Kosher

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Kosher describes food that complies with kashrut, the traditional Jewish dietary laws as originally (partially) laid out in the Old Testament and primarily in Leviticus. Stemming from initial prohibitions on eating blood,[1] ritually unclean animals, and a somewhat cryptic passage that states not to "boil a kid in its mother's milk", kashrut developed in later, post-Torah tradition to include many of the following rules:

  • Land animals may only be eaten if they chew the cud and have a cloven hoof (horses and pigs are notably banned). Carnivorous mammals and wild game which has not been slaughtered according to Jewish law are also banned.
  • Only fish with fins and scales may be eaten; catfish, shellfish, reptiles, amphibians, crustaceans, and insects are not allowed (except for a very specific type of locust)[2]. Incidentally honey is allowed though the bees that produce honey are forbidden, after all God promised Moses a land flowing with milk and honey, so milk and honey must be allowed.
  • Birds must not be carrion-eaters or birds of prey. Mixing poultry with milk was banned by the rabbis because of the similarity in the way poultry and meat are slaughtered and eaten.
  • Meat and milk may not be mixed in the kitchen or on the table. (However, fish, eggs, and plant-based foods are known as pareve, meaning "neither", and may be eaten freely with either milk or meat.[3][4]) Some observant Jews will have special meat or dairy plates, dishwashers, sinks, or even refrigerators.
  • Animals must be killed with a single stroke of the knife and drained of blood; animals not killed in this manner are not acceptable, nor are animals that are diseased or damaged.
  • The sciatic nerve is forbidden; some Kosher butchers remove this, but most sell the back half of the animal to a non-Kosher butcher. Don't expect to find sirloin or filet mignon at kosher restaurants.
  • During Passover, a few more complicated regulations exist, forbidding leavened bread, beer, or any other wheat, spelt, rye or oat products other than matzah. Rice and corn are generally up for debate—Sephardim are fine with them, Ashkenazim usually are not[5]. During Passover, you should definitely stock up on Kosher Coke, because it's sweetened with cane or beet sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup, which causes near instant diabetes, irrepressible anxiety, makes your tongue feel like a piece of shoe leather, and will damn you to an eternity of servicing BDSM fetishes in hell, you fucking goy heathen! (This recommendation applies primarily or exclusively to American Jews; HFCS is only used in Coca Cola in the United States due to tariffs on sugar and economics elsewhere favor the use of cane sugar.)
  • Kosher salt (more accurately known as koshering salt) is not named because it is kosher in contrast to other forms of salt, but for its role in rendering meat kosher by soaking up the blood inside. The large flakes of kosher salt are more effective for this purpose than more common small-grained salt.

Kashrut is rejected by almost all branches of Christianity, although a few sects, such as Seventh-day Adventism, maintain kosher dietary requirements, along with other Jewish traditions. Halal, the dietary strictures of Islam, is heavily modeled on kashrut but is less strict.

For the most part, kosher regulations are highly complex and differently enforced depending on the community; on the whole, Sephardic kitchens are less strict than Ashkenazic, and some Reform and Reconstructionist Jews obey kashrut only during Passover.

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[edit] Kosher in slang

In common parlance, "kosher" is used to mean "okay" or "cool" - as in "don't tase me, bro -- it's not kosher!"

[edit] See also

[edit] Sources

[edit] Footnotes

  1. Deuteronomy 12:20-28
  2. http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Leviticus+11%3A20-23&version=NIV
  3. In practice, kosher kitchens keep separate sets of cookware and plates, and kosher restaurants are traditionally either dairy or flayshig (meat). So, no, you can't get a cheeseburger in an Israeli McDonalds.
  4. http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-parve.htm
  5. Not like they would buy sake or bourbon anyways.
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