The Road from Letichev, Vol. 1 : The History and Culture of a Forgotten Jewish Community in Eastern Europe by Ben Weinstock & Chapin David A

Author:Ben Weinstock & Chapin, David A. [Ben Weinstock]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: AuthorHouse
Published: 2000-07-27T16:00:00+00:00

• Shtrudl

Unleavened dough, with very few eggs (see flodn), Form 3, baked in the oven, filled with apples or preserves. A festive treat, but not as special as flodn .

GEFILTE FISH AND THE SPREAD OF CHASIDISM

Gefilte Fish is essentially fish dumplings. In Eastern Europe, there were two major varieties: the kind seasoned with sugar and the kind where sugar is not used. Marvin Herzog11 has proposed that the distribution of the sugared variety of Gefilte Fish seems to have followed the spread of Chasidism throughout Eastern Europe. Where the Chasidic movement was strong, such as in Podolia, Galicia, Volhynia, and southern Poland, the sugared variety was prevalent. If this logic holds true, than it can be assumed that the origin of this recipe was Letichev District, as was the origin of Chasidism.

Maps showing the spread of a gefilte fish recipe.

The map on the right shows the limit of towns in the Northern Pale of Settlement (now Poland, Lithuania and Belorusias) where Gefilte Fish was seasoned differently. To the east, the townspeople seasoned their Gefilte Fish with sugar, as in the above recipe. To the west, the townspeople seasoned their fish without sugar. The map on the right is a larger scale view showing the spread of Chasidism from Medzhibozh (Mezbez) to the north. Herzog claims that the sugared version followed the spread of Chasidism. Maps modified from Roskies.12

The following recipe is also from Dena Singer Zimmerman. This recipe was observed and written down (in modern form) by her daughters Pauline Zimmerman Chapin and Shirley Zimmerman Goldstein.

Ingredients:

Raw fish: One-half “Rockfish” (striped bass), the other half Pike (as much as possible), a small whitefish (very fatty so don’t use much), crawler, buffle, shad (don’t use the head of this fish), or any other seasonal fish. Don’t use carp. 16 lbs. of raw fish yields about 58 pieces. It would need two very large pots to cook this amount. Filet and grind the fish. Save the heads and bones. Be sure to find out the weight of the ground fish—typically about half or less of the unground raw fish weight.

Onions, Eggs, Salt, Pepper, Sugar, Matzo meal, Carrots

[1] Wash the bones and heads in running water. Then salt lightly and leave in water to cover while preparing the fish.

[2] Figure a large onion per lb. of raw unground fish, with an extra large onion for each of 2 pots. This is about 2 lbs. of onions to 5 lbs. of raw fish. Grind all the onions except those 2 for the pots. Dice the 2 onions for the pots.

[3] Salt ground fish about 1 tsp. per lb. of ground fish.

[4] Use one egg per lb. of raw unground fish. Beat well with a large amount of pepper. Add to fish. Mix well.

[5] Add ground onions and mix.

[6] Add 2 rounded tbsps. of sugar per 16 pounds of raw unground fish. Add a large amount of pepper. Mix well. Pepper should be seen throughout mix after it’s mixed well. When the mix is tasted, the fish should burn the mouth a minute after tasting.

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