Ask the Rabbi

  • Halacha
  • General Questions

Meat & milk utensils and spicy food

undefined

Rabbi Yoel Lieberman

Shevat 5, 5771
Question
I have a small pot of tomato paste that contains garlic. Yesterday I used a clean fleishig knife to scoop out some of the tomato paste (which was parev at the time) - presumably making the tomato paste fleishig. The knife is quite large and completely made of metal - it’s quite probable that there was more than 60 x knife to contents of tomato paste pot. This evening a milchik spoon was used in the same pot of paste. The paste was then spread on bread and cooked with cheese in a sandwich toaster. What is the status of: the leftover tomato paste, the milchik spoon, the milchik plate that the toasted sandwich was eaten off and the milchik sandwich toaster itself?
Answer
Although, it is best to have a pareve utensil for the use of something which is to be used for fleishig and milchig in order to avoid confusion, in the case you described since the paste never actually contained meat or milk nothing became forbidden. The cold knife entering the paste did not make the paste fleishig neither did the cold milchig knife make it milchig. Neither did you cut the garlic it merely came in contact with it..So next time you should be a bit more careful but there is nothing wrong with paste, spoons, plate or toaster. Enjoy your sandwich.
את המידע הדפסתי באמצעות אתר yeshiva.org.il