My blog is about Jewish food… and Jewish food is, by its very nature, kosher food. There are Jews all over the world, and each community has developed their own amazing regional dishes. Kosher is the thing that ties all of these dishes together. The spiritual dietary laws of kashrut are written in the Torah, Judaism’s central religious text. While many modern Jews keep kosher, observance is not nearly as prevalent as it was in centuries past. In fact, most of my Jewish friends pay little—if any—attention to the kosher laws. And yet, you can’t write a blog about Jewish food without acknowledging the importance of the Jewish dietary laws.
As most of you know, I am a recent convert to Judaism. Even before converting, I made a conscious effort to adhere to some of the kosher laws because of my interest in Jewish cuisine. As I learned more about the spiritual side of Judaism, I began to appreciate the significance of the kosher laws, which made me more excited to incorporate them into my life. How a person chooses to keep kosher, however, is a big question. There are many different levels of observance and several ways to interpret the laws. The choice to keep kosher is a very personal, and sometimes complicated, decision.
For those of you who might be unfamiliar with the kosher laws, please see my website’s Kosher Pages for an introduction to the subject. I am by no means a kosher expert, but I am somebody who passionately loves Jewish food. I created my blog to introduce people to Jewish cuisine; it was never my intention to become an authority on all things kosher. I provide kosher information at the end of each recipe (pareve, meat, dairy) as a service my readers who do keep kosher. However, the focus of my blog is Jewish food, not the laws of kashrut. If you are interested in pursuing a kosher lifestyle, I suggest that you speak with your Rabbi or visit a local synagogue for further guidance.
When it comes to my own personal dietary rules, I would describe myself as kosher-style, not strictly kosher. I do adhere to several of the kosher laws in my day-to-day life. In fact, I take kashrut far more seriously than my Jewish family does (and I’m a convert… go figure!). But on certain points, I remain flexible. Kosher is only one part of my overall food philosophy. For the most part, I attempt to eat Biblically, meaning I enjoy the simple foods and spices that have been around for thousands of years. I try to use only natural ingredients in my recipes; I prefer eating whole, organic foods that have not been processed. That’s why I’m especially attracted to the Sephardic side of Jewish cuisine. Sephardic food has roots in the cradle of civilization, Mesopotamia. Many of the dishes I’ll be sharing with you this year have Biblical origins. They are simple, unprocessed, and healthy.
The kosher laws are written in the Torah, though their meaning has been interpreted in different ways throughout the centuries. Rabbinic Kosher law is based on the writings of the Talmud, in which the ancient Rabbis interpreted the Torah laws and created a series of detailed food regulations that are still adhered to by Jews today. There is another way of eating known as Biblical Kosher, which is largely adhered to by Messianic Jews. They find inspiration directly in the Torah, rather than the Talmud’s reading of the laws. The majority of kosher Jews today follow Rabbinic Kosher law rather than Biblical Kosher law.
In my own life, I draw inspiration from the Rabbinic Kosher laws. They influence my eating habits, but I am not bound to them as an Orthodox Jew would be. For example, I usually take a short “digestion break” between a meat meal and a dairy meal. While this seems perfectly reasonable to my kosher-style standards, some Orthodox Jews feel you should wait as long as eight hours between a dairy and meat meal. If you’re wondering how long you should wait, that’s a question for your Rabbi, not the Shiksa in the Kitchen.
Though I usually eat kosher-style, I am also a firm believer in living life to the fullest and enjoying unique food opportunities that come my way. If I am given the rare chance to dine in a world-renowned French bistro, I’m not going to ask if there is butter in the meat sauce. If a Southern grandmother asks me to try her generations-old family recipe for chicken pot pie, I won’t hesitate to have a taste. While I keep kosher-style in my home, I also believe that we are put on this earth to enjoy the gifts of our Creator. Restrictions are important for spiritual growth, but I also feel it’s important to be open and willing to try new things. In other words, no regrets.
There are many different levels of kosher observance. The majority of our Jewish friends don’t keep kosher at all. Some avoid non-kosher meats. Some keep kosher for Passover, but the rest of the year it doesn’t cross their minds. I was shocked last month when our Ashkenazi Jewish friends from Israel showed up at our house carrying a bag of pork rinds! While many people don’t pay much attention to the kosher laws, I personally appreciate them, not just for their spiritual significance but also for their ancillary health benefits (cream sauce on meat is a recipe for cholesterol and digestion issues). I happily live a kosher-style life, because that’s what works for me.
Now I’d like to hear from all of you. What level of kosher observance, if any, do you keep in your daily life? Are you new to kosher? Have you been kosher your whole life? Is this whole kosher thing simply a mystery to you? Discuss! :)
I decided to keep kosher when I was 12. I made it a reality when I went off to college. At this point I’ve been keeping kosher longer than not.
I can tell you my family nearly went off the rails when I announced I was going to keep kosher. My parents went from “I will NEVER buy any of THOSE products” and “We left that all behind in the shtetl” to “Hey, guess what I just found for you at the store?” Granted, it took quite a few years and having both siblings separately also decide to keep kosher.
I knew in my kishkes I wanted to keep a strictly kosher home when I began preparing to be a bat mitzvah. I didn’t know what it fully meant at that time — other than no milk, meat or lobster or pepperoni pizza.
Kashrut became a make-or-break topic when I was getting married. My soon-to-be-spouse did not grow up keeping kosher and had no plans to do so. Long story short: we got married and we keep kosher.
Fast forward thirty plus years and it’s like my kitchen is a Williams-Sonoma outlet: pots, pans, bakeware, appliances for milk, meat and parve. Everyday dishes and silverware for milk and meat. Shabbos dishes and silver for milk and meat. Loads of serving dishes and platters of all varieties. Shelves of Jewish cookbooks and baking books. And, don’t even get me started on the closet filled to overflowing with milk, meat and parve stuff for Pesah! I practically need another home just to store the kitchen items. Yet, obviously, I wouldn’t change it for the world.
How I eat and what I eat is a reflection of who I am. Of course this message doesn’t always translate when I have to tell the kids, “No we can’t eat that because it’s not kosher,” or “Hold on, you have to wait because we just had meat.” At times they feel “other” or denied or mad that I won’t buy this product or that because it’s not kosher. I’m not sure they see the beauty, the connection to our peoples’ history, our history and tradition in a loaf of bread, a bowl of soup or a yom tov brisket — yet. I hope so.
I hope that in keeping a kosher home my children will ultimately see the value in this separateness, this otherness that I am both modeling and imposing so that they, too, will keep kosher when they are adults and raising their own families. (I use the word imposing because I’m the Eema — so in this case, what I say goes…until they’re out of the house and on their own.) It’s a little like the saying: More than Israel has kept the Sabbath, the Sabbath has kept Israel. I’d like to think that raising children in a kosher home (along with attending day schools, going to Jewish camp, trips to Israel), will help keep them tied to Judaism — as a people, as a concept, as a religion.
I’m currently a member of a Conservative shul although I align myself more with Conservadox or Modern Orthodox (of which there isn’t any in this town). My brand of kashrut is so much further to the right than most of my friends. Hechsered cheese, hecshered wine, glatt meat, no label reading, I buy Kashrus magazine, etc. When I have a kashrut question I call a local Orthodox rabbi.
The funny thing is, though, that while I’m “more kosher” than many in my community, I’m obviously “less kosher” than others. (I eat veggie out of the house, for example.) And that’s the thing. Wherever you are on the spectrum there’s always someone who’s more kosher or less kosher on either side. Perhaps where you are on the continuum doesn’t matter as much as that you are engaged with the process (e.g. vegetarian, eco-kosher, CSA, Hechsher Tzedek).
I’d like to think that keeping a strictly kosher home adds to my life and my sense of Jewishness — and the life and Jewishness I’m actively/daily creating for my family. I’d never say my level of kashrut would work for everyone or that it’s “right” — whatever that means. But I would suggest that continuing to address this topic might help us (me) keep focus on the enduring relevance that kashrut brings to our (my) eating — spiritually, ethically, physically, historically and emotionally.
Elizabeth, what a wonderful post. Thank you for sharing your personal kosher beliefs. I will definitely delve deeper into kashrut in future posts– the historical significance, the health benefits, and the spiritual side of things.
Hey girlie, great blog! My boyfriend was kosher as a child, but not anymore. I’ve never been kosher (I love bacon too much, am I allowed to say that here??). I’m truly loving your kosher recipes though. I think I’m going to try going Shiksa-Kosher… only cooking and eating your recipes! LOL “hugs” Michael
I started keeping kosher about 5 years ago when I married my husband. We separate milk and meat, and no prohibited meats, but we don’t always buy kosher meat because it’s tough to find in my part of the country. I eat veggie when we’re out, like Elizabeth.
What a wonderful post on kosher! I only recently found your blog and I’m so impressed. I was raised kosher but I stopped when I went to college, mom wasn’t cooking anymore so I didn’t worry about it. Now I’m married and interested in trying to be kosher again. I think your blog will help me do that, your recipes sound delicious and the articles are always interesting. Keep up the great work~!
Great entry, Tori – and thanks for the kudos.
I haven’t eaten any shellfish or pork products in 25-30 yrs.
When I moved to Connecticut from Pennsylvania in 1989, I fully intended to keep a kosher home. Alas and alack though, my future husband (who’s Jewish and had a zayde who spoke only Yiddish) was less than enthused about it.
Today, we “compromise” by keeping all shellfish and pork products out of the house. (That includes Chinese dishes that contain brown sauce – which are made with oyster sauce. I sure was disappointed to learn that!) When he gets an urge for pork fried rice or a shrimp egg roll, he goes out to eat them. I’m not thrilled, but again, it’s a compromise.)
I also buy kosher meat (Trader Joe’s has some, as does Whole Foods) and do my best to avoid mixing meat and milk products.
Anyhow, mazel tov on your conversion! I didn’t realize that you had already converted. That means you’re no longer a shiksa!
Hi Tori. Your wonderful post has made me decide to write a post on this topic on my blog. I will post a link to it in a response to this post when that is done. And BTW, my blog has changed addresses. It is now http://longandwinding.goldwasserfamily.org perhaps you can change the link on your blogroll. Check back tomorrow for my response!
These are all such great responses, thank you so much! I’m happy to know this blog connected with all of you.
Leann, thank you for “inspiring” the blog, it brought about some great conversations.
Phil, I look forward to your post! I updated your link.
Hey Tori,
Just a point of clarification…
I’ve been observant almost my entire life (I hate labels like Orthodox, Conservative, Conservadox, Reform, Modern Orthodox, etc.), and I don’t recall ever hearing anyone who waited 8 hours between meat and milk. The most I know of is 6, and the range within Orthodox circles of how long people wait is based largely on country of origin. i.e. Jews who lived in different parts of the world developed different customs on this, and their descendants typically follow the same rule, due to minhag – custom.
To my knowledge there are 4 main customs: 1/2 hour (or it might be an hour, I forget, mainly a Dutch custom), 3 hours, “into the 6th hour” (meaning 5 hours and a few minutes) and 6 hours.
And no one to my knowledge waits nearly that long going from milk to meat, only from meat to milk. I only raise that point because when you wrote “some Orthodox Jews feel you should wait as long as eight hours between a dairy and meat meal” it sounded as if they were waiting after Dairy and before Meat.
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As promised here is my blog post which is a followup to Tori’s post. link to longandwinding.goldwasserfamily.org You can also just access my blog and scroll to find the posting called Kosher.
I am not Jewish. I am fascinated with all things Jewish however. I have to say this. After studying Kosher food laws (minimally I am sure) I found myself unable to look at certain foods the same way since. Take for instance Lobster. I used to value a good Lobster dinner and ate it on special occasions. But, now, I think…… yeah, no. I just can’t eat it anymore. Same with Pork. My understand has been opened to the reasons for keeping kosher. Keep up the blog and maybe it will inspire more dedication by some of us out here to be more observant than just an occasional kosher meal.
In my post I never really spoke about the reasons for the Kosher laws. Kashrut is in a category of Jewish law called Hok (chok). Hukkim are laws that are in the Torah but we do not know why or even understand the laws. Kashrut is one of the best examples. We do it because God tells us to do it.
Many people will tell you that it is for health reasons, but that it problematic for two reasons. One is that keeping Kosher is no healthier than not keeping Kosher, and more importantly, if you say that the reason is health, you deny that the real reason is that God tells us to do it!
That does not stop Rabbis and scholars from trying to find a reason. One reason is that it seems that in the Torah man was intended to be vegetarian. It is not until Noah and the post flood was man able to eat meat. In the Garden of Edan people were vegetarians. Once man was given the permission to eat meat, in order to keep it holy a system of laws were given. Everything about Kashrut makes us be mindful of the food that we eat. We are commanded not to take food for granted and that we do not kill animals for any other purpose.
Kashrut is then a way for us to connect the profane (eating) with the sacred (God).
Thank you for the insightful comments! FunJoel, I was discussing kosher with an Orthodox friend and the 8 hour wait time came up as an extreme example. I’m sure it’s not widely adhered to. I didn’t know about the difference between waiting after a dairy meal vs. waiting after a meat meal, thanks for clarifying!
Ltlgrl54, you are not alone! I connected to the kosher laws long before I knew anything about them; I’ve never been a fan of pork or shellfish, and I don’t like mixing dairy and meat. So I totally get where you’re coming from. Glad you’re enjoying the blog!
Phil, you wrote a fantastic post. I commented on your blog. Shabbat Shalom!
I dated a girl who kept kosher once. Going out to dinner was always a drama. Choosing the restaurant, ordering the meal, etc. It was mildly irritating, but it made you think twice about what you were eating. Because of the rules, if I decided to go along with it, I ended up eating lighter and healthier. For instance, the no milk with meat rule meant no cheeseburgers, which is my weakness. So I just didn’t eat cheeseburgers. No pork has obvious health benefits. We didn’t end up together for other reasons, but I’ll say this: I usually gain weight when I’m in a relationship; this relationship was the one time I actually took some weight off!
Your blog is nicely done and offers a lot in terms of recipes, education and support. I think it serves an important purpose of helping those who maybe didn’t learn the Jewish foodways growing up be able to share in the richness of the Jewish food tradition. I have been working within my community to share this kind of info as well. It is a real need.
While I don’t mean to seem critical, I do have a question about the accuracy of something you mentioned in this post.
How does Sephardic cooking relate back to Mesopotamia?
I am not familiar with that. My understanding was that its roots were the Jews of the Iberian penisula who adopted many Arab food ways from the Ottoman Turk occupation of Spain and later from their long sojourn in Muslim countries after they were expelled from Spain and later Portugal. (Although, I guess one could say those Arab influences were from the earliest civilizations????)
Many include the food of Jews that never left the Mid East under the rubric Sephardic, but really it is a whole different cuisine. These Jews are known as Mizrahi.
Iraqi Jews come from the lands closest to ancient Mesopotamia and have a very distinctive style of cooking. I don’t know much about their community, but they generally considered descendents of Jews who remained in Babylon, so perhaps their cooking would qualify as being most like Mesopotamia. As Iraqi Jews also settled in India and later Shanghai, their recipes in those communities reflected local tastes and ingredients.
Anyway, I’d love to learn more about any food connections to Mesopotamia and how that fits into the wonderful panoply of Jewish foods.
I look forward to reading more of your blog.
Hi Faith, thank you for your well informed post! I was making a more general reference. Sephardic food is heavily influenced by Arab cuisine, which has roots in ancient Mesopotamia. This summer I’ll be filming a documentary about this very subject– stay tuned!
Shiksa, dear: You have really come across as someone who learned and took the whole Jewish Food Journey quite seriously! kol hakavod to you! Please continue on your path and sending us your mouthwatering recipes and pictures! Blog on, Shiksa!
Answering your question, how I keep kosher:
First of all, I got two kind of dishes, beginning by the plates, pans, knifes, untill any tiny tool for the kitchen, a garlic crusher for example.
Any tool I use for meat is made of metal or finished wood, the “dairiesis” are made of plastic or have plastic handles (knifes etc.).
I like this optically-haptic difference very much.
Second I only eat meat once a weak, on Shabbat or in some cases on higher holidays or when I am invited to a barbecue I can’t miss with friends.
The meat is always from a kosher animale, in most cases chicken, turkey or beef – rarely lamb.
But, I have to say unfortunately it’s very hard to get kosher slaughtered meat where I live. Kosher slaughtering is not allowed as in the US, or nobody does it really here.
So I eat not kosher slaughtered meat from kosher animals, but for the better feeling I prefer organic.
When it comes to fish, I am really a big fan of fish and go for fishing sometimes, I am observant: “No fins nor scales? Not on my table!”
Eggs are a problem: Most customers like the brown ones, I take usually white ones because they can be better probed for blood and other unnecessary ingredients. But it’s, (not hard as the meat) difficult to find them in local stores.
Vegetables are easy, they are parve as long as I check them for Insects and that’s what I always do. And baruch hashem we also can buy some Fruits from Israel. Last week I got a Bundle of carrots and some avocado.
What else?
OK wine. I don’t drink that much wine, but for higher holidays I buy one or two bottles of Carmel wine on a local store with some kosher groceries.
Fridge is a minor problem, because I usually only store parve and dairy in it, the meat is always bought fresh and get’s processed immediately.
Passover is coming and I am going to sell, for symbolic amount of 1 €, all my grain products to my neighbors – like corn, pasta, flour, rye bread and a bottle of good old scotch whisky I once got.
Jewish food and kosher food are not necessarily synonomous terms
A person can eat ” jewish foods” such as stuffed cabbage, chicken soup etc but eat them wo them being kosher, non kosher meats, made in a non kosher kitchen
All Jews all over the world do not keep kosher and some keep kosher at home but not out, keep kosher kitchens but bring treif ( non kosher) take out into their homes, and some define kosher as ethical so they dont eat animals who had been mistreated but not thise necessarily koshered
Hi Iris, while it’s true that not all Jews keep kosher (in fact most in the United States do not– it’s less than a third the last I heard), the one thing that separates Jewish cuisine from other cuisine is the fact that it has roots in the kosher laws. Jews have settled all over the world and adapted a number of regional foods to suit the kosher laws. That doesn’t mean to say that all Jews keep kosher, or that all foods with Jewish roots are made in a kosher way. Most American delis are not kosher, but they certainly feature Jewish-style foods. That said, the roots of those foods we think of as Jewish– stuffed cabbage, to take your example, or matzo ball soup, or challah, were originally created with kosher intentions. Matzo ball soup was created because of the Passover kosher laws. Challah was created because of Shabbat kosher laws. Jewish stuffed cabbage is never made with cheese (stuffed cabbage certainly can be, but you’d never call it Jewish stuffed cabbage). To look at it from a different angle, let’s list a few foods that are definitely not Jewish. The first that come to mind would probably be bacon, cheeseburgers, pork chops. Why? Because they are not kosher. That doesn’t mean to say that Jewish food always has to be made kosher, but the roots of the cuisine are most certainly found in kosher law. That is what I mean when I say that Jewish food is kosher food.
Thank you so much for this blog! I am just beginning to learn about conversion, finally answering a call that has been on my heart for 30 some years… that is 2/3 of my life!
I struggle with idea of eating restrictions for a number of reasons. I have an eating disorder so restrictions can easily become compulsive behaviors for me. Also I live in a town where there isn’t much of a Jewish population. The local Synagogue serves 215 families… coming from about 150 miles in any direction. Needless to say Kosher meat is not available at the grocery store!
Also I am a member of a larger family. I have parents who don’t even know that I am on this path yet, but I eat in their home about once a month. I have a wonderful and loving husband who will not be changing his eating habits any time soon
So I have been investigating and settling into eating kosher-style. That is to say not mixing meat and milk, not eating pork etc. But still having a bite or two of ham at my Mother’s table at Christmas.
Thank you for sharing your own insights and for reaffirming mine.
thank U for UR information about kosher
I will know more than it that which U said in here
I should study what about books or… about all laws foods books in Jewsh
plz send by email
thank U