Ashkenazi · appetizer

Gefilte Fish (Poached Carp and Pike Quenelles in Their Own Jelly)

Name: Gefilte Fish (Poached Carp and Pike Quenelles in Their Own Jelly)
Prep time: 2 h 40 min
Total time: 10 h 40 min
Cuisine: Ashkenazi
Ingredients: carp fillet — 1000 g; pike — 500 g; onions — 220 g; eggs — 200 g; matzo meal — 60 g; salt — 10 g; freshly ground white pepper — 7 g; caster sugar — 13 g; carrots — 120 g; cold water — 2000 g; black peppercorns — 5 g; prepared beetroot horseradish — 60 g

Gefilte Fish (Poached Carp and Pike Quenelles in Their Own Jelly) reads sweetness 5.7, allium 4.0 and salinity 3.6 on Palate's 0–10 flavor X-ray — a Ashkenazi appetizer, about 10 hr 40 min. Measured from the recipe itself: ingredients and technique.

The flavor X-ray — six axes, 0–10

Umami & Savory — 3.9 / 10
Sweet & Fruity — 6.1 / 10
Sour & Bright — 1.4 / 10
Bitter & Earthy — 1.9 / 10
Rich & Fat — 2.7 / 10
Aromatic & Spice — 4.4 / 10

The measured notes (of 18)

Sweetness 5.7 · Allium 4.0 · Salinity 3.6 · Richness 2.7 · Umami 2.7 · Warm Spice 2.4 · Earthy 1.8 · Heat 1.4 · Sourness 1.2 · Fruity 1.2 · Herbaceous 1.1 · Bitterness 0.9 · Floral 0.7 · Citrus 0.6

What's in it (12)

carp fillet — 1000 g
pike — 500 g
onions — 220 g
eggs — 200 g
matzo meal — 60 g
salt — 10 g
freshly ground white pepper — 7 g
caster sugar — 13 g
carrots — 120 g
cold water — 2000 g
black peppercorns — 5 g
prepared beetroot horseradish — 60 g

Time & effort: about 10 hr 40 min (2 hr 40 min active) · effort: involved

Nutrition (per 100 g, engine-estimated): 12.2 kcal, 0.7 g protein, 0.5 g fat, 1.3 g carbs

Dietary: Contains meat · Contains seafood · Contains egg — engine-derived; double-check anything allergy-critical.

How it's cooked (10 steps)

Ask the fishmonger for the heads and frames when he fillets the carp. You need them: the jelly that sets around the finished fish comes from their collagen and nothing else, and gefilte fish served without it is only a fish ball.
Put the heads and bones in a wide pan with the sliced onion, the carrot coins, the peppercorns and the cold water. Bring to a boil, skim, and simmer 30 minutes.
Strain the stock back into the pan, keeping the carrot coins aside, 5 minutes. Discard the bones.
Chop the carp and pike flesh together, by hand with a heavy knife or in short pulses in a processor, 15 minutes. Stop while it is still slightly coarse. Run a machine on it and you get a bouncy, rubbery paste; the texture should be soft and just holding.
Beat in the grated onion, eggs, matzo meal, salt, white pepper, sugar and 60 ml of iced water, 5 minutes, until the mixture lightens and holds a shape on the spoon. Beating in cold water is what makes it tender.
With wet hands, form 10 ovals the size of a small egg, 15 minutes.
Lower them into the barely trembling stock, half cover, and poach 1 hour 30 minutes. It should never bubble.
Turn off the heat and let them cool completely in the liquid, then refrigerate overnight, 8 hours. The stock sets to a soft amber jelly around them.
Serve cold, each with a poached carrot coin on top and a spoonful of beetroot horseradish beside it, with challah.
Substitutions: whitefish fillet can stand in for the pike.

Dishes with a similar flavor shape

Calabacitas con Queso — New Mexican
Tikel Gomen (Spiced Cabbage and Turmeric) — Ethiopian
Charleston Red Rice — Southern · Lowcountry
Loaded Veggie Chili with Cornbread — American
Galayet Bandora (Tomatoes Fried in Olive Oil with Chilli) — Jordanian

Keep reading: what sweetness, allium, salinity mean in the flavor lexicon · the world's cuisines, by flavor.

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Every number above is Palate's engine-measured estimate, computed from this recipe's ingredients and techniques — not human-tasted ratings or reviews.