Post by Sora on Sept 1, 2015 16:44:14 GMT -6
I began taking steps toward kashrus about 10 years ago, and while information internet may not have been as readily available and plentiful as it is now, it was still a populated with lots of information. Still, I had trouble understanding where to find reliable information and how to process this information in a useful manner.
One thing that I really didn’t understand was that kosher meat was not a style of cooking or a cut. I had envisioned myself going to a regular restaurant and asking the waiter if the chef could “cook my chicken breast kosher,” as if that would cause the meal to be kosher. I also remember purchasing store brand chicken salad from the local (non-kosher) grocery store and trying to work out just what it is that renders chicken as kosher. Cooking regular (treif) meat without any dairy does not render it kosher. Blessing it does not render it kosher. Organic or natural meat from free range, grass fed animals does not render the meat automatically kosher (though kosher meat can address these socially conscious causes).
One must start with a kosher animal such as (but not limited to) a chicken, cow, lamb or turkey. What makes meat kosher is in the slaughtering or shechita process. (Anglicized: sha-HEE-tah with a nice guttural clearing-of-the-back-of-one's-throat sound on the H) So the mechanism that causes an already kosher animal to produce meat that is kosher (good) as opposed to treif (not so good) is primarily found in the way that the animal is slaughtered, and then how it is treated after slaughtering and before it hits the shelf at your grocer.
Fish, by the way, need only have fins and scales such as salmon, tuna, cod, whitefish, or pike. I will have another thread on kosher seafood.
I’m not going to get into this process because there are many fine articles on the internet that address this. I’m instead going to focus on some quick and dirty tips on how to find kosher meat in your area.
The most obvious place for kosher meat is a kosher butcher, but your neighborhood might not have such an establishment. Kosher meat, in at least limited quantities, is often available through mainstream grocers in neighborhoods with even very modest Jewish populations. These products will be clearly labeled "kosher" (I will have another thread to discuss what markings to look for.) Another great resource is your local Chabad. Do you live on Earth? Yes? Then you probably have a wonderful Chabad House within a reasonable distance. They’re getting their meat from somewhere and they may have a buying pool set up to purchase meat in large quantities.
If the above resources don’t pan out, kosher meat is also available online, and will be shipped to you on dry ice. Simply googling “Kosher meat online” produced quite a few viable results for me.
I know this is a really rough, vague article, but let's get the conversation going! What are some of your tips to finding and buying kosher food? Have anything else to add? Let's hear from you!
One thing that I really didn’t understand was that kosher meat was not a style of cooking or a cut. I had envisioned myself going to a regular restaurant and asking the waiter if the chef could “cook my chicken breast kosher,” as if that would cause the meal to be kosher. I also remember purchasing store brand chicken salad from the local (non-kosher) grocery store and trying to work out just what it is that renders chicken as kosher. Cooking regular (treif) meat without any dairy does not render it kosher. Blessing it does not render it kosher. Organic or natural meat from free range, grass fed animals does not render the meat automatically kosher (though kosher meat can address these socially conscious causes).
One must start with a kosher animal such as (but not limited to) a chicken, cow, lamb or turkey. What makes meat kosher is in the slaughtering or shechita process. (Anglicized: sha-HEE-tah with a nice guttural clearing-of-the-back-of-one's-throat sound on the H) So the mechanism that causes an already kosher animal to produce meat that is kosher (good) as opposed to treif (not so good) is primarily found in the way that the animal is slaughtered, and then how it is treated after slaughtering and before it hits the shelf at your grocer.
Fish, by the way, need only have fins and scales such as salmon, tuna, cod, whitefish, or pike. I will have another thread on kosher seafood.
I’m not going to get into this process because there are many fine articles on the internet that address this. I’m instead going to focus on some quick and dirty tips on how to find kosher meat in your area.
The most obvious place for kosher meat is a kosher butcher, but your neighborhood might not have such an establishment. Kosher meat, in at least limited quantities, is often available through mainstream grocers in neighborhoods with even very modest Jewish populations. These products will be clearly labeled "kosher" (I will have another thread to discuss what markings to look for.) Another great resource is your local Chabad. Do you live on Earth? Yes? Then you probably have a wonderful Chabad House within a reasonable distance. They’re getting their meat from somewhere and they may have a buying pool set up to purchase meat in large quantities.
If the above resources don’t pan out, kosher meat is also available online, and will be shipped to you on dry ice. Simply googling “Kosher meat online” produced quite a few viable results for me.
I know this is a really rough, vague article, but let's get the conversation going! What are some of your tips to finding and buying kosher food? Have anything else to add? Let's hear from you!