“I’ll talk to anybody who has questions,” he said. “They’re surprised that I’m still here.”
To help them figure out the puzzle — #gefilte is traditionally made from #whitefish, #carp or #pike — Taylor asks customers about their taste preferences, what their grandmother’s #gefiltefish looked like and where their families are from. Plain carp is darker than other fish, while buffalo carp and whitefish are fattier. Russians, Europeans and Israelis typically would have used plain carp, whereas in New York the preference was for #buffalocarp, or a mix of pike and whitefish.
Taylor can also tell what’s in a dish of already cooked gefilte just from taking a bite. Texture and taste are the tells. Whitefish has a fattier and softer texture than pike, according to Taylor, who prefers fattier fish. He likens the differences to making a burger using beef that’s 20 percent fat versus 3 percent: The texture is totally different.
https://www.myjewishlearning.com/the-nosher/meet-the-fish-detective-who-can-decode-your-gefilte-fish-heritage/