Kosher products - what is it?

You met your old friend, who had not been seen for a thousand years, and invited him to dinner for dinner at his house. Excellent! Yes, that's how to treat an honorable guest, if he is a Jew? Cover table with the usual scope for the Russian soul is not a problem, but it will be extremely unpleasant if your treats remain untouched.

You probably know that in "inveterate" Jewish families only kosher products are used. What is it - you probably also heard. "Kosher" means "clean" or "right". So, how to properly set the table and what tasty treat your friend and family members?

Pork

The first thing that comes to your mind is not to cook pork. Jews do not eat pork, because this animal does not live in the best sanitary conditions, eats pomi and sleeps in the mud. How can such meat be considered "clean"? You will be surprised to learn that this is not quite true. Even if you grow a pig in the most pure conditions, you will take her into the shower several times a day, regulate the best foods from your table and put them to sleep on satin sheets, her meat will never become "clean" either gram. Equally the same as the meat of a sheep (and it is believed that this is kosher products), it can be far from kosher.

We are so different

Many have heard that kosher production is what the rabbi has blessed, and it must be prepared solely by the hands of a Jew. If you talk like this, then you will prepare kosher food and it is not written at all for the genus. After all, you are not a Jew, much less a rabbi. That is, if you buy the best piece of the "purest" product in the Jewish shop, bring it home, cut it beautifully on a plate, you will not get a kosher treat. That's so bad luck.

In fact, each person himself determines for himself the degree of "severity". And if a friend of your Jewish blood, this does not mean that the joint dinner is doomed to failure. If he has accepted your invitation, it means to be good. But still you need to know a little about what kosher products are and what features it has.

Religion

In order to determine what kosher products are, we turn to where there are answers to all worldly questions - to the Holy Scripture. It was the soil for the growth of the great kosher tree. What is written there?

The Old Testament (Leviticus, chapter 11) will help us understand the essence. In it, the Lord gives clear instructions to Moses and Aaron about what can be eaten and what is bad. So, you can eat meat of animals that have forked claws with a deep cut and chew the cud. That is, they are cloven-hoofed, feeding on grass. But here you need to be careful: a camel, for example, chews chewing gum, but its hooves do not have a deep cut, so it drops out of the kosher list. As well as the pig: although she has paired claws, she does not chew the cud (so that's the secret of the pig).

This list is quite extensive, and we will return to it. And now we will dwell a little on how the products are divided according to ritual purity. Parve, clubs and kosher products - what is it?

Kosher, club and parvee

With blessed food, everything is not so simple. It should not only be allowed to be eaten by religion, but also properly prepared, and some products should not be confused.

Meat kosher products are the front part of the carcass of an animal allowed to eat, which has been properly killed and refreshed. The process should be minimally painful, and the living creature cuts a special person - a sheikhet. Also, the meat should be completely freed from blood. This also applies to the bird.

Trefoil (not kosher products) - what is it? This is a prohibited food or one that was improperly prepared, cooked or because of improper storage has lost its "purity". For example, it is not a properly killed sheep, or a rear calf ham, or a sandwich with sausage and cheese. Dairy products and meat can not be confused!

Parev is that food that does not apply to meat or milk (eggs, vegetables). Moreover, from steamed (or parve) can not be cooked using dishes that were previously used for cooking meat or milk dishes, otherwise they will become club meals. But they can be eaten with meat or dairy products - this is not forbidden.

Milk and meat

The Holy Scripture says: "Do not boil a kid in the milk of his mother." Therefore, it is absolutely impossible to mix these types of products. They can not even be cooked using the same dish, wash it in one sink. In Jewish families different kitchen utensils are used, and if there is only one wash basin in the family, the dishes are washed in different basins. But at the same time such products can be stored in one refrigerator.

It is inadmissible to combine these two types of product in one dish. And you can eat only after a certain period of time. After taking milk, you can eat meat only after 2 hours. If the meat was eaten first, then you need to wait 6 hours and only after that there are dairy products.

Kosher Products

The list of forbidden and allowed products can be made truly endless. But we will dwell a little on what kind of kosher products are most often consumed and available for sale.

Meat and poultry

Goat, lamb, meat of cattle, venison and other game, corresponding to the prescription. From the bird: goose, duck, chicken, turkey, quail, pigeon, pheasant.

Seafood and fish

You can eat only fish that have fins and scales, but seafood can not. The permitted ones are: herring, sprat, halibut, pike, mackerel, salmon, sardine, flounder, tuna, perch, cod and carp. In general, all species that fit the description, but the catfish is not a "pure" fish.

Alcohol

Kosher wine can only be made by a Jew. But vodka refers to parve (not on a dairy basis).

Kosher food in Russia

Jews are people who can be found anywhere in the world. Therefore, kosher products in Russia are provided in a wide range. You can buy it in specialized shops, with synagogues, and sometimes Jewish communities sell. If it's your honor to meet such unusual guests in your home, give your main preference to neutral products. This fruit, vegetables, cereals, pasta and eggs - they can be bought everywhere. But for the rest, you need to go to a store that has kosher certification.