It is well known that one may not eat milk and meat together. In addition, Chazal were concerned that if bread was made with animal fat or with milk people would mistakenly eat it with the “other” type; therefore, they forbade one from making bread which is fleishig or milchig, and also said that such bread may not be eaten at all.
One of the exceptions to this rule is that if the “bread” has an unusual shape or marking on it, then it may be made with dairy (or meat) ingredients, because people will realize that this item is not standard bread and will be cautious and not eat it with meat. For example, if there was a drizzle of cheese on top of the roll everyone would know this is a dairy roll and not eat it with meat. [This used to be a basis for permitting dairy English muffins when they were all dairy. Nowadays, this is not true, and English muffins can only be made with dairy if the milk is batel b’shishim so they aren’t “really” dairy.] It is also permitted to take an already-baked piece of bread and add meat or milk to it. Therefore, for example, one may add milk to the batter used in French toast.
Rema rules that if one serves almond milk at a meat meal they must put some actual almonds on the table so that people will realize that the “milk” is not dairy and not suspect he is eating meat with milk. Nowadays, there are many who believe that pareve, non-dairy creamer is so common that one is not required to have that type of heker. Those who feel that one should be machmir would either bring the non-dairy creamer to the table in its original container, or (at a catered event) would leave cards on the table which state that “the event is catered by XYZ caterer which is certified kosher by Rabbi A, and the creamer is pareve”.
A more modern application of this halacha is for people who serve soy cheese or seitan (imitation meat) at a meal with “real” meat or cheese. They are required to have some heker on the table to make it clear that the imitation item is actually pareve. A restaurant which sells cheeseburgers made with kosher meat and imitation cheese (or vice versa) must note on their menus and receipts that the cheese is pareve so that the in-store and takeout customers will also have the appropriate heker.
The vapors (zei’ah) which rise from liquid cooking in a pot, have the same status as the liquid. [The same is true of a moist piece of chicken, a pizza pie, and many other foods.] Thus, when someone is cooking chicken soup or hot cocoa, the vapors which rise from that liquid are respectively fleishig or milchig, and if those vapors are still hot when they reach some other food, that other food is no longer pareve. This can easily happen if one adds spices or oil directly into a pot that is on the fire, and for this reason, a caterer should have separate containers of spices an oil for meat and dairy. [Additionally, these containers are often touched with “dirty” hands, which might lead to meat or milk residue being on the container.]
An oven and microwave must be designated for either meat or dairy use exclusively. In a home situation, one can, for example, use a meat oven for dairy if (a) there is no meat or meat residue in the oven during the baking, (b) a piece of foil is placed under the dairy pan, and (c) the dairy pan is double-covered for the entire baking. These suggestions are not practical for a commercial kitchen.
As kosher consumers, we are familiar with the general rule that after eating meat, one must wait 6 hours before eating dairy products. In this week’s posts, we will focus on the details of those halachos which are relevant (a) when a caterer wants to serve a dairy meal a few hours after he served a meat meal to that same audience, or (b) to Mashgichim who are asked questions about products served at certified restaurants.
What if pareve food was cooked together with meat and a person only ate the “pareve” food? Must he wait 6 hours before eating milk? For example, if a person ate only a potato from a fleishig cholent, must he wait 6 hours before eating dairy? Shulchan Aruch rules that he does not have to wait, but Rema says that the Ashkenazic custom is that one should. Rema further states that the same applies if the pareve food was cooked with animal fat (as opposed to actual meat), and the Poskim note that the same applies if the pareve food was cooked with chicken or chicken fat.
However, Rema rules that if pareve ingredients were cooked in a meat pot with no actual meat – even if that pot was not perfectly clean of all meat residue – the person does not have to wait 6 hours after eating that food, but they may not eat the ‘pareve’ food together with dairy. Accordingly, if one empties chicken-soup from a pot and immediately cooks a pareve vegetable soup in that pot, one may not place cheese into the soup (even once the soup is out of the fleishig pot) but they may eat dairy immediately after eating that vegetable soup. Another example of this is foods which are labeled as “DE”. They are made with pareve ingredients on equipment which is also used for dairy products and the equipment might not be thoroughly cleaned before the DE items are produced. Those foods should not be eaten with meat, but may be eaten immediately after meat.
French fries purchased from a standard fleishig fast-food restaurant should be treated as if they were cooked with meat (such that one must wait 6 hours after eating them) rather that a food cooked in a meat pot (where 6 hours would not be required). This is because there is so much grease and actual meat/chicken left in a restaurant’s deep fryer, it has a status akin to a meat soup rather than a dirty meat pot. Of course, if the restaurant has a dedicated pareve deep-dryer, one may eat dairy immediately after eating fries made there.
If an onion or other sharp food was cut with a meat knife, that onion cannot be eaten with milk but one does not have to wait 6 hours after eating the onion. The common practice is to also be lenient and allow a person to eat an onion cut with a dairy knife within six hours of eating meat.
There is no need to wait after eating milk before eating meat. One exception to that rule is that one is required to wait 6 hours after eating “hard cheese” which Shach defines as any cheese which has aged for at least 6 months. [In this context, we assume that once the cheese is packaged or cooked, the “aging” stops.] The most common application of this chumrah is that if a person eats Parmesan cheese – which by law must be aged for at least 10 months – they must wait 6 hours before eating meat. Occasionally, people come across other cheeses that are specially aged for more than 6 months and the same halacha would apply to them.
One must wait 6 hours after Parmesan cheese (or other “hard cheese”) if the cheese was in its “natural” form, even if it is shredded or grated, and even if it is mixed into other foods. For example, if a Caesar’s salad contains chunks of Parmesan cheese, one would have to wait after eating that salad before having meat. On the other hand, if the cheese is cooked or melted and remains in a liquid or semi-solid form (as is common), there is no need to wait 6 hours. Examples of this include eggplant Parmesan, lasagna, or pizza which include Parmesan cheese, or toast with cheese melted on top
Pets are not required to keep kosher and therefore they are permitted to eat non-kosher food. However, there are certain non-kosher foods which we are not only forbidden from eating but we are even enjoined to not have any benefit/pleasure from them. Those foods may not be fed to a pet because when one does so they – the owner – are having a forbidden benefit from the non-kosher food. The list of common foods which have this stricter restriction (known as assur b’hana’ah) include: (a) milk and meat which were cooked together, (b) chametz on Pesach, and (c) non-kosher wine or grape juice (according to many opinions).
Within the first category (milk and meat cooked together) some of the details are that: (a) it is limited to beef, lamb, or goat meat (even if they were not shechted and salted as kosher), and does not apply to poultry (e.g. chicken, turkey) or to non-kosher species (e.g. pork), (b) it includes most dairy products (e.g. whey, milk powder, casein) but does not apply to lactose, and (c) the milk and meat must be cooked together, but if they are merely blended together without heat, the mixture is non-kosher but may be fed to pets.
Another example of forbidden benefit from basar b’chalav is that one may not give a cheeseburger – or even a coupon for a free cheeseburger – to someone who is not Jewish. Giving the cheeseburger to that person generates goodwill between the two people, and that goodwill is considered a forbidden direct-benefit from the cheeseburger. One must bear this in mind if a restaurant accidentally receives non-kosher food; they may only give it to a non-Jewish employee after they determine that the food does not contain basar b’chalav (or stam yayin).
E. Meat and Fish
One may not eat meat (or poultry) and fish together, because Chazal considered such a combination to be dangerous. There is no need to wait between eating meat and fish, but one should eat and drink something “neutral” between the meat and fish (or vice versa). Thus a person should have a drink and eat some salad or challah, between the fish and cholent at the Shabbos seudah. The prohibition only includes (a) eating meat and fish simultaneously, or (b) eating meat or fish which were cooked with the other one. It is permitted to eat fish cooked in a clean meat pot (or vice versa), but some people choose to have a special “fish pot” which is not used for meat.
In general, if a prohibited food was mixed into a kosher one, the mixture is permitted if the issur was batel b’shishim. The Poskim discuss whether the same applies if a tiny amount of fish is mixed into a food and the person wants to eat that food with meat. Some say that the leniencies of bitul do not apply since this is an issue of “safety”, but the cRc follows the opinion that the fish is batel just like any forbidden food. This machlokes is surprisingly relevant. The simplest case is where a company adds a bit of fish oil to their peanut butter, orange juice, bread or other food to increase the amount of Omega-3 fatty acids. The fish oil is always batel b’shishim and therefore if one adopts the lenient approach on this question they may eat the food with meat.
A more complicated case is Worcestershire sauce which is made with anchovies (a type of fish). The traditional manner of making this food is to include considerable amounts of anchovies, and that sauce should surely not be used with meat. These sauces would be labeled as “fish”. However, many companies just put in a tiny bit of anchovies to make the sauce seem authentic, but there is so little fish that it can be labeled as “pareve” and the cRc would allow it to be used as a steak sauce (its primary use). One last case worth noting is that some kosher marshmallows are made with (truly kosher) fish gelatin and contain so much fish that it is not batel b’shishim. Such marshmallows should not be eaten with meat.