co@cbscc.UUCP (Corinna Owens) (02/22/84)
Reading the first article in net.religion.jewish reminded me of a time when I (I'm not Jewish) had to order a kosher meal at a conference. The meal choices were a vegetarian plate, a breast of chicken with cheese sauce, and a kosher plate. Well, since I do like meat and don't like cheese, I chose kosher not knowing what I was going to get. Well..., the meal was very delicious. It contained roast chicken with gravy, sweet potatoes, and other items which I don't recall. I enjoyed to meal very much. My question: What makes a meal kosher? ---------------------- Corinna Owens AT&T Bell Laboratories cbosgd!cbscc!co
rib@pyuxmm.UUCP (RI Block) (02/23/84)
A Kosher meal is one whose ingredients satisfy at least the following criteria: 1 - No prohibited item is used (more about this later) 2 - No prohibited mixture of permitted items a) meat must be separate from dairy b) fish is not eaten *together* with meat 3 - No contact with non-Kosher vessels (for our purposes liken this condition to sterility. Once a vessel contacts something non-Kosher, it remains non-Kosher until rectified. An additional condition is that the preparation is under the control of someone who is in a position to verify that the "Kosher audit trail" is intact. What ingredients are Kosher? 1 - Fruits & Vegitables (but not the insects that sometimes accompany them) 2 - Meat from permitted animals (chew cud + split hoof) PROVIDED THAT a) the animals were properly slaughtered and inspected b) prohibited fats and sinews are removed c) blood is removed in a manner prescribed by Jewish law 2a - Fowl (very similar conditions to meat) 3 - Milk from permitted animals and dairy products made from that milk 4 - Fish (fins + scales) What constitutes adequite supervision? It depends on the product supervised and how difficult it would be to determine if Kosher integrity was compromised In order of stringency: 1 - Common knowledge of production technique (Sugar/Salt/Tea) 2 - Official (Government) supervision (Milk) 3 - Spot Check (Most non-meat products) 4 - Continuous surveilance (Meat, side-by-side Kosher/Non-Kosher) Note: there is no correlation between Kosher and *jewish* food.
shz@hlexa.UUCP (Sally Handy-Zarnstorff) (02/24/84)
Can someone explain the difference between "kosher" and "kosher for passover", and also explain the meaning of "kasruth" (pardon my spelling) which appears to have the same root as kosher, so is undoubtably related. --Sally Handy-Zarnstorff AT&T Bell Laboratories, Short Hills, NJ ..!ihnp4!hlexa!shz
smb@ulysses.UUCP (Steven Bellovin) (02/24/84)
The word "kosher" is an adjective; "kashruth" is a noun form referring to the practice of keeping kosher. (When comparing Hebrew words, one should generally disregard vowels (vowels are usually not letters in Hebrew; rather, they're punctuation symbols attached to consonants); also, remember that 'sh' and 'ch' are single letters. So is 'th', but it's not the English 'th' sound; it's simply a symbol for a letter that is pronounced either 's' or 't', depending on your ancestry. (The 'ch' is the same as the German 'ch', not the English 'ch'.)) As for 'kosher' vs. 'kosher for Passover' -- Robert Block gave an accurate and succinct summary of what makes an item kosher (the part about fish and meat is accurate, incidentally), though there are a few more rules (for some folks) about wine and cheese. But a much stricter set of require- ments applies during Passover. During this entire week, no grain or grain product, with the exception of specially-prepared matzoh (an unleavened bread) may be eaten. Thus, any food that is "kosher for Passover" is by definition kosher, but there may be oddities in the ingredient list compared with a similar product for use during the rest of the year -- for example, margarine may be made with cottonseed oil instead of corn oil. --Steve
arnold@gatech.UUCP (Arnold Robbins) (02/24/84)
Don't believe what you just read about no grain products allowed on
Passover! Grain products are fine, the problem is *leavened products*.
I.e, if a product is made w/leavening, or it rises when baked, then
it is not kosher for Passover. (I realize that this description is not too
specific, but I don't want to go into details because I don't remember all
the details)
There are plenty of kosher for Passover cake mixes and cookies and other
things available every year for Passover.
Beware of over-generalizing!
--
Arnold Robbins
CSNET: arnold@gatech ARPA: arnold.gatech@CSNet-relay
UUCP: ...!{akgua,allegra,rlgvax,sb1,ut-sally}!gatech!arnold
Did'ja ever have one of those re-incarnations?