# Uses for the liquid (broth?) that jarred gefilte fish comes in **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 27, 2020, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uses-for-the-liquid-broth-that-jarred-gefilte-fish-comes-in/847028 "2020-01-27T00:04:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 2
**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:** [February 1, 2020, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uses-for-the-liquid-broth-that-jarred-gefilte-fish-comes-in/847028/21 "2020-02-01T03:33:02Z")
I just discovered Meal Mart gefilte fish (at Walmart). It’s more flavorful than Yehuda. When my _bubbe_ had a fish in the bathtub, she used to pour some schnapps down its throat, so it wouldn’t hurt so much when she killed it. She also made fish-head soup, which nobody else ate or even looked at. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2020, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uses-for-the-liquid-broth-that-jarred-gefilte-fish-comes-in/847028/22 "2020-02-01T05:44:42Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > I just discovered Meal Mart gefilte fish (at Walmart). It’s more flavorful than Yehuda. Thanks for the tip! I’ll look for it. > [@](#): > > When my _bubbe_ had a fish in the bathtub, she used to pour some schnapps down its throat, so it wouldn’t hurt so much when she killed it. :)) ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2020, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uses-for-the-liquid-broth-that-jarred-gefilte-fish-comes-in/847028/23 "2020-02-07T22:25:11Z")
> [@DCnDC](#): > > As a person who usually enjoys odd seafood concoctions, and as a former supermarket nightstocker whose responsibilities included restocking the Jewish section, I was always intrigued by the jars of strange-looking white blobs that the label claimed to be fish, but in 12 years I never bought one and tried it. It seemed like a fairly large jar and I didn’t want to have to toss out that much food if I hated it. I have many Jewish friends who could probably give me some, or at least certainly their parents could, but I’ve never taken advantage of that opportunity, either. > > Someday I’ll get around to trying it. > > I’m guessing it’s similar to Asian fish balls, which is fish meat that’s been pounded into a paste, then mixed with a few seasonings, formed into balls, and boiled. Is that close? I once helped my grandmother make a batch. It started with her choosing a carp swimming in a tank at the fish store. The fishmonger killed it and cleaned it, reserving all the skin ones and head and ground the meat. My grandmother then chopped the ground meat finer and finer while preparing a broth from the head, skin, and bones. She then mixed it with matzoh meal, raw eggs, and various spices. She fished the skin, bones, and head from the broth and then started stuffing the mixture into skin, into hunks of bone, and even into the head, just making fish balls out of the rest. She then put all these pieces into the broth and cooked it for a while. The bones must release gelatin so that’s why you get jelly. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2020, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uses-for-the-liquid-broth-that-jarred-gefilte-fish-comes-in/847028/24 "2020-02-07T23:12:00Z")
Ah, gefilte fish. There’s a reason Israelis east almost exclusively Middle Eastern and Sephardic Jewish food. ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2020, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uses-for-the-liquid-broth-that-jarred-gefilte-fish-comes-in/847028/25 "2020-02-08T01:46:05Z")
Oh yum. That Yehuda is powerful medicine. Take a carrot. Peel it, slice it thin. Lightly blanche it. Chill overnight. Take a heap 'O fresh dill. Mince it finely. Mix carrot disks and dill into Gefilte broth. Oooooh man. ---
**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:** [February 8, 2020, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uses-for-the-liquid-broth-that-jarred-gefilte-fish-comes-in/847028/26 "2020-02-08T02:11:41Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > Ah, gefilte fish. > > There’s a reason Israelis east almost exclusively Middle Eastern and Sephardic Jewish food. Party pooper. Take a New York vacation and **cmkeller** and I will treat you to some REAL Jewish food (i.e. NYC Jewish food). ---
**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:** [February 8, 2020, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uses-for-the-liquid-broth-that-jarred-gefilte-fish-comes-in/847028/27 "2020-02-08T02:33:55Z")
> [@Cartooniverse](#): > > Oh yum. That Yehuda is powerful medicine. > > Take a carrot. Peel it, slice it thin. Lightly blanche it. Chill overnight. > > Take a heap 'O fresh dill. Mince it finely. > > Mix carrot disks and dill into Gefilte broth. > > Oooooh man. Very interesting! Do you serve this hot, warm, chilled, or at room temp? When I first open the jar I eat the fishie balls at room temp and then put the jar in the fridge. Later I eat them out of the fridge. I think the gefilte fish itself is best at room temp or chilled. I can’t imagine it hot, but I don’t have vast experience with it. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2020, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uses-for-the-liquid-broth-that-jarred-gefilte-fish-comes-in/847028/28 "2020-02-08T04:04:50Z")
I can’t be helpful about gefilte fish aspic, but your post did inspire me to pick up a jar of borscht and a bit of fresh dill today. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2020, 8:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uses-for-the-liquid-broth-that-jarred-gefilte-fish-comes-in/847028/29 "2020-02-08T08:28:28Z")
> [@Ukulele\_Ike](#): > > Party pooper. Take a New York vacation and **cmkeller** and I will treat you to some REAL Jewish food (i.e. NYC Jewish food). Are you kidding? My family moved from New York to Israel to get away from that stuff! (Actually, I used to go on a pilgrimage to the Second Avenue Deli every time I visited the city, before it moved uptown and got way to expensive. I would NEVER make fun of deli sandwiches). ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2020, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uses-for-the-liquid-broth-that-jarred-gefilte-fish-comes-in/847028/30 "2020-02-08T14:54:36Z")
For those who’ve been spared the horror of witnessing what comes in jars of gefilte fish (scurrying past the applicable refrigerated food section, heads down), here’s a version that while grotesque, [isn’t quite as horrible](http://eatthisny.com/2014/09/25/dish-of-the-week/dish-of-the-week-salmon-whitefish-gefilte-fish-at-russ-daughters/) as what I remember my grandparents eating. \*"Gefilte fish is the subject of many nightmares of young Jewish kids forced to eat that gelatinous fish mound at the holiday table. Honestly I never minded the stuff that much. But I knew it had to get better than those store-bought science experiments. Russ & Daughters makes both a traditional gefilte fish (from pike, whitefish, and carp) and a much more mild, fancier version with salmon and whitefish. The latter tastes like actual meat from the sea with enough dill and pepper to elevate this to restaurant quality food. It wouldn’t be surprising if this was an appetizer at a fancy French restaurant that called it “fish paté”."\* Yeah, right. Speaking of jelly, there’s a rind of it found in cans of the ‘‘paté’’ my dog eats. He wolfs it down without caring how nauseating it looks, so there’s a solution for the OP - feed it to your dog. ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2020, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uses-for-the-liquid-broth-that-jarred-gefilte-fish-comes-in/847028/31 "2020-02-08T15:46:08Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > I once helped my grandmother make a batch. It started with her choosing a carp swimming in a tank at the fish store. The fishmonger killed it and cleaned it, reserving all the skin ones and head and ground the meat. My grandmother then chopped the ground meat finer and finer while preparing a broth from the head, skin, and bones. She then mixed it with matzoh meal, raw eggs, and various spices. She fished the skin, bones, and head from the broth and then started stuffing the mixture into skin, into hunks of bone, and even into the head, just making fish balls out of the rest. She then put all these pieces into the broth and cooked it for a while. The bones must release gelatin so that’s why you get jelly. This is exactly how my grandmother made it. She even made her own cosmic hot beet horseradish from scratch. I can still remember how her entire house would smell during the prep. ---
**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:** [February 8, 2020, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uses-for-the-liquid-broth-that-jarred-gefilte-fish-comes-in/847028/32 "2020-02-08T18:03:06Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > … > Speaking of jelly, there’s a rind of it found in cans of the ‘‘paté’’ my dog eats. He wolfs it down without caring how nauseating it looks, so there’s a solution for the OP - feed it to your dog. Good idea! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2020, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uses-for-the-liquid-broth-that-jarred-gefilte-fish-comes-in/847028/33 "2020-02-09T02:00:23Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > Very interesting! Do you serve this hot, warm, chilled, or at room temp? > > When I first open the jar I eat the fishie balls at room temp and then put the jar in the fridge. Later I eat them out of the fridge. I think the gefilte fish itself is best at room temp or chilled. I can’t imagine it hot, but I don’t have vast experience with it. Oh, chilled. ---
**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:** [February 9, 2020, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uses-for-the-liquid-broth-that-jarred-gefilte-fish-comes-in/847028/34 "2020-02-09T13:42:46Z")
DEFINITELY chilled! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uses-for-the-liquid-broth-that-jarred-gefilte-fish-comes-in/847028.md?page=1)