[Sca-cooks] Fermented fish

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Also sprach Druighad at aol.com:
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>[ Picked text/plain from multipart/alternative ]
>In a message dated 7/10/02 8:31:05 AM Central Daylight Time, troy at asan.com
>writes:
>
>
>>  My understanding is that it's air-dried cod or ling, similar to
>>  medieval stockfish, soaked in a lye solution to tenderize, rinsed
>>  completely, then cooked. The gelid texture is the result of the
>>  breakdown of connective tissue during the lye soak. There is a
>>  perfectly recognizable lutefisk recipe (although under another name)
>>  in Sabina Welserin's 1553 cookbook.
>
>Would that also be how gefiltefish is made as well? I have never studied
>Kosher foods, so I'm wondering if lutefisk and gefiltefish are along the same
>principles.

Oh, no! Big difference. The name "gefilte" fish seems to refer in
some Germanic language to being stuffed; as with Brighid's references
to rellenos in Spanish, sometimes the stuffing takes on a life of its
own. Originally gefilte fish probably involved either stuffing the
body cavity of the fish with more fish, suitably chopped and
seasoned, or, what seems more likely, wrapping this stuffing in the
skin of the fish. Nowadays the gefilte fish I've seen is made by
mincing fish, adding some aromatic vegetables (things like onion,
carrots, all that mirepoix stuff), eggs, and matzoh meal. I suppose
if you make this at a time other than Passover, you could use
ordinary bread, but most of the recipes I've seen call for matzoh,
with the main exception being in The Settlement Cookbook, IIRC.
Anyway, the raw mixture is commonly formed into oblong balls like
quenelles, and poached in a previously made (and sometimes, slightly
acidulated) fish stock, made from the head, bones, and trimmings of
the fish. The skin is often placed into the finished stock with the
fish balls without actually wrapping them in it, and its sole purpose
then is to add gelatin to the stock, which helps the dish keep a few
days longer in the fridge, since it is a moderately labor-intensive,
holiday dish, so having it keep a day or two and be ready to serve
cold is a good thing.

Adamantius

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