Shtiebel Kashrut Guidlines
Shtiebel Community Standards for food prep and Kashering Guide
One aspect of strengthening our community comes when Shtiebelers invite one another and newcomers to their homes for a Shabbat meal, or when we are able to prepare food for eachother.
The guidelines below are intended to enable anyone to feel confident offering and accepting hospitality within our shul community, while ensuring that food and beverages can be eaten and enjoyed according to the Laws of Shabbat and Kashrut.
Everyone has different levels of observance with respect to Kashrut and Shabbat. We respect and welcome everyone regardless of where they are on their Jewish path. However, if you would like to offer hospitality through the shul or cook a chesed meal, you must adhere to these guidelines.
The laws of Shabbat and Kashrut are complex. The purpose of this document is to simplify the laws. It does not replace ongoing study, but it does lay down basic guidelines to allow everyone to have a common Kashrut Guide!
We hope that these guidelines enhance hospitality within our community, both between Shtiebelers and with newcomers.
Thank you for helping us create a wonderful and welcoming community! If anything in this document is unclear or if you have further questions that are not addressed here, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Shtiebel Kashrut Standards
Dishes, Pots and Pans
Food should be cooked, prepared, and served using only cooking utensils, serving utensils, and cutlery that have been exclusively used for kosher food, separate utensils should be used for meat and milk. Kitchen appliances and utensils can be made kosher (“kashered”) - see more in the section below about kashering your kitchen!
Kosher Foods
All food must bear a reliable Kosher Certification with the exception of the categories of food listed below. Here is a list of reliable certifications.
The major Kashrut organizations (OU, OK, Star-K, and cRc) all maintain excellent websites which are helpful resources for kashrut. The list below is not exhaustive, but it should serve as a general guide. If you have questions about a specific certification, please do not hesitate to consult us.
Cheese and Dairy Products
Please remember that all cheeses and cheese-based products need reliable supervision, even cheese which is 100% vegetarian.
Grape Products
Wine, grape juice and any product with grape juice or grape flavoring, including unspecified "fruit juices", need to be reliably certified as kosher.
Fresh whole grapes are kosher.
Even if a wine is certified kosher, it may not be appropriate for your dinner table - especially in our community. That is because, since our community is so open and diverse, we will frequently have around our Shabbat tables beloved people who are gentile or who are in various stages of the conversion process.
In such a case, only wine that is MEVUSHAL (flash-heated or pasteurized) may be served. Almost all American Kosher wine is Mevushal (Kedem, Baron Herzog, Weinstock - except when noted), but many of the Israeli wines (especially Galil, Golan, and Yarden ) are not.
Beverages
Most soft drinks are kosher, including Coca Cola products, Pepsi products, Crush (except for cherry flavor), Dr. Pepper, 7-Up (including cherry), and RC Cola. Please consult CRCweb.org under "kosher lists" for a complete list of kosher drinks. Despite some controversy, all whiskies and unflavored spirits (vodka, gin, Scotch, bourbon, etc.) which are not grape derived are kosher. Liqueurs require reliable supervision except for Amaretto Disaronno, and Peter Cherry Herring, which are both kosher without a kosher sign.
Grape Products
Wine, grape juice and any product with grape juice or grape flavoring, including unspecified "fruit juices", need to be reliably certified as kosher. Fresh whole grapes are kosher. Even if a wine is certified kosher, it may not be appropriate for your dinner table - especially in our community. That is because, since our community is so open and diverse, frequently we will have around our shabbat tables beloved people who are gentile or who are in various stages of the conversion process. In such a case, only wine that is MEVUSHAL (flash heated or pasteurized) may be served. Almost all American kosher wine is Mevushal (Kedem, Baron Herzog, Weinstock - except when noted), but many of the Israeli wines (especially Galil, Golan and Yarden ) are not.
The Plain "K"
Merely having the letter "k" on a product does not mean it is kosher. On the other hand, there are products that bear a "k" which really stands for reliable supervision. Please reach out if you are not sure!
Fresh Fish
It is acceptable to buy the fish from a regular store as long as the following conditions are met:
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Make sure the fish is a kosher fish.
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Make sure you can identify this fish 100% as kosher either by seeing its scales or because it is red or pink in color.
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Make sure you wash the fish thoroughly when you get home. Since nothing hot touched the fish, washing them off will clean off anything not kosher that might have touched them.
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When you return home, you should gently scrape the cut part of the fish with a knife.
Items that do not need a Hechsher (certification)
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Aluminum Foil, Baking Powder, Cocoa – plain, with no additives, Coffee – plain, without flavorings, Corn Starch, Dried Fruit – with no oil or other ingredients listed (except for the usual preservatives, such as potassium sorbate, sulphur, dioxide and sodium bisulfate)
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Flour – plain only, Fruits – Most plain canned and frozen fruits with no added ingredients besides water,
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salt, sugar, corn syrup, corn sweetener, citric acid, ascorbic acid, are acceptable without certification.
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Calcium chloride, lactic acid, and ferrous glutomate do not require certification, but beware of added ingredients such as spices, flavorings, colorings, or grapejuice.
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Honey, Molasses, Nuts – plain, with no oil or other ingredients (besides salt) on the label, when they have been dry roasted
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Oats, Plastic Wraps, Popcorn Kernels – plain, with no oil, flavoring, etc.
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Raisins – plain, with no oil listed on the label, Raw Nuts, Rice – plain, with no flavor or seasoning added
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Salt, Spices – pure, not ground, Starch, Sugar, Tea – plain, black, green, or oolong, with no added ingredients or flavorings, Wheat, Wheat Germ – with no added ingredients, Yeast – regular
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Liquor – All unflavored beer, ale, whiskey, rye, gin, tequila (without worm), and sake can be consumed as they all have standardized traditional methods of brewing and distilling. Flavored beers and other liquors should not be consumed without a hekhsher. Wine, port, vermouth, brandy, or any liquor made from grapes requires kashrut certification.
Fresh Vegetables
Lettuce/leafy veggies need to be washed.
The following is the procedure for cleaning Romaine lettuce:
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Separate Leaves
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Place in water
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Make a complete, leaf by leaf inspection
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Wash off any insects
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Leafy vegetables may now be used.
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Bagged lettuce of any kind, which comes with a reliable supervision or is triple-washed, does not need to be washed in this way.
Shabbat Food Preparation Standards
The Shabbat restrictions on heating food on Shabbat are derived from the Torah’s prohibition against cooking and manipulating fire on Shabbat and from several rabbinic extensions and safeguards to these laws.
Many of these laws are not applicable on Yom Tov that occurs on a weekday, and most manners of heating and cooking food are permitted on yom tov.
No uncooked/raw food or beverages may be placed on a hot burner, in a heated oven, in a crock pot that is on, on a warming tray, or in a heated urn on Shabbat.
No liquids may be heated on Shabbat in any fashion. This includes water for making tea, soup, stew with a lot of liquid, or any dish with lots of liquid sauce. Any liquid you want hot needs to be put on the heat, in an urn or crockpot, or on the stove and left there before Shabbat.
Do not reheat any food on Shabbat (even dry, already cooked food) once it has cooled down by putting it directly in the oven. However, it is permissible to reheat dry, already-cooked food on Shabbat in the following ways:
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Put it on a warming tray - "plata" in Hebrew – which is not designed to cook but, rather, just to warm. (An electric warming tray can be used with an electric timer. Be sure to use an “appliance timer” that can safely accommodate the voltage of the warming tray.)
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A “ blekh” (a metal sheet) can be placed on top of a stove burner that is left burning for the duration of Shabbat.
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Food can be heated in a “warming drawer” that is not designed for cooking.
Again, the above procedures only work for dry food. You may not remove soup or stew from the refrigerator on Shabbat morning and put it on a plata, blech or warming oven.
Stew or cholent placed in a crock-pot before Shabbat can be left to simmer and cook after Shabbat has started so long as either the food is minimally edible when Shabbat begins or, the knobs and switches on the crock-pot or slow-cooker are covered before Shabbat begins.
Do not stir food in the crock-pot or on a heated stove once Shabbat comes in, at the very least until it is fully cooked. If possible, remove the inner pot from the outer metal element before scooping out the contents or remove the dish from the blekh. So long as the food remains hot and one has the intention to return the food to the blekh or crockpot, it can be returned if you want to consume the dish later on or the next day.
You may only add piping hot water to the crock pot or a pot on the stove, and only by transferring it directly from a hot-water urn or another pot on the stove, via a ladle or a spoon, into the crock pot.
Making our homes Shabbat friendly
Please remember to turn off lights in your fridge/oven/freezer or any appliance. It is prohibited to open doors of these appliances if the light will go on.
If you have a Sabbath Mode on your oven, this only allows you to remove food from the oven on Shabbat. You are not allowed to put food in the oven on Shabbat even if it has a Sabbath Mode. Make sure that lights are on in the bathroom and toilet paper is pre-cut or tissues are available. Remember that your guests may not be familiar with Shabbat home rituals (like kiddush, motzi, and birkat ha-mazon). Make sure to explain new terms to help guests feel comfortable.
Kashering my kitchen
Before you Kasher your kitchen, ideally don’t cook or warm up anything for 24 hours. If you kasher different parts of the kitchen on different days, simply don’t use the appliance or parts of the kitchen you intend to kasher for 24 hours before kashering.
Stove, Cooktop, Oven, Broiler
No part of the stove can be considered Kosher unless it is completely clean, and free from any non-kosher baked-on food or grease.
Oven
In a conventional oven, gas or electric, an oven cleaner may be necessary to remove baked-on grease. If a caustic type of oven cleaner (such as Easy-Off) was used to clean the oven and some stubborn spots remain after the caustic cleaner has been applied, the remaining spots may be disregarded. Once the oven and racks have been cleaned, they may be kashered by turning the oven to the broil or highest setting. Once it has achieved this temperature, it must be left on for 40 minutes. In a gas oven, the broil setting will allow the flame to burn continuously. In a conventional electric oven the highest setting, broil or 550°F, kashers the oven. This method is also acceptable for the oven racks, since it is usual to cook food in a pan, not directly on the racks themselves.
In a continuous cleaning oven, one cannot assume that such an oven is clean because the manufacturer claims it to be continuously clean. A visual inspection is required. Since caustic or abrasive oven cleaners (Easy- Off) cannot be used without destroying the continuous clean properties of the oven, a non-abrasive, and non-caustic, cleaner must be used to clean the oven. Grease spots will usually disappear if the top layer of grease is cleaned with Fantastic and a nylon brush. Then the oven should be turned on to 450°F for an hour so that the continuous cleaning mechanism can work. If the spots don't disappear, the oven should be left on for a few hours to allow the continuous cleaning mechanism to deep clean, or the spots should be removed with oven cleaner or steel wool. If the spots are dark spots that crumble when scratched, they can be disregarded. In all of the above cases, the oven should then be kashered by turning it to the broil setting. Once it has achieved this temperature, it must be left on for 40 minutes.
In a self-cleaning oven, the self-cleaning cycle will clean and kasher the oven simultaneously. However, the self-cleaning cycle causes the oven to get dangerously hot, and has been known to cause fires. Let it be noted that it is not necessary to kasher the oven by utilizing this feature. Instead, once it is clean, one may kasher the oven by turning it on to the highest setting, and, once it has achieved this temperature, leaving it on for 40 minutes.
Some ovens come with a convection feature. This feature allows for more uniform heat distribution by using a fan to circulate the heat. If the convection oven has the self -cleaning feature, it will be sufficient to kasher the fan as well. If there is no self- cleaning feature, the entire oven, including the fan, must be sprayed with a caustic cleaner e.g. Easy- Off and cleaned well. The oven should then be kashered by turning it on to its highest setting, and once it has achieved this temperature, it must be left on for 40 minutes.
Cooktop
On a gas range the cast iron or metal grates upon which the pots on the range sit, may be inserted into the oven after they have been thoroughly cleaned. The grates can then be kashered simultaneously with the oven. Another method to kasher the grates is to turn the grates over and turn the burner on the highest setting for 10 minutes.
The range top can be kashered by cleaning it very thoroughly and then pouring boiling water over it.
In an electric cooktop, one only needs to turn the burners on the high heat setting for a few minutes to kasher them, since the burners come to a glow in a few minutes. The drip pans should be thoroughly cleaned and need not be kashered. The knobs with which the gas or electricity is turned on should be cleaned. No other process is necessary to kasher the knobs.
Glass, Corning, Halogen, or Ceran: To kasher the burner area, turn on the elements until they glow. The burner area is now considered kosher. The remaining area needs to be cleaned thoroughly.
Boiler and Grills
Since food is broiled or roasted directly on the pan or grill, they must be heated to a very high temperature to be kashered. This can be done either by leaving it on for longer than usual or by using a blowtorch. An alternate method is to replace the broiler pan or grates of the grill. The empty broiler or grill cavity must then be kashered by cleaning and setting it to broil. Once it has achieved this temperature, it must be left on for 40 minutes.
Microwaves
To kasher a microwave oven, clean thoroughly until absolutely no food residue is left. Special attention must be given to the internal vent of the microwave. After you are satisfied that there is no food residue, the following steps need to be taken. Place a saucer of water inside and turn the microwave on and allow the microwave to be filled with steam (5-7 min. should be sufficient). Repeat the same procedure with the saucer in a different spot.
Metal, Wood, and Hard Plastic Utensils
Metal/Wood/Hard Plastic utensils (anything besides earthenware and glass) may be kashered by cleaning them thoroughly and then immersing them, one by one, into a large pot of water which has been heated and maintaining a rolling boil when the vessel is immersed. This works for cutlery and serving spoons and even for smaller pots that can fit into a larger pot for Kashering.
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The effect of this process is immediate – a split second. You must be careful that the water is always boiling; if the water cools down and stops bubbling, you must wait for the water to bubble again before putting in the next item. The process is finalized by immediately rinsing the kashered items in cold water. If tongs are used to grip the utensil, the utensil will have to be immersed a second time with the tongs in a different position so that the boiling water will touch the initially gripped area. The entire utensil does not have to be kashered at once; it may be done in parts.
If you have pots that do not fit into other pots of boiling water, they can be kashered in the following way. 1. Clean them out well. 2. filling the pot completely with water, and 3. bringing the water to a rolling boil 4. Then place a smaller boiling bot into the larger pot to allow the boiling water to overflow. The pot is now kashered.
Sinks
Stainless Steel, Corian and Granite sinks can be kashered by pouring boiling hot water over every part of the sink from a kettle/pot provided that the sink is thoroughly clean.
Countertops
​​Wood, Formica, Plastic, Corian, Granite, Marble, or Stainless Steel can be koshered through pouring boiling water over them after they have been cleaned thoroughly, Certain kinds of steamers can also be used to Kasher these types of counter tops.
Dishwashers
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Clean the inside of the dishwasher and the racks to remove any crumbs or food that is adhering to any surface. Also, if your dishwasher has a removable filter it must be cleaned out.
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Before koshering the dishwasher it must not be used for 24 hours.
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Run the dishwasher on the hottest setting using soap. Keep the racks in to kasher them along with the dishwasher.
BBQ Grill
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Clean the inside of the BBQ, including the racks, as well as the inside of the hood making sure that there are no food particles adhering to the surface.
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Turn on the BBQ to high and let it run for 1 hour. Make sure the hood is closed.
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Kasher the racks by placing them in the self cleaning cycle of your oven, or by covering the grates with fresh coals and letting the coals burn out.
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The briquettes must also be checked and cleaned of any pieces of food
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New BBQ “tools” would be required.
Warming Drawers
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Do not use for 24 hours
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Clean well
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Light a canned fuel source used to heat chaffing dishes in the warming drawer. (One 7-8 ounce size can is sufficient to get the warming drawer hot enough)
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Make sure to leave the door of the drawer slightly ajar so that there will be enough air to allow for combustion.