You met your old friend, whom you had not seen for a thousand years, and to celebrate, invited him to a dinner party in your house. Fine! But what is the matter of treating an honored guest if he is a Jew? It is not a problem for the Russian soul to set the table, but it will be extremely unpleasant if your treats remain untouched.
You probably know that "keen" Jewish families use exclusively kosher products. What is it - you probably also heard. "Kosher" means "pure" or "right." So, how to set the table and how to treat your friend and members of his family with delicious food?
Pork
The first thing that comes to mind is not to cook pork. Jews do not eat pork, because this animal does not live in the best sanitary conditions, eats slop and sleeps in the mud. How can such meat be considered “clean”? You will be surprised to know that this is not entirely true. Even if you grow a pig in the purest conditions, you will take it to the shower several times a day, treat it with the best products from your table and put it to bed on satin sheets, its meat will never become “clean” either gram. Just like ram meat (and it is believed that this is kosher products), it can be far from kosher.
We are so different
Many have heard that kosher products are what the rabbi blessed, and they should be made exclusively by the hands of a Jew. If you talk like that, then you don’t even write kosher food for the family. After all, you are not a Jew, much less a rabbi. That is, if you buy the best piece of the “purest” product in a Jewish shop, bring it to your home, cut it beautifully on a plate, you will get far from kosher treats. That's bad luck.
In fact, each person determines the degree of “severity” for himself. And if your friend is of Jewish blood, this does not mean at all that a joint dinner is doomed to failure. If he has accepted your invitation, it means to be good. But still, you should know a little about what kosher products are and what features they have.
Religion
In order to determine what kosher products are, let us turn to the scriptures where there are answers to all worldly questions. It was it that served as 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 the meat of animals that have forked hooves with a deep cut and chew gum. That is, they are artiodactyls, eating grass. But here you need to be careful: a camel, for example, chews gum, but its hooves do not have a deep cut, therefore it is eliminated from the kosher list. Just like a pig: although it has a pair of hooves, it does not chew gum (this is the pig’s secret).
This list is quite extensive, and we will return to it. Now let's dwell a little on how products are separated according to ritual purity. Parve, clubs and kosher products - what is it?
Kosher, clubs and parve
Blessed food is not so simple. It should not only be allowed to be consumed by religion, but also properly prepared, and some products should never be mixed.
Kosher meat products are the front part of the carcass of an animal that was allowed to be eaten, which was correctly killed and freshened. The process should be minimally painful, and a special person - a sheikhet - cuts the living creatures. Also, meat should be completely rid of blood. This also applies to the bird.
Clubs (not kosher products) - what is it? This is forbidden food or one that was improperly prepared, prepared, or due to improper storage, lost its “purity”. For example, this is not a properly killed sheep, or a back calf ham, or a sandwich with sausage and cheese. It is absolutely forbidden to mix dairy products and meat!
Parev is a food that does not apply to meat or milk (eggs, vegetables). Moreover, it is impossible to cook steams (or steams) using dishes that were previously used to prepare meat or dairy dishes, otherwise they will become clubs. But they can be eaten along with meat or dairy products - this is not forbidden.
Milk and meat
The Holy Scripture says: "Do not cook a kid in the milk of his mother." Therefore categorically it is impossible to mix these types of products. They can’t even be cooked using the same dishes, wash it in one sink. Jewish families use different kitchen utensils, and if there is only one wash basin in the family, then the dishes are washed in different basins. But at the same time, such products can be stored in one refrigerator.
It is unacceptable to combine these two types of product in one dish. And you can eat only after a certain period of time. After milk intake, meat can be eaten only after 2 hours. If the meat was eaten first, then you need to wait 6 hours and only after that eat dairy products.
Kosher Products
The list of prohibited and permitted products can be made truly endless. But we will dwell a little on what kosher products are most often consumed and available for sale.
Meat and poultry
Goat, mutton, cattle, venison and other game, as prescribed. From the bird: goose, duck, chicken, turkey, quail, dove, pheasant.
Seafood and fish
You can only eat fish that has fins and scales, but seafood cannot. Allowed include: herring, sprat, halibut, pike, mackerel, salmon, sardine, flounder, tuna, perch, cod and common carp. In general, all species that fit the description, but catfish are not “pure” fish.
Alcohol
Only a Jew can make kosher wine. But vodka belongs to Parva (only not on a milk basis).
Kosher food in Russia
Jews are those people who can be found in any corner of our planet. Therefore, kosher products in Russia are provided in a wide range. You can buy it in specialized stores, at synagogues, and sometimes Jewish communities sell it. If it’s your honor to meet such unusual guests in your home, give neutral products the main preference. These are fruits, 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.