When you give a Kosher gift to someone, it means that the kitchen in which the food was prepared observes all of the laws of Kashrut, or Kosher. It is only acceptable to bring food from one’s home to another’s home as a kosher gift if the two families are close enough to know that the other absolutely keeps all the laws of Kosher.
For the most part, religious families will not eat food from a person’s home that they don’t know well because of the chances that the person unknowingly breaks the laws of Kosher or in the case that one family keeps Kosher to a lesser degree than the other.
Kosher means ‘fit,’ or ‘proper’. In order to maintain a truthfully Kosher kitchen, many rules must be followed. All the rules may be confusing at first, but after some time the rules become second nature.
The main three categories to remember are dairy, meat and pareve. While dairy and meat can never be paired together (“Thou shall not seethe a kid in his mother’s milk,”), pareve foods can be paired with both dairy dishes and meat dishes.
In order to keep everything separate and maintain cleanliness, three different sets of pots, plates, utensils and everything kitchenware is needed. One set is to be used for dairy only, while another set is for meat only and the third set is for Passover only.
In strictly Kosher kitchens, and whenever the means are possible, Jewish families may have two different sinks for washing meat and dairy dishes and two different refrigerators for storing meat and dairy. If not in a residential home, this is certainly true in a Kosher caterer’s kitchen or a synagogues’ kitchen.
When you order a Kosher gift from a caterer or Kosher meals for certain individuals at your party, the package will come sealed with plastic and stickered with a label which lets the person(s) know that the food was prepared in a strictly Kosher kitchen that was overseen by a Rabbi.
Look for the next post which will more sufficiently break down the rules of Kosher, define the differences between Kosher and non-Kosher animals and explain the meaning of pareve.
No Comments, Comment or Ping
Reply to “Kosher Gift from the Kosher Caterer”