From the Rav’s Desk: 1) Placed dairy cover on meat pot; 2) Koshering wood; 3) Baked cheese pastry in meat oven

1. Question: [Monday, 13^th Teves 5781]

We were cooking pasta in a meat pot that had been used for cooking meat in the past 24 hours and accidentally placed on it a dairy cover that has not been used for dairy for many months. What is the law of my pasta and my pot and my cover?

Answer:

The pasta remains kosher although if you are Ashkenazi then you may not be eaten neither with meat nor milk and may not be placed on a dairy plate or eaten with dairy utensils. Your meat pot remains kosher although if you are Ashkenazi then you need to kosher the dairy cover. You can Kosher it by performing Hagalah in boiling water. If it is difficult to perform Hagalah than you can alternatively do the other equivalent of Hagalah, known as Iruiy Keli Rishon with Even Meluban, by pouring boiling water over it using a electric water boiler that contains a coil inside and is still connected to the electricity and is on and boiling the water as you pour it over the cover.

The explanation: Being that the dairy cover was not Ben Yomo therefore it does not have ability to create a meat and milk prohibition. This applies even though in general we are stringent by covers to consider them always as Ben Yomo, as this stringency only applies when there is actual meat or milk cooking in the pot and not simply Pareve food, as in this case, which makes it a question of Nat Bar Nat Diheteira, and is therefore more lenient. Furthermore, being that there was no actual meat in the pot and it is just that it contains the fresh taste of meat inside the walls, therefore from the letter of the law the cover does not even require Koshering, and the food remains completely kosher and may be eaten together with meat. Nonetheless, the custom amongst Ashkenazim is to always treat the non-Ben Yomo vessel in these type of cases as nonkosher, and therefore we concluded above that the cover should be Koshered. Likewise, the Ashkenazi custom is not to eat the food with neither meat nor milk and also not to eat it with a dairy utensils.

Sources: See Rama 94:5; Michaber 95:3; Peri Chadash 94:14; Shach 94:18 and 20; Taz 94:8; Toras Chatas 57:14; Chavas Daas 94:16-17; P”M 94 S.D. 18; M.Z. 7; Biur Hagr”a 94:18; Peri Chadash 94:19; Lechem Hapanim 94:22; Beis Lechem Yehuda 94:20; Kaf Hachaim 94:52, 54 and 56; see regarding that we do not apply the non-Ben Yomo cover stringency in such a case: Peri Megadim 93 S.D. 4; Hakashrus 10:74

2. Question: [Monday, 14^th Teves 5781]

Can one Kasher a wood item, such as a wood cutting board or wood spoon?

Answer:

Wood items are Kosherable if they require mere Hagalah [i.e. used wood dairy spoon to mix meat pot], so long as they do not contain cracks in which food can get stuck in and cannot be removed. Thus, one can Kosher a smooth wooden cutting board or wooden spoon that does not contain cracks and is cleaned prior to Koshering.

Source: Admur 451:25

3. Question: [Monday, 14^th Teves 5781]

We accidentally baked dairy pastries on a meat aluminum baking pan in a meat oven. What we do about the oven and what we do about the baking pan?

Answer:

Both the oven and the baking pan need to be Koshered. The oven can be Koshered by cleaning it thoroughly with a grease killing agent, waiting 24 hours, and then leaving it on the highest temperature for about an hour. The baking pan can be Koshered through regular Hagalah. If you have a self-cleaning oven, then you can turn it on with the baking pan inside and accomplish the Koshering of both the baking pan and the oven simultaneously.

The explanation: Although nonkosher baked items without liquid make the vessel require Libun Chamur, and Hagalah alone does not suffice, nonetheless by meat and milk we are lenient to always require only Hagalah even when the meat or milk was baked without liquid, as Heteira Bala.

Sources: Admur 451:13 in gloss; 1st approach in Shach 121:7; unlike 2nd approach in Shach ibid, based on ruling of Ramaz, 96 that requires Libun Chamur even by Basar Bechalav if it absorbed meat or dairy directly without liquid; See also Hakashrus 1 :37 and footnote 67 who writes that baking pans cannot be Koshered at all, as they require Libun Chamur. Based on above, however, this is inaccurate, as Hagala suffices in the scenario that one simply cooked meat in it after cooking milk or vice versa.