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Kosher Gelatin


bripastryguy

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I have just been approached with a very lucrative opportunity. The only draw back is that the place is Kosher and even though most of my ingredients are allready in one form or another Kosher (different Rabbinacal suppervision) Gelatin is one ingredient I cant really do with out. Is there such an ingredient Kosher gelatin, what form does it come in? I use sheet gelatin and am most comfortable with it, is there a conversion (that's accurate?) Is anyone really familiar with Agar as a gelatin substitute?

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Brian Fishman

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this might be a good place to begin :wink:

Because I have had a kosher kitchen for many years, I have watched the way in which gelatin substitutes have evolved and become more reliable .. initially, my gelatin molds collapsed upon plating .. :sad: very depressing and distressing! But that was long ago and now many options exist!

more information :smile:

Melissa Goodman aka "Gifted Gourmet"

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Brian, call The Kosher Depot at (516) 338-4100. They do a large wholesale business and will probably be able to help you source whatever you need. BTW, they're located in Westbury.

Are you looking to get kosher supervision?

"Some people see a sheet of seaweed and want to be wrapped in it. I want to see it around a piece of fish."-- William Grimes

"People are bastard-coated bastards, with bastard filling." - Dr. Cox on Scrubs

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The problem with beef gelatin is it's fleishig, meat which you can't combine with dairy products. So, if Brian wants to a Bavarian or panna cotta it isn't an option.

"Some people see a sheet of seaweed and want to be wrapped in it. I want to see it around a piece of fish."-- William Grimes

"People are bastard-coated bastards, with bastard filling." - Dr. Cox on Scrubs

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Melissa, I checked out your second link, and there's stuff there that seems unbelievable on the face of it. Is there any possibility any of this stuff is true?

According to the September/October 1989 issue of Viewpoint, a magazine from the National Council of Young Israel, "a tiny minority of rabbis permit pork gelatin as a kosher product!" Contrary to assumptions, it is also considered kosher to use animal-derived gelatin with dairy products.

HUH?!

Michael aka "Pan"

 

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Good reading and the details seem highly questionable at best from the standpoint of proper kashrut ... this is, after all, a vegan website and not an Orthodox Jewish authority ... for the true answers, it would be necessary to check out the ones run by kashrut.com, and the OU, etc .

I should have read that site much more closely though ... Wow, you are so right!

a complicated, yet thorough, appraisal of kosher gelatin from a reliable authority ...

Melissa Goodman aka "Gifted Gourmet"

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My local health food store sells a kosher product identified as fish gelatin made from kosher fish. I haven't tried it myself but one of my friends uses it for preparing a tomato aspic. Her family is Orthodox so I assume it is okay.

I an not at home so have no access to the information in my computer and I don't have her phone number with me so can't call her to get the name. I believe it come from Israel.

"There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who say: this glass is half full. And then there are those who say: this glass is half empty. The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: What's up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was full! And it was a bigger glass!" Terry Pratchett

 

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The thing about the fish based gelatin is that some people pick up a slight fishy undertaste which is quite unpleasant. There are also seaweed based gelatins out there which are kosher.

"Some people see a sheet of seaweed and want to be wrapped in it. I want to see it around a piece of fish."-- William Grimes

"People are bastard-coated bastards, with bastard filling." - Dr. Cox on Scrubs

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I have used agar agar, xanthene gum and other compounds for jelling candies but I have no information if they are kosher.

"There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who say: this glass is half full. And then there are those who say: this glass is half empty. The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: What's up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was full! And it was a bigger glass!" Terry Pratchett

 

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I have used agar agar, xanthene gum and other compounds for jelling candies but I have no information if they are kosher.

There are other gelatin substitutes that are not animal or fish based which have similar properties to gelatin and can serve in its stead. Common among them are Agar Agar and Carrageenan made from sea vegetation. There are also many gums and thickeners now available such as Gum Arabic, Carob, Guar, Karaya, Pectin, Tragacanth, and Xantham.

Kashruth Magazine 2001

Melissa Goodman aka "Gifted Gourmet"

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As usual, learned discussions of kashrut are extremely complex and use numerous Hebrew terms obscure to the uninitiated or barely initiated. But the controversy is interesting. I would have never thought any rabbi could have argued that gelatin from pig bones could be kosher on the basis that bones are not prohibited meat. The part that isn't surprising, though, is that that is a minority position.

Michael aka "Pan"

 

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Perhaps this should be on another thread but I have substituted kuzu root (AKA Arrowroot) for some jelling projects with good results.

It is a bit trickier to use than regular gelatin but no more of a problem than gum arabic that is difficult to use and finding the food-grade product is not all that easy either.

Following is a link to an article about kuzu or kudzu.... since it is such a plague in the southern states, one would think that some enterprizing folk would find a way to process it so that it would be less costly than the imported stuff.

Kudzu - for your healt, who knew?

Oh yes, it is definitely kosher and most packages I have seen have that clearly marked.

Edited by andiesenji (log)

"There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who say: this glass is half full. And then there are those who say: this glass is half empty. The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: What's up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was full! And it was a bigger glass!" Terry Pratchett

 

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  • 1 month later...

I only skimmed the links you all helpfully supplied, so I apologize if this is mentioned somewhere else.

I recently asked a rabbi about the fact that some people are considering treif gelatin to be kosher - how? He told me that this was a hot topic and those that do consider it kosher believe that in the process it goes through - from bone to gelatin - it is broken down into such minute parts that it no longer resembles the original form. Chemically, it is no longer pork..or treif.

personally, I think this is stretching things - but whatever floats your boat.

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I only skimmed the links you all helpfully supplied, so I apologize if this is mentioned somewhere else.

I recently asked a rabbi about the fact that some people are considering treif gelatin to be kosher - how?  He told me that this was a hot topic and those that do consider it kosher believe that in the process it goes through - from bone to gelatin - it is broken down into such minute parts that it no longer resembles the original form.  Chemically, it is no longer pork..or treif.

personally, I think this is stretching things - but whatever floats your boat.

Interesting. I have heard this same argument applied to rennet, but not to gelatin. Are the two similar in any way? I'm not really sure what rennet is. In any case, the argument for rennet is that the end product no longer bears any chemical resemblance to the product of origin, so what you're using is no longer a meat product and can therefore be used in the process of making cheese. I have no idea how true/unture this might be.

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