[Sca-cooks] kosher food

[Kirsten Houseknecht]

<heh>
if you have any interest in Kashrut, or related issues, may i suggest these
books?

1. if you dont want to get into the nitty gritty, but you want/need a basic
guide to kashrut  and a *really good* cookbook try  "The Spice and Spirit of
Kosher Cooking"  its a big book, hardcover last time i looked. It has a
companion book for Passover when all the rules get more restrictive.

2. if you *really* want to keep Kosher, or you need a detailed but easy to
follow guide, and/or your kitchen needs to be up to seriously Orthodox
standards, i suggest "Illustrated Guides to Jewish Law: The Kosher Kitchen"
isbn 0- 87306-800-9  it is intended for family reading and is illustrated so
it should be clearer to children.  it is, however, VERY thourough..
including the rules about produce from Israel
(yes, there are *specific* rules for produce from Israel)

and yes, it is quite possible to cook a fully Kosher meal in a kitchen that
is not koshered.  it involves lots and lots of Aluminum foil.. at least one
Jewish person (to turn on the oven) and never before used utensils and
plates.  The easiest dish to cook this way is Fish. as it is easy to cook
wrapped in foil.  while i suspect a full Kosher SCA feast would probably
require a kosher kitchen (or people cooking a lot in their kosher homes)  a
partial kosher feast  (enough to allow an observant Jew to sit down to feast
with everyone else) is possible.. assuming the utensils and foil and all
that has been brought to the site..

incidentally, Passover .. with the much more restrictive rules (and the fact
that much like some Christians who get observant at Easter and Christmas,
some Jews get much more observant at Pesach) makes it very tricky to make
food that is Kosher.  One young lady who donated blood at the Red Cross
during Pesach (i had just finished also) was carefully scrutinizing the
orange juice.. normally it would be *fine*  but during Pesach a  lot of food
is suddenly not available.  (obviously donuts and pretzels being not kosher
for Pesach)

and to complicate matters further... the Sephardic Jews have different rules
for Passover.... i am not as familiar with them, but i believe they can eat
rice, but the Ashkenazi do not?? i may need to look it up.
Kirsten
kirsten at fabricdragon.com
http://www.fabricdragon.com

"Did you vote?  No?   Then don't come whining to me...."
----- Original Message -----
From: "Daniel Myers"
> That clears it up, thanks.  I'm updating my mental file with the
> corrected information (and mentally labeling the one who misinformed me
> as a putz).
>
> I came across a web site that was a huge discussion by a rabbi on
> whether or not Coca-cola was kosher, talking about proportions of
> certain ingredients and whatnot.  It's absolutely amazing how nit-picky
> questions about kosher-ness can get.
>