How To Improve Gefilte Fish From A Jar
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I like jarred Gefilte fish for its convenience, but of course it doesn’t taste as good as a homemade gefilte fish. However, don’t give up on ready-made gefilte fish – you can dramatically improve gefilte fish from a jar if you follow my recipe below. When you follow my instructions how to doctor up jarred gefilte fish, the resulting fish will be as good as the restaurant gefilte fish. The gefilte fish from restaurants in terms of taste is usually in between gefilte fish from a jar and homemade gefilte fish :)
First of all, get a good brand of jarred gefilte fish to begin with. Not all gefilte fish from a jar is the same – some brands are dramatically better than the others. I always stick with Gefilte fish from Costco (Rokeach Old Vienna brand) – in my opinion, it’s the best tasting gefilte fish from a jar.
Improving the taste and texture of jarred gefilte fish is simple. All you need to do is to boil jarred gefilte fish for 1 hour with a large amount of chopped onions and carrots, then get the fish patties out and cool in the refrigerator until completely cold. Here’s the detailed recipe on how to doctor up that gefilte fish:
Recipe: How To Impove Gefilte Fish From A Jar
Ingredients
- 1 large jar of gefilte fish (16 pieces)
- 5 onions, sliced
- 2 carrots, peeled and sliced
- Water
Instructions
- To quickly slice the onions and carrots, use the food processor fitted with the slicing disk – it will take less than a minute to slice them all!
- Put one third of the sliced onions and carrots on the bottom of a large pot.
- Put half of the gefilte fish pieces on top of the onions and carrots in a pot.
- Put half of the remaining onions and carrots on top of the fish.
- Put the remaining gefilte fish patties on top of the onions and carrots.
- Put the remaining onions and carrots on top of the fish.
- Pour the liquid from the gefilte fish jar in the pot.
- Add enough cold water to the pot so the gefilte fish is completely covered.
- Bring water to a boil, then reduce heat to simmer, cover and cook for 1 hour.
- Take out the fish patties with a spotted spoon. Discard the cooking liquid.
- If you like the onions and carrots on top of your gefilte fish, keep some of them, if not, take them off the gefilte fish.
- Let the gefilte fish cool, then transfer to the refrigerator. Serve the gefilte fish when it’s completely cold. Gefilte fish goes great with horseradish!
Here are some more pictures of this jarred gefilte fish recipe –
Adding the layer of onions and carrots to the pot and putting a layer of gefilte fish patties on top:
Adding liquid from the jar to the pot of gefilte fish:
Cooked gefilte fish in a pot:
Gefilte fish patties on the plate, served with the side of yellow rice:
Also, please see my authentic homemade gefilte fish recipe.
Thanks for sharing how to improve gefilte fish from a jar!
I knew it could be done, but did not know how and this year I was not able to get the fresh gefilte fish for Passover. Thank you so much!
Recipe: How To Impove Gefilte Fish From A JarYour instructions stated “Bring water to a boil, then reduce heat to simmer, cover and boil for 1 hour”. I believe you meant “Bring water to a boil, then reduce heat to simmer and cover for 1 hour.
By the way my wife of 48 years always re-cooked the jarred gefilte fish and it tasted exactly the same way.
She never wrote a recipe down and after she passed, I searched and discovered your recipe.
THANK YOU!
Yes that was a typo :) Thanks for pointing it out, I now updated the instructions!
Im trying this recipe right now and have added 2 small garlic cloves – a few sprigs of parsley and a small pad of butter….looking forward to enjoy8ng this.
I am making this on a Tursday. I’m serving it on Saturday. Is that okay if I keep it air tight in the refrigerator.if I’m serving it after a service? Should I keep it in the refrigerator or can it stay out room temperature for an hour
Keep it in a refrigerator, should be fine.