The bad smell may be due to the zombie. I buy a big jar at Costco with the gel. As I said before, I really enjoy it now but hated it when I was young. There’s a sell by date on the jar, but after it is opened I don’t feel safe unless I eat it all within a few days.
I bought a jar of gefilte fish once a few years ago. Not bad, not great. They tasted batter wrapped in bacon. But not good enough for me to buy again.
Uh? Gefilte fish - this Kosher food - is wrapped in bacon? The jars at Costco just have that gel with them, which prevents them from drying out, and they are delicious. The problem is that I feel compelled to eat the jar within a few days.
I’m under no dietary restrictions. I was just trying to make them taste better.
Gee - I hope everything turned out OK. No way I am eating that combo.
It is always bad.
It is even worse than the Bread of Affliction.
You cannot improve on perfection.
it’s bad as soon as it’s put in the jar. It tries to warn u by its turd-like appearance & texture, not to mention the sickly jelly it’s in as well. As someone who’s suffered thru some dubious ethnic creations of my people - I can force down derma (kishka) if I’m starving; dry noodle kugel can be drowned in ketchup & made tolerable; and chopped liver can be yummy, after blotting the oil. But if we were in a bunker December 22, 2012 - the world has ended, no more food supply chain, etc. - and they break out a box with jars of gefilte, well there’d be 1 less Chosen person in the post-Mayan world. Hard to eat while ur simultaneously retching. 
I loved it–when my grandmother made it. She went to a fish store, chose a nice fat carp swimming in the tank, had the fishmonger filet and grind it and took it home with all the skin and bones where she prepared it. All I recall of that were eggs and matzoh meal. And, oh yes, she and I chopped the already ground fish in a wooden chopping bowl till it was very fine. She then stuffed every piece of skin and every bone with the mix and cooked it for hours. Umm, umm. I loved the gelatine too. With good strong (white) horseradish.
The stuff in jars, however, ain’t worth a damn. I never thought to boil it with carrots and celery; maybe that would help.
Why are you buying gefilte fish? It’s the Jewish equivalent of dwarf bread.
The TSA has issued a directive that all jars of gefilte fish found in luggage is to be confiscated and its carriers arrested. The noxious substance is now classified as ‘offensive weapon, capable of inflicting nasal damage, throat spasm, and stomach churning.’
Ok, so I’m biased.
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Moved thread from General Questions to Cafe Society, where it can school around with the other food threads.
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But it’s not food…
It’s just horseradish with beet juice added. You can make your own; use the liquid from a can of beets.
Gifilte fish is an acquired taste, and you rarely acquire it before adulthood. I enjoy it occasionally, and have eaten from year-old jars of it and found it was still as good as a new one.
YMMV on that one. I’ve loved it since I was a kid, and my kids love it too. I’ve seen lots of kids in our family enjoy it, and many adults not.
My former step daughter are it with chocolate milk.
Urk.
I like gefilte fish. Ate it for the first time about 17 years ago. I’ve had homemade and the kind from jars and liked both. If done properly, it has little or no fishiness about it. And the blandness makes it the perfect vehicle for The Horseradish.
I live in the land of jalapenos, so I love food that hurts you and makes you cry. But the great thing that makes fresh, potent horseradish different from jalapenos is that the jalapeno juice/heat builds up on your lips and inside your mouth and lingers, sending a strong message to stop soon or you will need mucus membrane skin grafts.
Horseradish is like a lightning bolt or flamethrower that strikes your tongue and shoots up your sinus cavities temporarily rendering you brain dead and/or stupid. But then it’s gone in a couple of seconds, and you’re saying, “Did someone get the number of that bus?” And you instantly forget because there is no singed flesh and barely a memory… Then you take another bite… it’s like hitting yourself in the head with a hammer, but each strike is the first strike. Good times.
Hag sameach. Let the games begin.
But that would require allowing a can of beets in the house, which we don’t do.
Have you tried wasabi? The heat doesn’t vanish in a couple of seconds.
Funny, that’s why I like wasabi. The heat comes and goes so quickly, compared to ther types of heat.