Brining, cross contamination and spring cleaning

 

Brining cross contamination and spring cleaning — they are all Jewish  oncepts,

So … Passover is coming.  Although I don’t keep kosher year-round, I try to follow the rules during Passover. So I’ve been thinking a lot about the rules, what makes food “kosher” and what makes food “kosher for Passover”.

So the Bible tells us which meats and fish are kosher and which are not.  

The rule for land animals is a simple one: kosher animals must both chew their cud and have split hooves (Leviticus 11:3 and Deuteronomy 14:6).

A fish can be kosher if it has both scales and fins (Leviticus 11:9 andDeuteronomy 14:9).

So chicken, beef and lamb are kosher, pork is not. Carp and salmon and kosher, shrimp and lobster are not.

  There is a prohibition against consuming blood. 

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  Leviticus 17:14:

  "For the life of every creature is its blood: its blood is its life" and "You shall not eat the blood of any creature, for the life of every creature is its blood. Whoever eats it shall be cut off". 

  So meat must be soaked and salted — brined — to remove any trace of blood before it is cooked.

The Bible contains a prohibition — Do not cook a young goat in its mother's milk" (Exodus 23:19, Exodus 34:26, and Deuteronomy 14:21).  

From this we get a whole set of rules about mixing meat and dairy.

 Separate pots and pans for meat and dairy.  Separate dishes and utensils.  If a neutral food 

is cooked in a pot used for meat, that neutral food takes on the characteristics of meat, and cannot

 be consumed with dairy.  Cross contamination!

And then there’s Passover.  

On Passover we eat matzoh, unleavened bread;  no leavened food may be eaten.  No bread, no cake, no pasta … no   chametz (leavened food) may be in the house during Passover.  Even the smallest crumbs must be removed.    So every room of the house is cleaned.  And since Passover is a spring festival — spring cleaning!