[Sca-cooks] Basic Kosher

[Zachary Kessin]

And much more besides. And details vary depending on which comminity you
are in. But I was not trying to give a full overview, just a simple
primer.

--Zach


On Thu, 9 Oct 2003, Solveig wrote:

> Noble Cousins!
>
> Greetings from Solveig!
>
> >1) No mixing meat and dairy. You have to wait several hours after
> >    eating meat until you are allowed to eat anything dairy. How long
> >    depends on where you are from, traditions vary. In my case it is 3
> >    hrs. Numbers range from 1 to 6 hours.
>
> The rule for waiting after dairy before eating meat can be quite
> complicated depending upon the nature of the dairy product being
> eaten. For example, hard cheese generates a longer delay than a
> glass of milk.
>
> >2) All meat must be from Kosher animals.
>
> Basically, a restricted family of true cud chewers that includes
> pretty much all relatives of deer, all relatives of sheep, and
> all relatives of the cow. Torah says that the animal must have
> a cloven hoof and chew its cud and lists four defective animals:
> the camel, the rock badger, the hare, and the pig. So yes, in
> principle you can as I recall have a Kosher feast including such
> delicacies as: bison, giraff, and yack.
>
> >2b) For poultry the bible includes a list of "Do not eat these"
> >     The common kosher birds are Chicken, Squab, Goose, Duck and Turkey.
>
> This one gets nasty as the identitfy of some of the forbiddedn animals
> is unclear. The list of forbidden birds is quite short and includes
> bats, but the list of birds which tradition allows to be eaten is also
> quite short. Incdentally, the kosher nature of most birds means that
> Noah's ark was full of birds as seven pairs were taken aboard for each
> of the kosher species.
>
> >2c) Sea food must have fins and scales. So Trout, salmon, tuna, and
> >     many others are kosher. Shellfish, shark, eel and so on are not.
>
> The scales have to be easily removeable. There are lots of discussions
> about the problems posed by the plates of the sturgeon and similar
> problematic fish which are judged non-kosher.
>
> >Meat must also be soaked and salted to remove the blood.
>
> Not true. The meat can be broiled without soaking and salting and liver
> must always be broiled because it is full of blood which can not be
> removed by soaking and salting. The prohibition is actually on consuming
> blood of either meat or fowel. Fish blood is permitted.
>
> >4) Fish, vegetables, eggs, fruit etc is "Parve" which is to say it is
> >    not meat or diary. However fish and meat should not be served on
> >    the same plate (I don't understand this bit to be honest).
>
> There is a technical problem with "ova" which are eggs removed from
> a slaughtered chicken. These are considered to be meat. Eggs with
> blood spots on the yoke are considered treif and are not eaten.
> Commercially produced eggs are very unlikely to have blood spots as
> the hens do not consort with roosters. Also, kosher eggs must be
> from either a kosher bird or a kosher fish.
>
> >5) kasher the pots. How you do that is beyond the scope of this email.
>
> To make it worse, neither wood, ceremaic, nor plastic can be kashered.
> Pretty much only glass and metal can be kashered. The basic principle
> of kashering is that kelim (vessels) are kashered in the same way
> (boiling, direct application of flame, &c.) in which they were made
> non-kosher.
> --
>
> 					Your Humble Servant
> 					Solveig Throndardottir
> 					Amateur Scholar
>
> +----------------------------------------------------------------------+
> | Barbara Nostrand, Ph.D.         | Solveig Throndardottir, CoM, CoS   |
> | deMoivre Institute              | Carolingia Statis Mentis Est       |
> | mailto:nostrand at acm.org         | mailto:bnostran at lynx.neu.edu       |
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