Post History
Before getting down into the weeds of what is and is not needed under Jewish law to make your recipe acceptable, you should talk to the attendees about what their needs and restrictions are, or if ...
Answer
#2: Post edited
- Before getting down into the weeds of what is and is not needed under Jewish law to make your recipe acceptable, you should talk to the attendees about what their needs and restrictions are, or if you aren't comfortable doing that, talk to the host.
- Someone who keeps the full dietary laws would not be attending a potluck, or might attend just to be social and eat only a limited selection of uncooked or commercially processed foods. Another person might attend but choose to only eat vegetarian foods, to avoid any non-Kosher meat products no matter how they are prepared. It would be a shame for you to go to a lot of trouble to accommodate hypothetical needs of someone who wouldn't be eating your dish anyway.
- For people who choose to keep a limited subset of the Kosher laws, pretty much everyone draws different lines in different places; the biggest common features of "Kosher-style" eating are, as you seem to know, "don't mix meat/poultry and milk", "no pork", and "no shellfish". Whether these potluck guests would be comfortable eating beef mixed with something that looks like milk is hard to guess; it's probably OK, but best to ask. ("Hey, I'm planning to bring beef rendang, which is beef cooked in coconut milk; is that OK for you?")
True story: many years ago I attended a social event where one of the cooks had gone to a lot of trouble to procure strictly-Kosher hotdogs with me in mind. She then sliced them up and cooked them in the sauce with the meatballs, and was genuinely surprised when I wouldn't eat them. If she had talked to me, I could have told her that I really appreciated the thought but that her plan wouldn't work for me.
- Before getting down into the weeds of what is and is not needed under Jewish law to make your recipe acceptable, you should talk to the attendees about what their needs and restrictions are, or if you aren't comfortable doing that, talk to the host.
- Someone who keeps the full dietary laws would not be attending a potluck, or might attend just to be social and eat only a limited selection of uncooked or commercially processed foods. Another person might attend but choose to only eat vegetarian foods, to avoid any non-Kosher meat products no matter how they are prepared. It would be a shame for you to go to a lot of trouble to accommodate hypothetical needs of someone who wouldn't be eating your dish anyway.
- For people who choose to keep a limited subset of the Kosher laws, pretty much everyone draws different lines in different places; the biggest common features of "Kosher-style" eating are, as you seem to know, "don't mix meat/poultry and milk", "no pork", and "no shellfish". Whether these potluck guests would be comfortable eating beef mixed with something that looks like milk is hard to guess; it's probably OK, but best to ask. ("Hey, I'm planning to bring beef rendang, which is beef cooked in coconut milk; is that OK for you?")
- True story: many years ago I attended a social event where one of the cooks had gone to a lot of trouble to procure strictly-Kosher hotdogs with me in mind. She then sliced them up and cooked them in the sauce with the meatballs, and was genuinely surprised when I wouldn't eat them (Under strict versions of the Kosher laws, Kosher food that has been cooked with non-Kosher food or utensils is no longer Kosher). If she had talked to me, I could have told her that I really appreciated the thought but that her plan wouldn't work for me.
#1: Initial revision
Before getting down into the weeds of what is and is not needed under Jewish law to make your recipe acceptable, you should talk to the attendees about what their needs and restrictions are, or if you aren't comfortable doing that, talk to the host. Someone who keeps the full dietary laws would not be attending a potluck, or might attend just to be social and eat only a limited selection of uncooked or commercially processed foods. Another person might attend but choose to only eat vegetarian foods, to avoid any non-Kosher meat products no matter how they are prepared. It would be a shame for you to go to a lot of trouble to accommodate hypothetical needs of someone who wouldn't be eating your dish anyway. For people who choose to keep a limited subset of the Kosher laws, pretty much everyone draws different lines in different places; the biggest common features of "Kosher-style" eating are, as you seem to know, "don't mix meat/poultry and milk", "no pork", and "no shellfish". Whether these potluck guests would be comfortable eating beef mixed with something that looks like milk is hard to guess; it's probably OK, but best to ask. ("Hey, I'm planning to bring beef rendang, which is beef cooked in coconut milk; is that OK for you?") True story: many years ago I attended a social event where one of the cooks had gone to a lot of trouble to procure strictly-Kosher hotdogs with me in mind. She then sliced them up and cooked them in the sauce with the meatballs, and was genuinely surprised when I wouldn't eat them. If she had talked to me, I could have told her that I really appreciated the thought but that her plan wouldn't work for me.