Keeping Kosher
Avoid Some Foods - Separate Others
Keeping kosher means knowing what you are eating,
what you are combining it with,
when you last ate and when you intend to eat next.
Like every aspect of the definition of kosher
it calls for awareness and planning.
The Prohibition of Combining Meat With Milk
The Torah - three times - prohibits
cooking a baby goat in it's mother's milk.
The Oral Law expands on this and also forbids
- Cooking any milk with any meat
- eating the resulting mixture and
- benefitting from it ( by serving or selling it, for example).
Rabbinic law - as a protective device -
requires that meat and milk be eaten at separate times
and that separate utensils be used for each.
SIDEBAR
Torah Law, Oral Law and Rabbinic Law
are briefly explained here
SIDEBARBy the way, poultry counts as meat in this discussion.
What to Avoid
1) Cooking them together. Simple? Maybe, but here's
a scenario. You discard some meat scraps in your sink
and then pour in boiling milk. Presto. Cooked meat and milk.
Yes, I know. Of course it's unlikely,
but it underlines the need for awareness.
Keeping kosher means being aware. 2) Eating them together. That's even if they weren't cooked together.
No milk with your hamburger.
3) Benefitting from a mixture. No composting it or feeding your pets.
Yup. Even your dog is keeping kosher!
Exactly What Does "Together" Mean?
Well, since you asked...
Here is the scene: Evening.
Your favorite - prime rib or roast duck -
followed by dessert and coffee.
Black coffee, of course. No.
My mistake. No one drinks coffee black.
Then that must be non-dairy creamer in your coffee, right?
Right? It must be.
It can't be milk or cream because we just ate meat.
Oh, but no! We finished a half hour ago,
maybe an hour. Isn't that enough?
Actually, keeping kosher also means to wait
six hours before consuming dairy.
Why Six Hours?
Six hours is the length of time (as determined by rabbinic law)
that meat - or the taste of meat - stays in your mouth.
If you eat dairy within the six hours you are mixing the meat with milk.Caveat: Certain segments of the Jewish community worldwide
have a valid tradition to wait less than six hours.
Consult a competent rabbi to find out
if you belong to one of those groups.
The six hour delay before eating dairy applies after eating
- meat
- anything cooked with meat like a sauce or casserole
- poultry (rabbinic law considers poultry as meat).
Meat Following Dairy
Much easier. After eating dairy either
- wait one hour (simplest option) , then eat meat or poultry.
- eat something parve (neutral food) like bread, rinse your mouth with liquid and then eat meat.
After drinking milk you can just rinse your mouth and eat meat immediately.
Exception: Hard cheese (aged six months or more).
After eating that, wait six hours before eating meat.
Combining Fish with Other Foods
Rabbinic law declares a mixture of fish and meat a danger to health.
We don't cook or eat them together.
We rinse our mouth in between (no six hour wait, phew!)
There is no restriction on the combination of fish and milk.
Caveat: The Sephardi community (see glossary) has different traditions
regarding this aspect of keeping kosher. Consult a competent Rabbi.
Parve Foods
Parve means neutral - neither meat nor dairy.
Fruit, vegetables, grains and drinks should all go with anything.
They do... but there's a but (read this slowly).
If you cook it in a dairy pot it goes with dairy food.
It may be eaten after (not with) meat
(no six hour rule here either).
The reverse is true if parve food is cooked in a meat pot.
SIDEBAR
"What" you gently ask, "is a dairy pot!?" Relax.
Cookware and utensils get their own section.
It's called "How Do I Handle It?"
You may want to read it before moving on
to the rest of the kosher rules.
SIDEBAR
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