Gefilte fish is a dish made from a poached mixture of ground deboned fish, such as carp, whitefish, or pike. It is traditionally served as an appetizer by Ashkenazi Jewish households. Popular on Shabbat and Jewish holidays such as Passover, it may be consumed throughout the year. It is typically garnished with a slice of cooked carrot on top.
Gefilte fish topped with thin slices of carrot
Gefilte fish: whole stuffed and garnished fish with eggs
Jars of gefilte fish in Israel
The term carp is a generic common name for numerous species of freshwater fish from the family Cyprinidae, a very large clade of ray-finned fish mostly native to Eurasia. While carp are prized quarries and are valued as both food and ornamental fish in many parts of the Old World, they are considered trash fish and invasive pests in many parts of Africa, Australia and most of the United States.
1913 illustration of Cyprinus carpio, better known as the common carp
Common carp in Lake Minnetonka, Minnesota
Cyprinus carpio skeleton
Cyprinus rubrofuscus (Amur carp) have been domesticated and bred in Japan since the early 19th century for ornamental purposes in their koi form