Rabbi Yoel Lieberman
Question
hello, As i was browsing, i saw a question someone asked regarding the davar charif status of vinegar. the question concerned using a fleishig fork while serving a vinegar based salad. the Rov replied that the vinegar makes the salad fleshig (although it doesnt require a waiting period.) I was under the impression that in order for vinegar to reawaken stale taam from a kli, it requires kovush of 24 hours. is simply dipping a fork in vinegar enough to reactive taam in the fork? thank you very much, Rabbj Akiva Hall
Answer
ב"ה Shalom You have touched upon an issue which is quite complex. In some places which discuss the issue, I did not see differentiation between the time it takes for the vinegar to have an effect on the food or on the utensil it is sitting in, and the time vinegar which is in a utensil causes the utensil to give off its meatiness or milk to the vinegar, that is to say if the utensil was meaty when does it begin to affect the vinegar to become meaty. For practical issues, I have seen the book ספר דבר חריף recommended, which is an extensive book on the entire issue. In any case, in regard to your question ,indeed according to the Mishna B'rura (משנה ברורה סימן תמז ס"ק עא ) and others vinegar that comes in contact with a meaty fork would not make the vinegar meaty before 24 hours. (If the vinegar itself became meaty it would take only enough time for it to boil to make the salad meaty.) However, this is not the opinion of the Magen Avraham (מגן אברהם סימן תמז ס"ק טז) who disagrees with the Shach, that all the vinegar needs is enough time to boil (כדי רתיחה- יור"ד סי' ק"ה)to cause a meaty fork in vinegar to make the vinegar meaty and the salad which it is in. All the best
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