Have Questions or Comments?
Leave us some feedback and we'll reply back!

    Your Name (required)

    Your Email (required)

    Phone Number)

    In Reference to

    Your Message


    25 Jun KASHRUS QUESTIONS & ANSWERS WITH RABBI MOSHE ELEFANT

    Posted at 17:48h in by
    0 Likes

    I’m hosting
    a picnic and
    some people
    prefer fish to
    meat. Can I
    grill both of them together?
    The Gemara (Pesachim 76b) teaches
    that one may not cook fish and meat
    together since the combination
    of the two is considered a sakana
    (dangerous). The Rama (YD 116:2)
    adds that one should not even cook
    open meat and fish in the same oven.
    Nonetheless, it is permissible to cook
    meat in a pot used for fish or to cook
    fish in a pot used for meat, provided
    the pots are perfectly clean from
    residue (Isur V’heter cited by Taz YD
    116:2).
    In theory, if someone wishes to grill
    fish on a BBQ grill used for meat, he
    should ensure the grill is clean of meat

    residue before grilling the fish. Even if
    the grill is clean, if there is fish on one
    side of the grill and meat on the other
    side, one should not close the hood of
    the barbecue as that would be a form
    of cooking them together.
    In practice, however, since it is difficult
    to clean a grill, it is recommended
    that the same grill rack should not
    be used for meat and fish. Either the
    fish should be double wrapped in
    aluminum foil or separate grill racks
    should be used.
    Can I use flavored charcoal
    briquettes for my barbecue?
    Rav Belsky, zt”l held that one may
    not use wine soaked wood chips or
    charcoal briquettes that contain wine
    flavors. Although the briquettes do
    not directly touch the food and are
    burned up in the fire, nevertheless they
    release an aroma which impacts the

    food. Not only is it forbidden to drink
    non-kosher wines, but it is forbidden
    to derive benefit from them as well.
    Although Rama (Yoreh De’ah 123:1)
    writes that nowadays if one is a facing
    a situation of loss, one may be lenient
    with regard to deriving benefit from
    non-kosher wine, this leniency does
    not permit one to use these briquettes
    l’chatchila, in the first instance, since

    this does not involve a situation of
    loss. Other flavored briquettes such
    as hickory and smoke do not pose a
    problem. They are unlikely to contain
    any non-kosher ingredients, and even
    if they did, Shulchan Aruch (Yoreh
    De’ah 108:1) rules that although it is
    improper to allow a kosher food to
    absorb a non-kosher aroma, it will
    not make the food non-kosher.