Concept kosher food came to us from the Jews. These people adhere to kashrut in culinary and legal matters. In our article we will focus only on food and find out what kosher food is.
These laws have been defined by the Torah for more than 3,500 years, and Jews have strictly adhered to them for the same amount of time. The very first thing that culinary kashrut begins with is that utensils for eating meat and dairy foods should always be stored separately, even washed in separate sinks or dishwashers. Meat should not be stored in the refrigerator where fish and dairy products are stored. Jews eat eggs, fish, dairy products, and vegetables for breakfast. In the afternoon, for dinner, you can eat meat, desserts that do not contain protein and dairy products, vegetables, and fruits. Now let's look at food products in more detail.
Meat and fish
- Meat – you can eat any animal except pork. An animal that is sick or killed during a hunt, lard, or a thigh is strictly prohibited. He monitors the kosher and origin of the meat - a specially trained butcher, he knows how to properly cut, remove fat and blood. He then places a seal on the meat that confirms it is kosher. Interesting fact in meat kashrut, is that McDonalds has changed the technology for making burger patties specifically for Jews. The meat is not cooked in a frying pan, but exclusively over coals.
- Poultry is kosher, as are pigeons. Grilled or broiled turkey and chicken hearts are considered kosher. Delicacies in the form of insects, worms, and frogs are strictly prohibited. But several types of locusts are allowed.
- Fish is kosher if it has scales and fins. It is cooked on fire or in the oven. Marine animals such as lobsters, crabs, and eels are prohibited for consumption. Red caviar is considered kosher, but black caviar is not.
Cereals and fruits
- Any grains: wheat, barley, oats, yeast products and alcoholic ones can be eaten on any day except Easter. On the days of Passover, these specific prohibitions are added to the usual kashrut.
- Before eating fruits that are susceptible to damage by worms, such as apples, pears, peaches, apricots, etc., they are carefully checked.
Dairy products, bread
- Dairy products cannot be mixed with meat products. The break between eating meat and milk should be at least 6 hours, and between milk and meat – 2 hours.
- Bread is considered kosher only if it is made from kosher ingredients.
Alcohol
Wine made by a non-Jew is not kosher. Alcoholic drinks such as beer are considered kosher if they are prepared using a certain technology.
Traditional kosher snack
Traditional additive to Jewish dishes is hummus. This nut butter. It is eaten with absolutely any food from bread to salads.
When preparing kosher food in a restaurant or at own kitchen, Jews always read a prayer. Taste and appearance Kosher dishes and products are no different from regular ones.
Religion is special provisions and traditions that are observed in nutritional rules. The concept of kosher food is borrowed from Judaism and is often found among Jews. However, recently such food can be increasingly found in the cuisine of many countries.
What does the term kosher food mean?
Kosher food is food prepared according to the canons of kashrut, which is included in the legal records of Halakha.
According to these rules, all dishes are prepared in accordance with traditional customs, and special Jewish organizations control the entire process. Tested products are given a special seal confirming their quality.
All kosher products are divided into three main groups:
- Basar is meat products;
- Freebies are dairy products;
- Parve is all other products.
The very concept of kosher means food that is beneficial for the whole body and is completely suitable for use as food.
Benefit or harm?
People who first turned their attention to kosher dishes wonder: is such food healthy? Of course it has a positive effect on health. This is due to the absence of preservatives, dyes and GMOs, and their packaging is completely sterile.
As for harm, this is a rather controversial issue. In only one study, experts from America were able to prove that poultry meat cooked in the usual way, has fewer harmful substances than in meat prepared using the kosher method.
How to properly prepare kosher food
According to the rules of kashrut, meat and milk cannot be combined in one meal. The time gap between taking these products should be 5 hours. There are also special rules for the method of killing an animal - this must be done by a person trained for this. After slaughter and cutting, the meat is soaked so that all the blood is pumped out of it. Only after this procedure is the meat given to the cook for further processing.
It is strictly forbidden to use meat from sick animals for cooking. Meat and dairy products are prepared using different utensils and in different cuisines. This is why it is common for Jewish homes to have two kitchens. If the space does not allow organizing two kitchens, then two stoves are placed on one for cooking meat and dairy products.
List of kosher products
In order for food to be kosher, you need to use only the products listed in the list of permitted foods for its preparation:
- Meat. For cooking meat dishes you can use carcasses of animals with cloven hooves and eating herbal products. These include moose, cows, sheep, goats, and giraffes. There are exceptions, for example, from non-herbivores, the meat of pigs is allowed, and from those without cloven hooves, the meat of camels, rabbits and hyraxes. When cooking, be sure to completely remove blood from the meat. According to Jews, eating blood makes a person cruel and aggressive. Eggs are also completely prohibited if they contain blood.
- Bird. From poultry, you can only use meat from domestic animals - chicken, ducks and geese. The only wild birds allowed are pigeon meat. The meat of eagles, hawks, pelicans and owls is completely prohibited.
- Eggs. There is a special rule for selecting eggs - their shape. The egg should be sharp on one side and round on the other. If both edges are blunt, then they cannot be used for food. This may mean that the eggs came from scavenger birds.
- Fish. For cooking, you can only use fish with scales, tail and fins. It is strictly forbidden to eat any seafood, since they have neither scales nor fins. Shrimp, octopus, sea worms, etc. are completely prohibited on the list of kosher items.
- Milk. For the preparation of dishes using milk, it is allowed to use only raw materials taken from animals permitted by law. All other milk is strictly prohibited.
- Fruits and vegetables. There are no restrictions in this product category. The only condition is no contact with non-kosher items. Also, wormy fruits should not be eaten.
Doctors' opinion
According to doctors of various specialties, food prepared according to kosher canons is only important for observing religious rules. In terms of health, kosher food does not have much impact on a person's health.
Previously, adherents of the kosher diet experienced certain difficulties while traveling. Nowadays, even many air carriers offer kosher cuisine to their passengers during flights. Therefore, compliance with all religious canons, including nutrition, becomes problem-free, even while traveling away from home.
Kosher Recipes
In almost any large city, you can find kosher dishes in cafes, but usually their cost is much higher than regular dishes. But don't despair. Since various kosher products are already sold in sufficient quantities in stores, preparing dishes in compliance with all religious traditions will not be difficult.
Strudel
One of the easiest and fastest kosher dishes to prepare is salmon, cheese and spinach strudel. It can be served not only as holiday dish, but also just for gatherings with friends, since strudel is not only very tasty, but also dietary.
Products for cooking:
- 150 gr. sifted flour;
- Egg;
- 1 tbsp. spoon of butter;
- Some water.
These products need to be kneaded soft dough. This usually takes no more than 10 minutes. After this the dough is cling film put in the refrigerator for half an hour.
At this time you can start filling: 150 gr. grate the cheese, cut 0.5 kg of salmon into thin strips, and lightly stew the spinach with butter. After this, mix all the ingredients and add the egg, you can add salt if desired.
The dough that has rested in the refrigerator should be rolled out very thinly on the table, approximately 50x70 cm in size. If the dough was kneaded correctly, it will not tear, but will be thin and translucent to the light.
Sprinkle on the rolled out sheet breadcrumbs, and you need to retreat 2 cm from the edges, and leave about 15 cm of the sheet empty on the right side. Then spread the filling in an even layer and roll it up. The finished roll is greased with butter and placed on a baking sheet in the oven for 40 minutes, while the temperature inside should be 2000 C. After baking, the strudel is cut into thick pieces and served with sour cream or vegetable salad.
Chicken
Cooking kosher chicken is not at all difficult. To do this, the kosher carcass is divided into 4 parts and rubbed with a mixture of salt and pepper. While the meat is soaking, prepare the sauce. To do this, mix a little soy sauce with a glass of red wine and add 4 tbsp. spoons of charoset. This mixture is poured over the meat and cooked in an oven preheated to 2000 for an hour.
Currently, the need for kosher food is only increasing. This is explained by many factors - ease of preparation, avoidance of high costs, benefits for the body. Try to cook this dish at home once, and you will remain a devotee of kosher cuisine for a long time.
We've all heard the word "kosher" at some point. It means fit or suitable. Often used in relation to food by Jewish believers. Stores with the same name are required to have a certificate from a rabbi. It guarantees that only kosher products are sold. There is a special set of rules that determines what a Jew can eat and what not. It's called kashrut. These rules are very difficult for the average person to understand, but for Judaism this is the norm. For example, you cannot eat dairy and meat at the same time or pork. We will not delve too deeply into the essence of the rules; we will only say that the modern concept of “kosher” is not at all what we described above. Now its meaning has acquired a new connotation: “normal, suitable.”
Nutrition
Kosher nutrition is now becoming increasingly popular. This desire is not at all connected with religion, but is a simple desire to improve the health of the body, make its work easier and free it from heavy food.
Kosher is a diet that includes environmentally friendly, healthy foods that are included and permitted by kashrut. They are marked with a special sign, which guarantees usefulness, environmental friendliness and superior quality. Kosher food costs much more. What exactly is this - we will tell you a little further.
Products
As for meat, it includes lamb, beef, goat, and wild herbivores. Kosher animals are those with cloven hooves and the ability to chew. There are also a number of rules for slaughtering and processing meat.
Everything is simpler with fish. If it has fins and scales, it can safely be classified as “kosher products”.
“What does this mean, every fish has scales,” you will be surprised. We'll explain. Scales are not present in all fish species. For example, it is absent in eel, catfish, shark, and sturgeon. Accordingly, black caviar is also not suitable for consumption, and kosher - this, as we already know, means “suitable”. Seafood is not like this either - due to the lack of fins.
As for birds, the Torah says nothing about them; it only talks about predators and scavengers. They cannot be used. Cutting and slaughter here must also be carried out in a special way.
Eating insects and rodents is prohibited. Forbidden species also include the meat of hares, rabbits, amphibians and reptiles. Tora makes an exception for honey, although it is produced by insects.
Kosher food: what it is and how to prepare it
Cooking such food baffles many people. For example, you cannot cook meat and dairy products together, or eat them. If you want to cook poultry in white sauce, it will be simply unforgivable. Deeply religious people prepare these products using different utensils. Some even use different stoves, but this is a cost of beliefs. Dairy products can be eaten or drunk only six hours after meat products, and this is correct. Such a mixture is not very beneficial for the body. After cheese, it is also better to eat meat after six hours.
The consumption of milk for Jews is permitted only from kosher animals. According to the rules, the milking is supervised by a rabbi or his authorized representative.
So, kosher. What does this mean for products? In relation to bread, this word implies baking by the believers themselves. During the baking process, you need to tear off a piece and burn it. It's called halu. If bread is not baked at home, even there the ovens should only be turned on by Jews and monitored by them.
Regarding eggs, there should be no spots on them, especially blood. IN Everyday life we don’t pay much attention to this, but for believers it is very important. Also, you can’t cook them all together. It is allowed to cook only three pre-washed pieces in one container.
If you think that eating plant foods is easier, you are mistaken. Let's understand the concept of kosher products, what they are and how to use them. Since insects and various worms are prohibited for consumption, Jews have to carefully inspect and sift cereals, flour, legumes, herbs, fruits, vegetables, and berries. We, of course, also check food for the presence of the above, but we are not so scrupulous about this process.
Are kosher products beneficial?
These products include wine and all drinks that contain grapes, as well as their derivatives. Such wines are much more expensive than even the highest quality foreign ones. They are produced and manufactured exclusively by Jews. Grapes must be harvested at a certain time from those bushes that have reached four years of age.
Before each production, a ritual sacrifice is made and a prayer is read. At wine factories, all other processes must be stopped at this time. You haven’t yet understood the whole essence of the term “kosher products”, what is it? Then we will go deeper and say that this is the constant sterilization of everything from equipment to communications. This is done not only to disinfect, but also to clean everything. Something like cleansing before the new.
Prohibitions
Under no circumstances should a stranger be allowed to see how wine is made. It is believed that this is a sacred ritual during which outsiders are strictly prohibited from entering.
Working on Saturday is a terrible sin. All production stops for one day.
If someone of non-Jewish blood touches the food, it will lose its kosher status and become unsuitable for cooking.
Kosher wines began to be pasteurized. All this is done to prevent loss of "fitness". Therefore, these and any other wines should be uncorked and poured only by Jews.
Of course, you need to understand that this is just a religious approach to making products, and it has nothing to do with healthy eating. Today, winemakers often avoid such rituals, since it takes a lot of time, and produce ordinary wine drinks.
Conclusion
Summarize. We touched only on the main points in the article about kosher products. These traditions are significant only for Jewish believers and do not apply to ordinary people. You should also not confuse ordinary environmental and healthy foods with kosher.
Alcoholic grape drinks are widely used in other cultures and by different peoples. For example, Christians use it as communion wine, like the blood of the Lord.
But still, kosher products are many times healthier, tastier and cleaner than regular ones. All production is well controlled and products are produced to the highest quality standards. You don’t even have to think about hygiene, since it is constantly checked, especially regarding meat. All living creatures undergo total control and are constantly tested for diseases and so on. You can’t even eat an injured animal, let alone a sick one. When caring and feeding, hormones or antibiotics are not used.
Many nations have traditions and prohibitions associated with limiting the consumption of certain foods. In Russian cuisine, there are no prohibitions as such: we simply do not eat what we are not used to, or what seems unacceptable to us, and therefore there is no need for official prohibitions.
But everyone in Russia has probably heard about the prohibitions that exist for Muslims and Jews. Most often it is mentioned that Muslims should not eat pork, but with Jewish cuisine everything is more complicated: there are more prohibitions in it, and many of them may seem strange and incomprehensible to us.
Food allowed for consumption in Israel is called kosher, and Jews living in other countries and strictly observing the “faith of their fathers” include only kosher products in their diet. The origin of the word “kosher” goes back to the concept of “kashrut,” which in Judaism denotes compliance with Halakha, traditional Jewish law based on many religious commandments. That's how difficult it is; however, the requirements imposed by Jewish law on products are quite close to the concepts of healthy and separate meals. For example, Jews are strictly forbidden to mix meat and dairy products, and this is correct, since they are completely incompatible with each other.
Perhaps for this reason kosher products In Russia, not only Jews are interested, and many people want to know more about this.
Kosher - not kosher
Kosher meat products come from the meat of herbivores that live on land. These are ruminant ungulates, but their hooves are cloven: sheep, goats and cattle; It is also allowed to eat elk and giraffe meat. Pork, rabbit and camel meat are prohibited. Eating blood in any form is prohibited, so the meat of kosher animals is always soaked and washed. in special ways. Animals must also be slaughtered according to the rules: this is done by kosher butchers who have undergone special training.
The following kosher dish combines two Jewish recipe. To deliciously bake chicken in charoset, you must first prepare the charoset itself - a truly Jewish dish, made from fruits, nuts, pomegranate juice (wine) and spices. Need to take 1-2
The definition of “kosher” comes from the name of the set of Jewish religious rules “kashrut”, most often associated with food. Kashrut clearly regulates the foods that a true Jew can eat.
Kosher meat
Only the meat of animals that are both ruminants and artiodactyls is considered kosher. The absence of one of these signs makes the meat unfit for food. That is why the Jews do not eat hare. But Jews can eat beef and lamb in unlimited quantities. Even the meat of artiodactyls and herbivores is allowed by kashrut to eat.
But the fact that meat belongs to one or another type of animal does not in itself serve as a sign of its kosher. There is a whole set of rules for kosher slaughter of animals - shechita. This is a whole science. An animal slaughterer, a shoikhet, has been studying his bloody craft for about a year and even passes an exam. Indeed, in order for the meat of an animal to be recognized as kosher, it must be killed with one movement of a sharply sharpened knife, without causing even the smallest lacerations or punctures. Otherwise, the meat is considered non-kosher and is not allowed to be eaten by Jews.
The Torah also strictly prohibits the consumption of blood. Therefore, the skinned animal carcass is subjected to a thorough examination for the presence of blood on it. And even after this procedure, the meat is still thoroughly soaked in water.
Kosher poultry, fish and other products
The two main signs of kosher fish are easily detachable scales and fins. Therefore, all fish, with the exception of catfish, sturgeon, eel and, are kosher. And even black sturgeon caviar through his own fault is not recognized as such.
Most birds are also kosher. The only exceptions are predators. Absolutely all poultry is suitable for food for the Jews.
As for dairy products, they themselves are all kosher. But kashrut prescribes their consumption separately from meat. After eating them, one to six hours must pass (the period varies in different Jewish communities) before the meal can begin. The time interval between eating meat after dairy products is much lower and is only half an hour. Failure to comply with these rules makes both meat and dairy products non-kosher.
The same set of rules categorically does not recognize the kosher nature of the meat of reptiles and amphibians.
