ASBI Congregation Common Kashrut Conundrums

(1) Any forbidden thing with a rancid taste cannot render a mixture prohibited. And even a case where the item's taste is not rancid by itself, but rather tasty and enhancing, but if it is rancid in this mixture, the mixture is permitted. Rema: However, important things, like a biryah (complete organism) and other similar things, if they do not themselves have a rancid taste, even if they make the mixture taste worse, they are not nullified, even in a thousand times their volume.

(5) Any cooking pot that has not been used within the day is considered to have a rancid taste and cannot render anything forbidden. And it is considered to have not been used for a day if 24 hours have passed since the forbidden substance was cooked. And once 24 hours pass from the time that the forbidden substance was cooked in the pot, it is no longer considered to have been used within a day. And if one cooks in that pot when it has not been used within the day the resulting food is permissible since the part imparted a rancid taste. And this is assuming that the pot was cleaned and there was no grease on its surface. For if it was not cleaned then it is forbidden for it is no different than a piece of forbidden food which is not rancid. And some permit even if the pot was cooked in before it was washed. REMA: And if there are 60 times the volume of whatever is stuck to the surface of the pot then all agree that it is permissible since the pot itself has not been used within 24 hours and this is how we practice.

(1) Fish that were cooked or roasted in a well-washed meat pot with no fat stuck to it are permissible to eat with kutach [a milk based food], because they [the fish] are two degrees removed from a permissible taste. If the pot was not well-washed, if there is more than 1/60th the fish worth of substance on the pot, it's forbidden to eat them [the fish] with kutach.

(2) An egg that was cooked in water in a dairy pot - it is permissible to put it into a chicken, even before the fact. But if it was cooked in a pot with meat, even in its shell, it is forbidden to eat with kutach. There are those that are strict with roasting and cooking and prohibit second-degree taste (Rivan in the name of Rashi, Aruch 34 quotes the Mordechai and ...) and the custom is to prohibit it before the fact. After the fact, it is permissible in every way (Aruch). This [prohibition] is only eating it with milk or meat itself, but it is permissible to serve it on their dishes before the fact (Issur v'Heter, Aruch) and that is the practice. Also, if they weren't initially cooked or roasted, rather they were just on a meat plate, it is permissible to eat them with milk, and the inverse (his own reasoning). Also, if the vessel that they were cooked or roasted in was rancid - meaning it was not used for cooking food within 24 hours - we are lenient even before the fact to eat them with the other type (Aruch, ibid). All of this is assuming that the food is not sharp, but if it was sharp - e.g. you cooked sharp things in a meat pot even if it has not been used that day, or you crushed spices with a meat pestle, if you [cooked] it in milk, it's prohibited even after the fact, until there is 60 times the meat that is absorbed in them. ...

(3) Plates used for meat that were washed in a dairy pot with water so hot that one's hand recoils, even if both the plates and the pot had been used within the day - all is permitted because they are "nat bar nat" - a second degree impartation of taste of permissible foods and tastes. And this is only if one can say " I am certain that there was no fat stuck to the plates or to the pot." And if there was fat stuck to them then there needs to be 60 times the volume of water to nullify the volume of the fat that is on the plates. REMA: And some forbid even if there is no fat stuck to them unless the pot or the plates had not absorbed the taste within 24 hours. Then the plates and pot are permissible and the water - we are strict before the fact. But if both the plate and the pot had both been used for 24 hours and they were both washed together with piping hot water, then all is forbidden. And this is our practice and we should not change. But this is the case only if they were washed together in a "primary pot" that was on the stove (or heating element). But if dairy and meat dishes are washed one after another or if they are washed together in a secondary vessel, then all is permissible. And if water is poured from a primary meat vessel onto a dairy vessel then its status is like a primary vessel and the dairy vessel is prohibited if it had been used for dairy within 24 hours. But if boiling water, (that was heated in a pot) that is neither dairy nor meat is poured on meat and dairy dishes tougher, even if there is oil stuck to them, all is permissible since the heat of pouring is not comparable to the heat of a primary vessel such that the vessels that water is poured over can swallow substances one from another. And if one finds a dairy plate among meat plates we are not concerned that they may have been washed together in a way that renders them prohibited.

(4) It appears to me that if one places ash in the hot water in a large pot before washing dishes in the pot, even if there is grease stuck to the plates, it is permissible because the ash mixes with the grease to impart a rancid taste.