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    14 Aug KASHRUS QUESTIONS & ANSWERS WITH RABBI MOSHE ELEFANT

    Posted at 14:12h in by
    0 Likes

    Sherry
    Casks: Can
    you please
    explain?
    Sherry is a type of wine. Wine is a
    very sensitive ingredient when it
    comes to Kashrus. There are some
    scotches, particularly single malt
    scotches, that are aged in sherry casks.

    If the sherry cask was used for non-
    kosher sherry, which is usually the

    case, there is a question that
    comes up if that affects the
    status of the scotch. It’s not
    really an ingredient in the
    scotch, it’s just the cask in
    which the scotch is being
    aged. It’s therefore not that
    significant and there is not
    such a serious amount in
    the entire product. The
    OU’s position is that we
    will not certify, or allow
    to use at an OU certified

    event, scotch which was aged in a
    sherry cask even though it’s not so
    significant in the product. There are
    those that are more lenient because
    of the two reasons I gave: It’s a small
    amount and it’s not part of the actual
    product. But we don’t want to rely on
    any bedieveds; we don’t want to rely
    on anything that’s not 100%. So the
    OU’s position is that we won’t use any
    scotch that was aged in sherry casks
    unless it was Kosher sherry casks.

    What does mevushal mean
    & at what temperature
    is wine considered
    mevushal?
    The word mevushal means
    cooked. The Halacha is very
    strict about wine and grape
    juice. Wine was a special part
    of Pagan worship and therefore
    wine needs to be under special
    supervision. However, because
    cooked wine was considered inferior,
    the special rules that apply to wine
    and grape juice don’t apply if they’re
    cooked. The word mevushal means
    cooked, and we know the boiling
    point for anything is 212 degrees.
    However, most Poskim are lenient
    and say if it’s mevuashal to the degree
    of 190 degrees, that would be okay.
    There are those that are stricter and
    say that even if it came to a boil, that
    wouldn’t make it mevushal. If you give
    a cup of mevushal wine to someone

    and another cup of wine that isn’t
    mevushal, you wouldn’t be able to tell
    the difference. So there are poskim
    who say it is only mevushal when the
    quality of wine has been diminished.
    This isn’t typically the case in the wine
    that we have as mevushal because
    typically all the wine is pasteurized
    and all grape juice is pasteurized. It’s
    flash pasteurization and the whole
    pasteurization takes only a second
    or two and it doesn’t affect the taste.
    So there are poskim that say there’s
    no mevuashal at all when relying on
    pasteurization.