed into logs and frozen. Although the product is an improvement, the texture of the commercial frozen logs is smoother and still more rubbery than that of the old-fashioned hand-chopped type. In addition, the original stuffed skin version unexpectedly made a small comeback in America toward the end of the twentieth century, spread by immigrants from the former Soviet Union, who had grown up on it. Russians also preferred a higher proportion of carp to whitefish for a more robust flavor. Still, bottled gefilte fish maintained its domination on the American table. At the onset of the twenty-first century, Manischewitz offered about thirty different types of gefilte fish products and sold more than 1.5 million jars of gefilte fish annually.
After centuries, gefilte fish, arguably the most representative of Ashkenazic dishes, not only endures but continues to change. Recently, unorthodox flavor variations were introduced, including jalapeño, Cajun, almond-raisin, and lemon-dill. Vegetarians even prepare a version made from mashed potatoes and eggplant. Gefilte fish is even on the menu of many non-Jewish restaurants in Poland, even though very few Jews now live in that country. Whatever its form, gefilte fish remains the quintessential Ashkenazic Sabbath and holiday appetizer—it is still a
favorite at Passover Seders, Rosh Hashanah dinners, and Sabbath meals and kiddushes.
(See also Carp, Fish, Horseradish, and Whitefish)
Ashkenazic Fish Quenelles (Gefilte Fish)
about 24 medium fish patties
[PAREVE]
3 pounds fish fillets (whitefish, carp, or yellow pike, or any combination)
3 to 5 medium yellow onions
½ to 1 cup ice water
3 to 4 large eggs, lightly beaten
2 to 6 tablespoons sugar
About 1½ teaspoons table salt or 1 tablespoon kosher salt
½ to 1½ teaspoons ground white or black pepper
About ¼ cup matza meal or cracker crumbs (optional)
Fish Broth:
3 pounds fish bones, heads, and tails
3 to 4 medium carrots, sliced
2 stalks celery, sliced
2 medium yellow onions, sliced
2 quarts cold water
2 to 3 bay leaves
About 1 tablespoon table salt or 2 tablespoons kosher salt
Dash of ground white pepper or ½ teaspoon whole white peppercorns
1 to 4 tablespoons sugar (optional)
1. With a hackmesser (curved blade) in a wooden bowl or in a food grinder or a food processor fitted with a metal blade, finely grind the fish fillets and onions, but do not puree. With the hand chopper or in the food processor, gradually mix in the water. For a soft consistency, use more water; for a firmer consistency, decrease the amount of water.
2. Add the eggs. Use more egg for fluffier gefilte fish, less for firmer. Stir in the sugar, salt, pepper, then matza meal. Too much matza meal produces a heavy texture. Cover the mixture and refrigerate for 1 hour while preparing the broth.
3. To make the fish broth: Place all the broth ingredients except the sugar in a large pot. Bring to a boil and simmer for 20 to 30 minutes. Strain and discard the solids.
4. For easier handling, wet your hands often while shaping the fish. For each patty, form about 1/3 cup fish mixture into a 3-inch-long oval patty.
5. Drop the fish patties into the boiling broth. Return the broth to a boil, reduce the heat, cover partially, and simmer, shaking the pot occasionally, for 1½ hours. Remove the cover, add the optional sugar, and simmer for 30 minutes. Let cool in the broth.
Gevina Levana
Israeli recording artist Noa (Achinoam Nini), in her 2001 song "Nanua," intoned (in Hebrew), "Come my love, to the old kitchen, the fridge has been humming to us for four years now. It's his own little tune about gevina levana. You know, he's not out of order. Like us, he's just stuck." To Israelis, gevina levana (white cheese) is not an obscure reference, but a ubiquitous and usually uncontemplated element of modern Israeli life.
The Roman historian Tacitus mentioned that Germanic tribes ate lac concretum (thick milk), implying that these "barbarians" did not understand the art of making hard cheese. Instead, they consumed a fresh white cheese made without rennet by adding buttermilk to heated milk and letting it stand for several days to ferment. Similar fresh cheese is still prepared today by central Europeans, called fromage blanc in Alsace, topfen in Austria, tvaroh (from the Slavic tvarog "curd") in the Czech Republic, quark or qvarg in northern Germany, weisskase in southern Germany, and túró in Hungary. In Israel, it is known as gevina levana.
Gevina levana is an unripened cheese made from cow's milk curdled with lactic acid bacteria. It may be based on whole milk, skim milk, or nonfat milk, and a higher-fat version is produced with added cream. Although the European versions were traditionally made with raw milk, gevina levana uses pasteurized milk. It is somewhat similar to the Sephardic queso blanco and Middle Eastern jiben bayda, although those are typically made from sheep's or goat's milk and are firmer. It is less acidic and looser than labaneh (yogurt cheese). Gevina levana is lower in fat, drier in texture, and less tart than sour cream, which is prepared by adding a bacterial culture to cream.
In central Europe, this type of fresh white cheese is spread plain on bread or used in a wide variety of both savory and sweet dishes, including sauces, dressings, dips, Liptauer (spicy cheese spread), dumplings, pies, crepes, strudels, and cheesecakes. Because it was originally made without rennet, it proved ideal for kosher cooks. On the other hand, Polish and other eastern European versions tended to use rennet for a denser cheese and, consequently, this cheese never made an impact on eastern Ashkenazim, who instead relied on sour cream and curd cheese.
Quark never developed a noticeable following in mainstream America, primarily because eastern Europeans popularized commercial sour cream in the United States during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries before the central European white cheese had a chance to gain a strong foothold. The contrary occurred in Israel, where quark/gevina levana, holds a much higher degree of popularity than sour cream. This now most consummate of Israeli cheeses was introduced by, of all people, the Christian members of the German-based Temple Society. In 1868, members began immigrating to Israel, then part of the Ottoman Empire, where they established the famous Germany Colony in Jerusalem, as well as several agricultural societies, including Sarona, in the Sharon Plain.
Among the Templers' agricultural ventures was cow dairy farming, unlike the local husbandry of sheep and goats. In particular, the Templers made a form of the German quark—which they called weisskase (white cheese), and Israelis translated the name into Hebrew as gevina levana. For eastern Europeans in Israel longing for sour cream, gevina levana proved an acceptable substitute; for central Europeans, it was a taste of the old homeland. When Jews began establishing their own dairies in the 1930s, most produced gevina levana. During World War II, the German Templers, quite a few of whom were Nazi sympathizers, were interned by the British authorities in Australia and their presence disappeared from Israel.
Gevina levana, however, remained and during the decade of tzena (austerity) following the founding of the state in 1948, it emerged among the few widely available foodstuffs to become a mainstay of Israeli dairies and tables. In 2005, Israel's large dairy producer Tnuva introduced its brand of gevina levana to America.
Today, inexpensive brands of commercial gevina levana are sold at every Israeli grocery, and a few people still make it at home. Gevina levana is commonplace at Israeli breakfasts and dinners. It is used in baked goods, as the base for most dairy pashtidas (kugels and casseroles), in dumplings, with vegetables, as a topping for potato latkes, and as a standard bread spread. It serves as a substitute for mayonnaise and sour cream in many salads, sauces, and dips. Most Israeli cheesecakes are made from gevina levana; typically cooks use a special thicker version genna levan l'afiya (for baking).
(See also Cheese, Flammekueche, and Gombóc)
Ghraybeh
Ghraybeh is a tender butter cookie.
Origin: Middle East
Other names: ghorayebah, gourabia, ghorayebah; Greece: kourabiedes, kourabiethes, kurabie; Morocco: ghouribi, ghribi.
Versions of delicate butter cookies called ghraybeh (from the Arabic for "swoon") are found in most parts of the former Ottoman Empire with slight differences in pronunciation or spelling. The classic ghraybeh is made from samneh (clarified butter), and the absence of any water or egg results in a very white, fragile cookie. For meat meals, Jewish cooks substitute oil or tahini (sesame seed paste) for the butter. The original cookie also contained semolina, resulting in a distinctive crunch, but many modern recipes call for only white flour, producing a slightly less flavorful cookie. Ghraybeh are not as sweet as the typical Western cookie. They are frequently flavored with orange-flower water or almond extract.
Housewives commonly keep a container filled with these tender cookies as well as ma'amoul (filled cookies) to serve to guests with tea or coffee. They are typically shaped like little balls, diamonds, or rings (sometimes called bracelets); the latter style is more fragile than the solid cookies. On Purim, the ring cookies, with a single-skinned whole pistachio or almond as a gem, represent Queen Esther's jewelry. Ball- and di
amond-shaped cookies are sometimes topped with a whole almond, which is frequently blanched to keep the cookie entirely white to represent purity. Moroccans serve these cookies at nearly every celebration.
Middle Eastern Butter Cookies (Ghraybeh)
about 36 cookies
[DAIRY]
1 cup samneh (Middle Eastern clarified butter), cooled, or 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
2/3 cup superfine sugar, 1 cup confectioners' sugar, or ½ cup granulated sugar and ½ cup confectioners' sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract, 1 teaspoon orange-blossom water, or ½ teaspoon almond extract
¼ teaspoon salt
About 2 2/3 cups (13.5 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour, or 1 1/3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour and 1 1/3 cups semolina flour
About 36 blanched whole almonds or pistachios (optional)
Confectioners' sugar for sprinkling (optional)
1. In a medium bowl, beat the butter until smooth, about 1 minute. Gradually add the sugar and beat until light and fluffy, about 10 minutes. Beat in the vanilla and salt. Gradually stir in the flour to form a smooth dough that holds together. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
2. Preheat the oven to 300°F.
3. For rounds: Form the dough into 1-inch balls, place 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets, and flatten slightly. For diamonds: On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough ¼ inch thick and cut into 1-inch-long diamonds. If using, press a nut in the center of each cookie. For rings/bracelets: Roll 1½-inch balls of dough into thin ropes, 3½ or 4 inches long and ½ inch wide. Place the ropes 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets, bring the ends together, and press one end slightly over the other end. If desired, press a nut at the conjunction point.
