What do we call the Jewish dish of finely chopped whitefish, pike, or carp, mixed with crumbs, eggs, and seasonings, cooked in a broth in the form of an oval?

This traditional dish's name literally means "stuffed fish" in Yiddish. While today the mixture of ground fish, egg, and crumbs is most often shaped into ovals or balls, the original preparation involved stuffing this forcemeat back into the skin of a whole fish. The entire fish was then poached in a broth made from the fish's head and bones. Over time, forming the mixture into individual patties became a more common and less laborious method, but the descriptive name remained.

A staple of Ashkenazi Jewish cuisine, this dish is deeply connected to religious observance. It became a popular food for the Sabbath and holidays because it could be prepared in advance and served cold, thus avoiding the prohibition against cooking on holy days. The process of pre-chopping the fish and removing the bones also cleverly circumvented the religious restriction against performing the work of separating, such as picking bones from flesh, during a meal on the Sabbath.

Typically served chilled, gefilte fish is often garnished with a slice of carrot and accompanied by a sharp, pungent horseradish sauce called chrain. Its flavor profile can be a point of culinary debate among families, with the Polish (Galicianer) style being notably sweet, while the Lithuanian (Litvak) tradition calls for a more savory and peppery preparation.