# I ate gefilte fish today for the very first time **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 23, 2015, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-ate-gefilte-fish-today-for-the-very-first-time/715767 "2015-03-23T11:57:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Tibby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tibby/32/17030_2.png) [@Tibby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tibby)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2015, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-ate-gefilte-fish-today-for-the-very-first-time/715767/41 "2015-03-25T04:49:40Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > I found these to be merely marginally better than the jarred. If you want it done right, **make it yourself.** (Bolding mine) Agreed. The same advice also applies to: smoked whitefish salad, spaghetti sauce, and love. ---
**Author:** ![Tibby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tibby/32/17030_2.png) [@Tibby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tibby)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2015, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-ate-gefilte-fish-today-for-the-very-first-time/715767/42 "2015-03-25T04:52:36Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > You know, not enough people bother with that **traditional preparation technique** anymore. (Bolding mine) Agreed. But, I tried that with horseradish sauce and the ASPCA got after me. ---
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Wayne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4bbf92/32.png) [@Charlie\_Wayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Wayne)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2015, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-ate-gefilte-fish-today-for-the-very-first-time/715767/43 "2015-03-25T06:36:46Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > I hate the stuff. 🙂 I never understood the appeal of Gefelte Fish. It’s like taking a high quality steak and grinding it up into hamburger and then cooking it in a “well done” style. It completely ruins the flavor and the texture of the real thing. IMHO, it is just bizarre why so many people like it. Is it because of some religious law that prohibits the cooking of that kind of fish in its natural form? I could understand that kind of explanation. But I can’t imagine any other explanation. Does anyone know if there is an explanation for eating fish in that style? I like fish sometimes. I just can’t see any reason for destroying it before eating it. Seems like a very silly way to prepare fish to me. Is there any sensible explanation for preparing fish in that way? P.S. I want to be clear that I’m not saying Jewish people have bizarre eating habits. I’m just saying that I never understood why so many people of any religion like this style of fish. I don’t like it for the same reason I don’t like hamburger. I don’t think it has much of anything to do with religion. It just seems to me to be akin to destroying fish before eating it - much in the same way as one can view hamburger as destroying a steak before preparing it as humburger. ---
**Author:** ![Tibby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tibby/32/17030_2.png) [@Tibby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tibby)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2015, 7:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-ate-gefilte-fish-today-for-the-very-first-time/715767/44 "2015-03-25T07:09:15Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > I used to go to a place called Michael-Felters for wurst, tons of varieties. They had one location in Penn Center and another one at the **King of Prussia Mall**. (Bolding mine) Just caught this. [**The King of Prussia Mal**](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_of_Prussia_Mall)l is one big-assed mall. My sister still drags me there whenever I go back north for a visit (she and her husband live 10 minutes from it). The deal is: I carry her shopping bags 20 miles around the mall, then she treats me to a 20” cheesesteak _“wid”_ (_with onions_)—it’s worth it. Sis has been dragging me to malls for over 50 years, starting with, arguably, the very first suburban mall: the [Cherry Hill Mall](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherry_Hill_Mall). No wonder I’ve developed a chronic case of mall-o-phobia. ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2015, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-ate-gefilte-fish-today-for-the-very-first-time/715767/45 "2015-03-31T15:12:25Z")
The stuff in jars is terrible (IMHO). Better to get gefilte fish from a kosher caterer or frozen from the kosher section of a supermarket and boil it. Better still is the stuff made from scratch like my mother used to do every week (and now does only occasionally - looking forward to getting some of that on Passover). There’s good gefilte fish, but you won’t get it off a supermarket shelf. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2015, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-ate-gefilte-fish-today-for-the-very-first-time/715767/46 "2015-04-01T02:24:20Z")
I have bought a jar of Manischewitz “Whitefish” gefilte fish, because I’d never tried that particular variety. I’ve gotta say, it had absolutely no taste whatsoever. Even the jelled broth, which I usually love, had no taste. The only things in the jar that had any flavor at all were the carrots. Thank god for horseradish; at least I could taste that. Make it yourself, or find someone who does. I wish my \*bubbe \*had been able to write down her recipe; I still have her chopper and wooden bowl. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2015, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-ate-gefilte-fish-today-for-the-very-first-time/715767/47 "2015-04-01T14:16:26Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > Well, at least you understand horseradish… In Texas we eat a lot of jalapenos and other chili peppers, because we love pain. But the pain and heat of the pepper lingers on your lips and tongue. I love these chili powder-coated chip things, and have wound up with blisters on the roof of my mouth. Good times. But horseradish is like a bolt of lightning that lasts for a few screamingly painful seconds and then is gone…leaving only amnesia in its wake. Moments after the event, you can’t believe it really felt like a ice pick being driven into your sinuses…did it? Then you take another bite. :eek: I guess eating horseradish is best compared to electroconvulsive therapy. In fact, I believe that’s what it was used for in the Old Country before electricity. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2015, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-ate-gefilte-fish-today-for-the-very-first-time/715767/48 "2015-04-02T01:37:33Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > But the best whitefish salad I’ve ever had out was at the deli of the Trump Plaza in Atlantic City. About the only thing the Donald has ever done right. I am almost certain that Trump does not make that whitefish salad himself. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-ate-gefilte-fish-today-for-the-very-first-time/715767.md?page=2)