I always knew when my mother was cooking gefilte fish.
I would come home from school, step into the small landing just past the front door, and it would greet me – that smell. I wish I could say it was a good and welcoming smell but, I can’t. I didn’t like the way our house smelled on gefilte fish day. But I did like the way the fish tasted, once prepared.
My mother loved counting the fish balls, figuring out how many she could get out of her mix. And she always told us how you need to add lots and lots of pepper, more than you would believe, when preparing the stock for the fish. Without pepper, the fish would be bland.
My father loved gefilte fish, but he especially delighted in eating the bones that floated on the top of the fish pot, giving the stock its gel-like consistency once chilled. He would moan with delight. My mother would reprimand him to be careful of the bones and another successful batch of homemade gefilte fish would be enjoyed.
I finally documented my mother’s recipe, shortly before she died. I wrote up the recipe, gave it to my mother to approve and edit, which she did. It was published shortly thereafter in The Heschel School Cookbook.
I am pictured here with my mother's mother, Sarah Rutkowitz, from whom my mother learned to make this fish.
Ingredients
2 pounds whole whitefish
2 pounds whole pike
1 pound carp
1 large yellow onion, chopped
2 extra-large eggs
½ cup water
2 tablespoons matzoh meal
Kosher salt and ground black pepper
1 – 4 tablespoons sugar, more to taste
4 carrots, thickly sliced
4 celery ribs, thickly sliced
1 large white onion
Preparation
Have the fishmonger skin, bone and behead the fish. Save the bones and heads.
Have the fishmonger grind the filleted fish with chopped onion. In large bowl, combine ground fish and onion mixture with eggs, water, matzoh meal, salt, pepper and 1 tablespoon sugar until it has the consistency of raw meat loaf.
Line the bottom of an 8-quart pot with sliced carrot, celery, whole onion, salt, pepper and remaining sugar. Fill pot halfway with water. Bring water and vegetables to boil over high heat.
To check seasoning, roll 1 tablespoon of fish mixture into a ball and drop into boiling broth. Simmer 10 minutes, then taste. Adjust seasoning of salt, sugar and pepper in the fish mixture.
Once you have refined the seasoning of the fish mixture, wet hands, make fish balls and drop into gently boiling water. Add fish bones and heads to top of pot. Cook 1 ½ hours, adding additional salt, sugar and pepper to taste during cooking.
Remove fish balls and place in a glass container. Add broth to container. Cover and chill in refrigerator. Broth should gel. Serve each piece of fish with some gel and sliced carrot.
NOTE: Five pounds of whole fish yields 2 ½ pounds filleted fish. Once the fish are filleted, have the fish store pack the fish bones and heads in a separate package, for use in making the broth.
Yield: 12 – 20, depending on the size of the balls of fish
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