Nothing: Everything You Didn't Know About the Kashrut of Garlic

One day, we received a question that initially seemed a bit strange, and this was its content - Is it permissible to place a whole (dry) head of garlic with its skin in the Shabbat cholent? Is there any kashrut concern with this? While trying to "digest" the question, we wondered aloud "who cooks such a thing", and then we remembered that whole garlic or onions in cholent is actually a Shabbat dish in certain communities, and there is also Ezra's ordinance to eat cooked garlic on Shabbat.

Of course, we couldn't answer this type of question before conducting a practical examination. Therefore, a head of garlic was selected, and not just any head of garlic, but one of those sold carefully packaged in a mesh bag, looking white and gleaming without any blemish, which externally couldn't have looked more perfect. The garlic was rinsed externally while still closed between its cloves. After rinsing, the garlic was opened and peeled in all its parts and placed for a second rinse in a bowl of water. Do you know what was found after we strained the water through a sieve (like one used for flour)? Simply unbelievable! About sixty insects of a very problematic variety that are difficult to identify because of their transparent color, professionally called garlic and onion "mites."

The garlic and onion mite, from the spider family – is one of the pests with a very high survival capability, whose growing medium is found in places with moisture, and is very common in places with fungi or fertile soil. Let's expand a bit: Insects and all crawling creatures found in food are mainly divided into two categories. The first - surface pests - all those insects and crawlers that develop or come to crops while they are still connected to the soil, the most familiar of which are all the thrips found in lettuce, cabbage, etc. The second - storage pests - all those insects and larvae that develop or come to food during storage, like all types of moths, etc. Usually, in dried food, surface pests do not survive the drying conditions and die, and certainly do not develop during storage (reminder - even a dead worm is absolutely forbidden).

Unlike all storage pests, the "mite" not only copes well with dryness but even develops there, finding hiding places between garlic cloves or between the dry skin layers of garlic or onion, and even dares to take ownership of areas not its own, and take over other types of food – a kashrut problem that is coming upon us in the era of the global village where all types of food with their pests are imported from around the world, and developing here in our Holy Land new species of food pests that were not known to us until now.

Recommendation - Don't give up on Ezra's ordinance to eat cooked garlic on Shabbat, just make sure to use it after it has been well peeled from all its layers and thoroughly washed. And if you want to place it in the refrigerator peeled, leave the "beard" it has at its head, thus avoiding the prohibition due to the danger of eating garlic or onions that remained peeled all night.