Few dishes are so iconic to jewishness – specifically Ashkenazi jewishness – than Gefilte fish given that was – and still is – widely served during the weekly Shabbos dinner and around Pesach (Passover to you and me). Such an iconic culinary item within the jewish community would seem to many to be presumably of jewish origin, but in truth even this iconic jewish food item – just like bagels, (1) lox (2) and Shabbos stew – (3) are actually things filched from non-jews by the jewish people.
This is even openly admitted by jews with Rachel Ringler writing for ‘My Jewish Learning’ that:
‘The funny thing is that gefilte fish didn’t start out as a Jewish food. The first mention of gefuelten hechden (stuffed pike) comes from a 700-year-old, non-Jewish, German cookbook. In it, poached and mashed fish was flavored with herbs and seeds, stuffed back into the fish skin from which it came, and roasted. It was a popular dish for Catholics during Lent, when eating meat was forbidden.
By the Middle Ages, that Catholic dish had migrated into the Jewish kitchen under the moniker gefilte (stuffed) fish.’ (4)
While Erica Martinez adds some detail to this in her article on Gefilte fish at ‘Tasting Table’:
‘Gefilte fish comes from the Yiddish word meaning "stuffed fish," according to The Kitchn. True to its name, the first recorded occurrence of the dish that inspired gefilte fish is in "Daz Buoch von Guoter Spise," or "The Book of Good Food," written in Germany roughly around the year 1350 C.E., according to Serious Eats. The recipe is called gefuelten hechden, or stuffed pike. The fish is first poached and then the cooked meat is mashed and flavored. The mixture is then stuffed into the fish skin before the whole dish is roasted. Serious Eats points out that the dish was originally popular, not among Jews but Catholics during Lent.’ (5)
The point that both Ringler and Martinez are making here is that Gefilte fish is a medieval German dish called ‘gefuelten hechden’ that was first recorded circa 1350 in ‘The Book of Good Food’ and per force would have been around for decades and likely centuries before then as a Christian – and specifically Catholic – Lenten dish. Then the jews then copied it and the copy became known simply as Gefilte fish.
So, no: jews didn’t invent Gefilte fish, but rather the Germans did!
As an extra aside this is the recipe of ‘gefuelten hechden’ from circa 1350 – helpfully translated by Alia Atlas - if you wish to make your own version:
‘This is how one should make also filled pike. One takes a whole pike and scales it and cut it from the intestine to the ears. Take fish, whichever kind they are, and boil them and let out the internal organs. Pound them in a mortar. Hack there to sage, pepper, caraway seeds and ground saffron. Salt them to mass. There with one fills the pike. And sprinkle it on the outside with salt. Bake it on a wooden grill and roast it very fine. Also you may make it using eggs.’ (6)
Enjoy!
References
(1) See my article: https://karlradl14.substack.com/p/jewish-invention-myths-the-bagel
(2) See my article: https://karlradl14.substack.com/p/jewish-invention-myths-lox
(3) See my article: https://karlradl14.substack.com/p/jewish-invention-myths-cassoulet
(4) https://www.myjewishlearning.com/the-nosher/the-history-of-gefilte-fish/
(5) https://www.tastingtable.com/987098/gefilte-fish-the-jewish-delicacy-with-medieval-origins/
(6) https://www.medievalcookery.com/etexts/buch.html