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Kosher help


Rehovot

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I'm hosting a post-dinner evening get-together for a club/organization, and I just found out that anything I serve as the hostess (with the mostess) :wink: must be brought in from outside the home, and must bear the kosher hechsher.

The hechsher is the kosher stamp on the packaging, right?

Yep...I'm kosherly clueless, so bear with the dumb questions: are nuts kosher? Do they have to be in a package with the stamp? Is dried bulk fruit (or fresh fruit, for that matter)? Are most bakeries? :blink:

What would you serve? I don't want to screw up or offend anyone at this meeting... they might kick me out, and then I'd be up a creek for New Friends in a Foreign Country. :wink:

Thanks and toda raba for the help!

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I'm no rabbi, but you are entering a minefield. Get help from someone who has done it before...they will be delighted you asked, or get it catered.

For the orthodox ANY food or drink MUST have a hechsher kosher stamp on the packaging.

Even then some will accept some stamps and not others.

Even then some will insist on anything the food touches (serving dishes, saucepans, cutlery, plates etc) also being kosher (such as new paper plates with the hechsehr label). You can't use your own pretty china or glass, since it might once have contained non-kosher food.

Still then meat and milk must not be served within the same meal (or for some within 8 hours)...some will not accept anything even heated in a non-kosher kitchen.

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eGullet discussion on this topic

Jackal is absolutely correct when he says this can be a minefield if one is unfamiliar with the laws of kashruth (kosher rules)...

but there is help and that is what we here can provide with pleasure! :biggrin:

The hechsher is the kosher stamp on the packaging, right?
correct!
Are most bakeries? 
depends on where you are but, if you are in Rehovot, as opposed to downtown Keokuk, Iowa, the odds are much better!

an explanation

Melissa Goodman aka "Gifted Gourmet"

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I'm hosting a post-dinner evening get-together for a club/organization, and I just found out that anything I serve as the hostess (with the mostess)  :wink: must be brought in from outside the home, and must bear the kosher hechsher.

The hechsher is the kosher stamp on the packaging, right?

Yep...I'm kosherly clueless, so bear with the dumb questions: are nuts kosher? Do they have to be in a package with the stamp? Is dried bulk fruit (or fresh fruit, for that matter)? Are most bakeries?  :blink:

What would you serve? I don't want to screw up or offend anyone at this meeting... they might kick me out, and then I'd be up a creek for New Friends in a Foreign Country.  :wink:

Thanks and toda raba for the help!

Hi Rehovot,

First of all, if it is post-dinner, then you have to assume that people have eaten a meat meal prior to coming to your home, so you need to serve something parve (non-dairy).

First ask your group if the food has to be L'Mehedrin. If so, then you have to make sure that everything has a Bedatz Heksher. It is a little more complicated.

I would suggest going to a nice bakery in Rehovot.

I am not sure which ones are there, but my cousin lives there and I will be happy to call her and ask her for you. Ask the bakery to show you the parve desserts. I would suggest getting a strudel and some sort of dark chocolate parve dessert.

Make sure that you have non-dairy creamer for the coffee and serve everything on paper plates. Buy juices and softdrinks.

If it is Mehedrin, then PM me and I will send you my phone number and we can discuss what you should do. I live in Tel Aviv.

Take care.

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Wow, thanks for the bounty of great advice, everyone. Lots of helpful details that would never have occurred to me...

Swisskaese, sorry I didn't get to look at this until now. But the event doesn't have to be L' Mehedrin. Great idea about the bakeries--there are two good ones I know of, and I'll go ask them for help w/ parve desserts. (Maybe you can get your cousin to spill the beans on where the other great bakeries are lurking in Rehovot.) :wink:

Yay. I get to keep my friends and luxuriate in dessert. Ahhhh.

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  • 1 month later...

Only one word of advice if I may when it comes to parve desserts and that, I warn all and sundry in advance, is a very personal word..... There are at least 10,374 excellent desserts that are parve (that is to say, made without any dairy products). Thus, seek those out and avoid any that are made with parve milk substitutes. Parve milk substitutes are perfectly acceptable for those who cannot digest lactose but as a substitute for sweet cream, ice cream, creme fraiche, etc they can produce some pretty abysmal desserts. When I think of such products I cannot help but wonder if when our long-ago ancestors may not have anticpated such things when they first dreamed up the word "abomination".

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as a substitute for sweet cream, ice cream, creme fraiche, etc they can produce some pretty abysmal desserts.  When I think of such products I cannot help but wonder if when our long-ago ancestors may not have anticpated such things when they first dreamed up the word "abomination".

Ah, Rogov, you have indeed touched upon a topic near and dear to my heart on parve desserts and the substitutes employed therein .. there is absolutely nothing equivalent to using real cream and butter ... nothing comes even close and I have tried many times to make those substitutions, only to be dismally saddened by the results ... and often simply avoid them .. as in "I'll have the fruit plate, please."

"abomination" is a good word and makes precisely the right impression.

Melissa Goodman aka "Gifted Gourmet"

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I would have to agree with Gifted Gourmet and Daniel--take the safe route with desserts wherein dairy substitutes aren't employed and your chances of having edible (and even tasty) desserts increase by at least tenfold. And Swisskaese is absolutely on the right track with the fruit dessert idea (strudel seems like a perfect dessert for your occasion). Another possibility is to supplement with a box or two of dark chocolates. Of course you will want to be sure they are stamped with a (P) but that is always a hit at a Passover seder, when the true meaning of dessert abomination is in evidence.

Have fun! Wish I could be there too.

Ellen Shapiro

www.byellen.com

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As one who keeps Kosher, I really dislike parve (fake dairy) desserts. However, with that said, I have had a very good parve lemon mousse cake from Roladin bakery in Tel Aviv.

I always make Fresh Apple Cake, Bittersweet Chocolate Cake, a fruit dessert (i.e. Gallette, Crostada, strudel, roasted peaches with pistachios and almonds, etc.) or sorbet (chocolate, etc.) when I need to make a non-dairy dessert.

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As one who keeps Kosher, I really dislike parve (fake dairy) desserts. However, with that said, I have had a very good parve lemon mousse cake from Roladin bakery in Tel Aviv.

I always make Fresh Apple Cake, Bittersweet Chocolate Cake, a fruit dessert (i.e. Gallette, Crostada, strudel, roasted peaches with pistachios and almonds, etc.) or sorbet (chocolate, etc.) when I need to make a non-dairy dessert.

I do the same thing and opt for something like an apple cake, much as you have said here ... it is just the idea of using parve margarines in place of butter or a nondairy coffee creamer which make me feel uncomfortable and I, too, have a kosher kitchen requiring ingenuity to produce proper kosher desserts ...

I had some excellent parve desserts in Hotel Ramat Rachel in Jerusalem but I have no idea of what substitutions were made by their chefs ... :hmmm:

Melissa Goodman aka "Gifted Gourmet"

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