Kosher Food

Raw carrots are kosher, as long as the utensils used to cut it are clean (although some would insist that the utensils must be kosher as well). People who keep strictly kosher will not eat food that has been cooked with any non-kosher product. They would also not eat it if it was cooked in a non-kosher pot.

Yes, but only if they are produced in a kosher kitchen.

no

Menudo is made with Tripe. Tripe is a part of the digestive tract, usually of cows or sometimes of swine. That makes it OFFAL (animal guts). If you were able to find kosher cow tripe, you could make kosher menudo. (There is no issue with offal so long as it comes from a kosher animal).

I have personally found my own "Menudo Curry" to be extremely cheap to make and even more rewarding to eat. Just don't forget the Coriander! (Do not share with the unappreciative, more for us!)

This would be rare. Cattle can be processed according to kosher requirements, so beef in general can be kosher. However, the tenderloin comes from the back of the animal, along the spine behind the rib cage. For a cut of meat to be kosher, the meat must be deveined. Unfortunately, many rabbinical traditions have lost the training to devein the back half of a beef carcass, so the tenderloin would not be eligible unless a rabbinical authority with the tradition of deveining the back half were processing it.

It should be labeled as having had rabbinic supervision for Passover use.

Circle V is the Vaad Hoeir of Saint Louis, MO

Rabbi Sholom Rivkin

A kosher home is a place where everyone keeps kosher, and the utensils are kosher. Many Jews won't eat in someones house unless the home keeps the laws of kosher - a kosher home. This includes keeping meat and milk away from each other (along with their utensils), and only bringing food that is certified kosher (except for fresh fruit and vegetables, which doesn't need a hechsher - reliable kosher certification) into the house.

In order to be kosher, food has to be prepared according to the kosher-laws (see Deuteronomy ch.14).

* Meat must be from those land animals which have split hooves and chew their cud (such as beef and mutton)

* Fish have to have scales and fins. The kosher diet excludes shellfish.

* Birds cannot be amongst those listed as forbidden in the Torah (Deuteronomy ch.14) and cannot be hunters/scavengers. In actual practice, today we eat only poultry-species concerning which we have a tradition that they're permitted, such as chicken and turkey.

* Animals must be slaughtered in the manner specified by Jewish law and must be free of all disease. In actual practice, those who keep kosher purchase meat which is certified as kosher.

* As much blood as possible must be removed from meat before cooking, since consumption of blood is forbidden (Leviticus ch.17). This is done by the kosher butcher.

* Dairy and meat cannot be combined in the same meal and there's a waiting period between eating one and then the other. After dairy: 1/2 hour. After meat: 6 hours for most Jewish communities.

*Additionally, food must be prepared and handled following kashrut-laws and with kosher ingredients only. Any food that does not meet these requirements cannot be eaten by those who are religiously observant. Foods which are purchased should be labeled as having had kosher supervision during their processing.

House Foods Tofu Shirataki is certified according to their website but it doesn't specify the hechsher.

Pros--Kosher meat is supposedly killed in a more humane way than conventional killing. Kosher laws include provisions for more sanitary and clean food.

Cons--inconvenient sometimes, and there have been numerous instances where the certifying rabbi is corrupt and the kosher food industry has criminal ties.

Yes, if necessary. However, it is preferable for Jews to pray in groups (called minyanim).

NO! The ingredients of ye old Yorkshire pudding are flour, milk and eggs. Dairy products are not eaten with meat

Whey is a dairy product, made from milk and can be kosher. As this is a processed food product, it would require kosher certification to be considered kosher.

To be kosher, a fish must have both fins and scales - some fish, such as lampreys (and also whales which were considered fish in ancient times, though we now know that they are of course mammals) do not, and so are treif (not kosher). Flying fish have both and as such are kosher.

There's a good list of both kosher and treif fish at http://www.kosherquest.org/bookhtml/FISH.htm

There are kosher cookies. To be kosher, cookies (or any processed food) need a stamp from a rabbi stating that no non-kosher ingredients were used (like pig fat) and that the kitchen and utensils were kosher (for example if you used utensils for meat products, they would not be permitted for use with milk products).

== == * The ingredients would stay the same, but the kosher mayonnaise would have been produced in a kosher factory under rabbinical supervision. As in, the rabbi visits every so often to make sure that no treif or "unkosher" ingredients are being used in the factory or that no milk or meat products were sharing the same utensils (Jews aren't allowed to EVER mix milk and meat, in addition to not eating shellfish, birds of prey, etc.) Kosher food is not blessed, it's just supervised by knowledgeable authority figures. * Kosher foods are foods that conform to the rules of the Jewish religion (kashrut, Jewish dietary laws.) Example: Slaughtered animals under 'Kashrut' are by Jewish dietary laws. Non-kosher include ingredient derived from non-kosher animals or from kosher animals that were not properly slaughtered. This applies to other foods in the Jewish dietary laws.

You might want to start with Deuteronomy, chapter 14, the first 21 verses in the chapter. This is not the only place in the bible that provides material on this subject, but it's a fine place to begin. Don't forget to follow up any footnotes, commentaries, or external references that you come upon in your reading.

It is outright prohibited for Ashkenazim (since rice is not permitted). However, it is usually prohibited for Sephardim and Mizrahim as well since Rice-based cereals usually contain other grains in addition to the rice (such as barley, wheat, sorghum, or millet). It is these other grains that would make it prohibited for Sephardim and Mizrahim.

Yes, unless the individual is a vegetarian. Judaism does not prohibit eating meat other than restrictions on which animals are allowed. According to Jewish law, land animals must have split hooves and chew their cud.

Yes, camel meat is eaten in various societies around the world. Slice it into chunks and fry it in some olive oil with salt and pepper. It is very lean meat and tastes best medium rare, do not over cook or it is ruined. See links below for more information and for more recipes.

Yep. Jewish dietary restrictions are more rigorous than Islamic ones. In the days when Muslims were few in the US, and most cities did not have a hallal butcher, observant Muslims were among the best customers of kosher delis.

There are some debates among Muslims as to whether Jewish blessings during the slaughter of an animal is sufficient to qualify as tasmiyah (blessing God in an Islamic context during slaughter). The majority opinion is that since Jews bless the same God as the Muslims for the same purpose, the Jewish blessings count as tasmiyah. There is a minority opinion that the failure by Jewish butchers to say specifically "Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim" when slaughtering an animal is sufficient to bar the consumption of kosher meat. There is no other issue for a Muslim eating kosher meat.