Milk and Meat in the Kitchen

From Halachipedia

The Biblical Prohibition

  • Please take note that we are only speaking in terms of the Torah prohibition here. There are many cases where it is rabbinically forbidden to have meat and milk even though there is no Biblical prohibition. For example, it is Rabbinically forbidden to eat milk and meat together if they were not cooked together, so consider these the Halachot for cooking them together.
  1. The Torah states three times "לֹא-תְבַשֵּׁל גְּדִי בַּחֲלֵב אִמּוֹ-You shall not cook a kid (baby goat) in its mother's milk"[1]. Our Sages learn that the repetition three times teaches us the prohibitions of cooking, eating, and having any type of benefit (monetary or feeding one's animals) from milk cooked with meat.[2]
  2. Our Sages teach us that the language of "לא תבשל"-"You shall not cook" implies that the Biblical prohibitions only apply if the meat and milk are cooked together.[3] There is discussion whether frying or roasting meat and milk together is included in the biblical prohibition.[4] If a mixture of meat and milk is not biblically prohibited then one may derive benefit from it so long as one doesn't eat it.[5]
  3. The Torah only refers to a "גדי"; however, our Sages have taught us that a "kid" refers to all kosher domesticated animals (e.g. sheep, cows). We were also taught that all types of kosher animal milk are prohibited to cook meat with, not only the milk of the mother. Rather, the reason why the Torah was so specific is because it was speaking in the present (i.e. that the verse spoke in terms which are similar to the way the world functioned at the time).[6]

Separate ovens for meat and milk

  1. Many Poskim rule that nowadays a person should have separate ovens for cooking meat and for cooking milk.[7] In cases where this is difficult, one can be lenient to use one oven so long as one covers all food placed in the oven or if one cooks the different uncovered foods in the oven over 24 hours apart.[8]
  2. According to some, if the foods are dry foods that don't produce vapors, then one may place the foods in the oven one after the other (but not at the same time).[9] Others rule that ideally one should wait 24 hours between cooking the foods and that one should first let the oven run for 15 minutes before placing the second food into the oven.[10]
  3. In a case where someone has only one oven, he does not need to have separate oven grates for meat and milk.[11]

Microwave for meat and milk

  1. If one uses a microwave for meat and for dairy (at different times), some authorities hold that one should preferably double wrap all foods[12], however, some authorities hold that covering it well with one covering is sufficient. Some also advise using different trays one for dairy and one for meat. [13]
  2. If one wan't careful to keep his microwave kosher in these regards, one can make it kosher again by cleaning the microwave out and boiling water in the microwave for a few minutes. Some also recommend adding detergent to the water that is to be boiled in the microwave.[14]

Toaster-oven for meat and milk

  1. One should preferably designate his or her toaster-oven specifically for meat or for dairy, since it is small and hard to clean out. The concern is that small particles remain behind in the toaster-oven and would then make it impossible to separate between meat and dairy foods.[15]

Sink for meat and milk

  1. If one is cleaning meat dishes in the same sink in which one cleaned milk dishes, if there's still some dairy remnant in the sink, it's forbidden to pour hot water there because at the time one pours the water the meat and milk are halachically cooked together even though one has no intention of using those remnants. [16]

Soaking as a Form of Cooking

  1. If a prohibited item was soaking together with a permitted item in a liquid for 24 hours the permitted item is. If it was there for less than 24 hours it is sufficient to just wash off the permitted item. [17]
  2. If it soaked for 24 hours non-consecutively, such for 23 hours and then for another hour, after the fact most poskim assume that it is permitted.[18]
  3. If a prohibited item was soaking in a pot for 24 hours, the pot absorbed the prohibited taste and would need to be koshered. [19]
  4. If a permitted item was soaking in a non-kosher pot for 24 hours, after the fact the food is kosher according to most opinions, yet a person should only be lenient in cases of great loss. [20]

Inedible Foods

  1. Prohibited food which is inedible is permitted on a biblical level[21] and forbidden on a rabbinic level because when your eating the food indicates that it is good.[22]
    1. Medicines made with prohibited ingredients which were made inedible, some poskim permit this since one’s intent isn’t to eat the prohibited item, while others are strict.[23]

Negative Taste (Noten Taam Lifgam)

  1. If a forbidden item fell into a mixture and adds a negative taste, if the actual forbidden item was removed the mixture is permitted.[24]
  2. If a forbidden item fell into a mixture and adds a negative taste, if the actual forbidden item dissolved completely and there is greater detriment from the negative taste than the increase of volume, the mixture is permitted.[25]
  3. There is a dispute whether or not this leniency of spoiled tastes applies to chametz on pesach. [26]
  4. Noten taam lifgam applies to all prohibitions including combinations of milk and meat.[27]

Sources

  1. Exod. 23:19; 34:26; Deut. 14:21
  2. Shulchan Aruch Y"D 87:1. Maimonides in Ma'akhalot Asurot 9:2 explains that when the Torah only mentions the prohibition of cooking milk and meat together, it means to say that in addition to not eating or having benefit from it, cooking is also prohibited. This is similar to how the verse only prohibits one to have relations with his daughter's daughter, but makes no mention of not having relations with one's own daughter; the latter, unmentioned portion, is taken as a given.
  3. Chullin 108a, Shulchan Aruch YD 87:1.
  4. Sefer Kashrut HaShulchan (Baser BeChalev 6:1) writes that there is a dispute between the Pri Chadash and the Machaneh Yehuda whether frying milk and meat is included in the biblical prohibition or is only rabbinically prohibited. He concludes by quoting the Ben Ish Chai Bahalotcha who rules like the Pri Chadash that it is biblically forbidden. This is also the position of the Gra Shulchan Aruch 87:13. Pitchei Teshuva Shulchan Aruch 87:3 rules to be stringent like the Pri Chadash but quotes the Pri Megadim to say that if there is significant loss, one may be lenient to derive benefit from the mixture so long as one doesn't eat it. The Pri Chadash rules that roasting meat and milk together is likewise prohibited by the Torah. The Ran quoted in Rabbi Akiva Eiger Shulchan Aruch 87:1 rules that meat and milk roasted together are only forbidden midrabbanan. The Aruch HaShulchan 87:11 rules that one may consider fried and roasted meat with milk to be on the level of a rabbinic prohibition.
  5. Rama Shulchan Aruch 87:1.
  6. Shulchan Aruch Y"D 87:2. Maimonides in Guide to the Perplexed 3:48 even suggests that the practice of cooking a kid in its mother's milk may have been an idolatrous one.
  7. Rabbi Mansour says this lechatchila at dailyhalacha.com. [1] This is also the opinion of R' Shmuel Pinchasi quoted at dailyhalacha.com. [2]
  8. Rav Moshe Feinstein in Iggerot Moshe Y"D 1:40. Chacham Ovadia Yosef quoted by Rabbi Mansour [3] writes that bedieved if one didn't wait 24 hours before cooking the opposite type of food, the food would nevertheless be permissible. However, R' Ovadia states that ideally one should wait 24 hours between cooking the two foods and that one should first let the oven run for 15 minutes before placing the second food into the oven.
  9. Rav Moshe Feinstein in Iggerot Moshe Y"D 1:40.
  10. Chacham Ovadia Yosef quoted by Rabbi Mansour at dailyhalacha.com. [4]
  11. Rav Moshe Feinstein in Iggerot Moshe Y"D 1:40.
  12. The OU quotes Rav Yisrael Belsky who says that preferably one should double wrap food put in a microwave if it's used for meat and dairy (at different times).
  13. Yalkut Yosef (Isser Veheter, vol 3, pg 167) rules that if the microwave works only on radiation (without a heater) one should make sure to cover all food very well and then it would be permissible to use it for meat and dairy one after another. This is also the opinion of Rabbi Mansour at Dailyhalacha.com. Rabbi Aryeh Lebowitz writes that one covering should suffice to inhibit the splattering of food and steam from being released. He also mentions the point about using separate microwave trays.
  14. Rabbi Mansour in the name of R' Shmuel Pinchasi at dailyhalacha.com. [5]
  15. Rabbi Mansour in the name of R' Shmuel Pinchasi at dailyhalacha.com. [6]
  16. Sefer Kashrut HaShulchan (Baser BeChalav 6:3) quoting Sh"t Yabia Omer 5:3
  17. Shulchan Aruch YD 105:1
  18. Kaf HaChaim 105:6
  19. Kaf HaChaim 105:1
  20. The Shach 105:2 and Taz 105:1 argue that it is permitted since by the time that the forbidden taste can be absorbed into the permitted food the taste in the pot is already considered ruined. The Kaf HaChaim 105:3 writes that because it is a dispute and the Pri Chadash holds like the Isur Veheter a person should only be lenient in cases of great loss.
  21. The Torah (Devarim 14:21) says that you should give the slaughtered meat (nevelah) to a non-Jew. From this the Gemara Avoda Zara 67b learns that any food which is inedible isn’t considered forbidden.
  22. Rosh Pesachim 2:1 says that it is asur on pesach to eat chametz that was completely burnt before pesach because your eating it indicates that you want to eat it. See the Ran Pesachim 5b who disagrees with the Rosh. The Taz OC 442:8 terms this achshaveh, you gave it significance, and he says that it is only derabbanan. Mishna Brurah 442:43 rules like the Taz.
  23. What about medicines on pesach is there achshaveh? Rav Moshe Feinstein (Igrot Moshe OC 2:92) held that there’s no achsheveh by medicines. Shagat Aryeh 75 held that eating medicines is like eating and there is achsheveh.
  24. Avoda Zara 75b, Shulchan Aruch 103:1
  25. The Ran (Avoda Zara 32b) forbids if there is a greater benefit in the increase of volume than the loss in taste since in the end of the day there is a benefit from the prohibited food. The Ran cites the Rashba that he would be lenient since actual forbidden item was nullified by a majority of permitted ingredients and the taste is detrimental. The Shulchan Aruch 104:2 quotes both opinions. The Rashba (Torat HaBayit 20b) implies that even if there is a majority of the detrimental taste it is still permitted. Aruch Hashulchan 103:5 makes this explicit. Kaf HaChaim 103:17 rules like the Ran unless there is great loss.
  26. Rashba (responsa 1:499) and Yereyim (Achilot Siman 52) are strict regarding the negative taste of chametz in a mixture on pesach since chametz is forbidden in any quantity. Tosfot Avoda Zara 66a s.v. meklal seems to permit it. This is also the opinion of the Rosh (Avoda Zara 5:6). Shulchan Aruch OC 447:10 permits noten taam lifgam of chametz on pesach, while the Rama there is strict.
  27. Kaf HaChaim 103:3, Chavot Daat (Biurim 103:1) unlike the Peleti 87:15