Catching Gefilte Fish in the Wild
Sustainable Fishing: Wild-caught gefiltefish off the coast of Maine Image by Anya Ulinich
Q: For years, I’ve served nothing but wild-caught gefilte fish at my Seder. But it’s gotten so expensive! This year I’m considering serving farm-raised gefilte fish, even though I know it’s not as healthy as wild-caught. Is it safe for me to do so?
A.: Generally speaking, yes. Farming practices have improved greatly since the early 1990s, when many farm-raised fish were crowded into small enclosures and fed sugary, fat-laden diets.
“We’ve learned a lot in the past 20 years,” said Amanda Wein of Gefilte Farms in Fair Lawn, New Jersey. “We feed them fewer antibiotics and more matzo. The fish are both dense and delicate, which is part of their appeal. They’re slow-moving and surprisingly affectionate — I have a pet one, Anton, in a bowl at home — but they’re also easily stressed. And when they’re stressed, they tend to fall apart.”
To counter the stressors — and to bolster the fishes’ nutritional value — Wein provides them with an enriched environment. The fish are kept in large tanks lined with classic books. “It turns out a well-read gefilte just tastes better,” says Wein. Her story pans out, according to Dr. Elliot Lister of Brigham Hospital in Boston. Farmed gefilte fish is a nutritionally good choice, with negligible differences in health benefits when compared to wild fish.
“Look,” said Lister, “It’s hard enough to get people to eat gefilte fish. So I tell my patients to just try it. Wild, farmed, doesn’t matter — just try it. At the end of the day, it’s your health. It wouldn’t kill you to try it.”
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
