My grandmother Ceil was a truly great cook.  Her stuffed cabbage and her mandelbrod were legendary in our family, as was the story of how she used to make her gefilte fish from scratch, scraping her knuckles bloody while grating the fish.  Alas, I never transcribed her unwritten recipes, and I never got to taste her fresh gefilte fish.  By the time I was old enough to eat it, she had given up and switched over to the stuff that came in glass jars.  Last Friday, I was invited to my friend Rhona’s beautifully remodeled home, for a Rosh Hashanah dinner.  Rhona’s mother also used to make gefilte fish from scratch, but she found an easier substitute that

was just as good.  Ungar’s frozen gefilte fish.  You just boil it with some salt, pepper, carrots and onion, cool and eat.  The first bite was revelatory.  If you don’t like the variety that come out of a jar, you need to try this before you write off gefilte fish.  If you like the stuff in a jar, you need to run to the nearest market that carries Ungar’s or buy it online and try it.