The Kosher Kitchen: Meat and Milk Basics

A kosher kitchen means, among other things, keeping meat and dairy absolutely separate. However, slip-ups happen in the best of families. Here’s your basic guide for what to do.

Cold Meat with Cold Milk

• If a cold piece of meat falls into cold milk, or cold milk is spilled onto it, simply wash the meat thoroughly with water and it’s good to go -- if you’re Sephardi.

• If you’re Ashkenazi, and the piece of meat concerned is cooked and falls into milk or has milk spilled on it, the meat is considered to have absorbed the milk and must be discarded. (Raw meat does not have this concern.)

• As for the milk, once the meat has been removed in its entirety, it is permitted if you’re Sephardi; if you’re Ashkenazi and the meat was cooked, the milk is thrown out with the meat.

• However, this only applies to solid pieces of meat.

• Foods where the milk is absorbed, such as ground meat, can’t just be rinsed.

• Since they’re soft and the milk soaks in, rinsing doesn’t help at all. Those foods become forbidden.

Meat That Fell Into Hot Milk

• If a piece of meat falls into hot milk that is yad soledet bo (so hot you’d instinctively pull your hand away, considered to be 110 degrees Fahrenheit), remove the meat immediately. It may not be eaten.

• Even if the milk is no longer in a kli rishon (the first vessel i.e., the pot it was cooked in), and has been transferred into a kli sheini (the second vessel, such as a cup), if it is still yad soledet bo it is considered hot and not cold.

• Check if there is sixty times the meat’s weight in milk.

• For example, if the meat weighs two ounces, you need 7lb 6oz of milk for it to be permitted.

• If there isn’t sixty times the amount of meat in the milk, the milk is forbidden for consumption and it must be discarded.

• The requirement for sixty times the amount is derived from the halachic principle that an item that is mixed into something sixty times its weight or volume cannot impart significant taste to the total, or influence its nature (barring certain exceptions such as spices where even tiny amounts impact the total). Thus the forbidden taste is nullified and does not alter the status of the mixture.

• Important Note:

  • Don’t rely on your own measurements.

  • Always describe the situation to a competent posek (halachic authority) to get clear guidance.

Can You Salvage the Milk?

• If there isn’t sixty times more milk than meat, you cannot simply pour in more milk to reach sixty times.

• The halachah states: “Ein mevatlin issur lechatchilah”—we don’t nullify forbidden mixtures on purpose.

Birds and Milk

• All of the above refers to beef, lamb, venison and other animals—but not to birds such as duck or chicken, as mixing birds with milk is a Rabbinic prohibition.

• Therefore, if a two-ounce piece of chicken fell into four pounds in weight of hot milk, the chicken is discarded but if you are Sephardi, you may add more milk to reach a 1:60 ratio and salvage the milk.

• If you are Ashkenazi, intentionally nullifying the chicken is not permitted and the milk must be discarded.

Dealing with the Pot

• When adding more milk to reach a 1:60 ratio, don’t do it in the original pot.

• If chicken falls into a pot of hot milk, the pot itself absorbs both tastes and becomes forbidden for use until kashered.

• Therefore, wait for the milk to cool to below yad soledet bo, pour it into another dairy pot, and add the extra milk or water there.

• Of course, you should never deliberately place a small amount of either meat or chicken into  60 times the amount of milk. That would be intentionally nullifying a prohibition, which is strictly forbidden.

Dairy That Fell Into Hot Meat

All of the rules above apply in reverse.

• If a piece of cheese falls into hot meat stew that is yad soledet bo, remove it immediately (it may not be eaten).

• Measure whether there is sixty times the cheese’s weight in the stew.

• If there is sixty times, the stew remains permitted. If not, it becomes forbidden.

• If the cheese has melted or otherwise dispersed into the meat dish even partially, or it was milk and not cheese that fell into the pot, one should consult a rabbi giving him all details of the situation.

• For chicken stew (not beef), Sephardic practice allows adding vegetables, water, or more chicken to reach sixty times the amount of milk product in order to render the total permissible.

• Ashkenazim are stricter and do not add to nullify even in chicken and milk mixtures.

Human Milk

• Human milk is not considered dairy in halachah; it is pareve.

• Therefore, if human milk is accidentally mixed with meat, there is no requirement for the meat dish to be sixty times the volume of the milk in order to permit the meat dish for consumption.

• However, one should not create the appearance of eating milk with meat. Therefore, the human milk should be mixed into the food to make it indistinguishable.

Dry Mixtures

• If a piece of non-kosher meat accidentally gets mixed up with two pieces of kosher meat, all three pieces are permitted to be eaten, in most cases.

• However, there are exceptions.

  • For example, if the forbidden piece is large enough to be fit to be served to a guest, all the pieces may become forbidden.

  • Because of such complexities, one should always consult a rabbi in such cases.

Congratulations! You’ve just completed Meat and Milk 101.