page_title: Ashkenazi Jewish cuisine
section_title: Fish
hierarchical_section_title: Ashkenazi Jewish cuisine / Dishes / Fish
caption_attribution_description: Gefilte fish, with Carrot slices and chrain
context_page_description: Ashkenazi Jewish cuisine is an assortment of cooking traditions that developed among the Jews of Eastern, Central, Western, Northern, and Southern Europe, and their diaspora mainly concentrated in North America and other Western countries. Ashkenazi Jews have also been known as Western Jews. Jews of the Ashkenazi communities cook foods that were often unique to their community, while often using local ingredients, and following the laws of kashrut. The cuisine is based largely on ingredients that were affordable for the historically poor Ashkenazi Jewish community of Europe, often composed of ingredients that were readily available in Europe and affordable and which were perceived to be less desirable and rarely used by their gentile neighbors, such as brisket, chicken liver, and artichokes, among other ingredients. As Ashkenazi Jews were typically forbidden to grow crops in their home countries in Europe, their cuisine reflects that and there are less vegetable-focused dishes in Ashkenazi Jewish cuisine compared to their Sephardi and Mizrahi counterparts. Meat is ritually slaughtered in the shehita process, and is soaked and salted.
context_section_description: With kosher meat not always available, fish became an important staple of the Jewish diet. In Eastern Europe it was sometimes especially reserved for Shabbat. As fish is not considered meat in the same way that beef or poultry are, it can also be eaten with dairy products (although some Sephardim do not mix fish and dairy). Even though fish is parve, when they are served at the same meal, Orthodox Jews will eat them during separate courses and wash (or replace) the dishes in between. Gefilte fish and lox are popular in Ashkenazi cuisine.
  Gefilte fish (from German gefüllte "stuffed" fish) was traditionally made by skinning the fish steaks, usually German carp, de-boning the flesh, mincing it and sometimes mixing with finely chopped browned onions (3:1), eggs, salt or pepper and vegetable oil. The fish skin and head were then stuffed with the mixture and poached. The religious reason for a boneless fish dish for the Sabbath is the prohibition of separating bones from food while eating [the prohibition of borer, separating]
  A more common commercially packaged product found today is the "Polish" gefilte fish patties or balls, similar to quenelles, where sugar is added to the broth, resulting in a slightly sweet taste. Strictly speaking they are the fish filling, rather than the complete filled fish. This method of serving evolved from the tradition of removing the stuffing from the skin, rather than portioning the entire fish into slices before serving.
  While traditionally made with carp or whitefish and sometimes pike, gefilte fish may also be made from any large fish: cod, haddock, or hake in the United Kingdom.
  The combination of smoked salmon, or whitefish with bagels and cream cheese is a traditional breakfast or brunch in American Jewish cuisine, made famous at New York City delicatessens.
  Vorschmack or gehakte hering (chopped herring), a popular appetizer on Shabbat, is made by chopping skinned, boned herrings with hard-boiled eggs, sometimes onions, apples, sugar or pepper and a dash of vinegar.
caption: Gefilte fish with carrot slices and chrain
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