OUkosher.org
Industrial Kosher
Monday, December 25, 2006
Glossary of Kosher Terms for Companies
The following are some non-English kosher terms that you may come across along with their explanations:
Bishul Yisroel (also spelled Bishul Yisrael): Certain foods require increased a Rabbi’s involvement in the cooking process.
The OU requires Bishul Yisroel on all of those products deemed to be included in the requirements for Bishul Yisroel under Jewish law.
Cholov Yisroel (also spelled Chalav Yisroel): Milk and milk products that was supervised by a Rabbi from the time of milking.
The OU does not require products to be Cholov Yisroel, but will certify a product that is Cholov Yisroel as such.
Glatt: Literally “smooth”. An animal whose lungs contained no questionable adhesions that could pose potential Kosher problems.
It is now commonly used to describe a higher level of Kosher supervision.
Kosher L’Pesach: Kosher for Passover; containing no leaven and no legumes and manufactured with Mashgiach Temidi.
Mashgiach Temidi: A manufacturing production with continuous supervision by a Rabbi. This is often called a “Special Production”.
Pareve: A food item that is neither meat or dairy (and can therefore be eaten with either) and was not manufactured on meat or dairy equipment.
Pas Yisroel (also spelled Pat Yisroel): Bakery products that were baked by a Rabbi. This can be fulfilled by having a Rabbi turn on the oven.
The OU does not require products to be Pas Yisroel, but will certify a product that is Pas Yisroel as such.
Yoshon: Grain products that are made from certain types of “winter” grains as defined by Jewish law.
The OU does not require products to be Yoshon, but will certify a product that is Yoshon as such.
Industrial Kosher • The Kosher Certification Process •
Wednesday, October 06, 2010
For a Traveling RFR, It’s a Long and Winding Road to the Nearest Plant
As a traveling RFR (rabbinic field representative) for more years than I care to admit to, one quickly learns that regardless of how carefully we plan our days, flexibility is the key to success.
It should have been an ordinary Wednesday morning. When I awaken to go to synagogue for the morning services, I notice there is dense fog in the neighborhood. Fog in the spring in Chicago is not unheard of, but not common. It was eerie not being able to see the end of the block. About an hour later, back at home, the Blackberry goes on as the work day begins. The plan today is to cover a couple of factories near O’Hare Airport and then hop a quick flight over to Fort Wayne, Indiana where my regular monthly route of about 10 facilities will begin. Perhaps I’ll be able to inspect Ellison Bakery and then get to Nestle’s Dreyer’s ice cream facility before the end of the day – crossing into the Eastern time zone does not help with productivity!
Back home, as reveille is sounded for the kids who have to get out the door to school, the Blackberry chirps away as the overnight email arrives. Most days I ignore it until I get out the door – I’m Midwest based, and it’s rare that at 7:00 in the morning anything but the latest announcement that I won the lottery will arrive this early. Today I steal a glance to see what has come in.
The second email on the list is ominous – three of the most dreaded words a frequent traveler can see: Flight Update Message. This is usually not good news. Sure enough, the mid-day flight has already been cancelled. Seems the fog is persisting all across the Midwest! A quick call to the airline confirms flight cancelled – but there is a flight on another airline about two hours from now. Ticket switched, pack quickly, inform my wife I’m not going to be able to drive carpool this morning after all and out the door.
O’Hare Airport, 9:00 a.m. Not too busy today, check-in is efficient. The “Board of Doom” shows flight is on-time. A quick visit with my friends at the TSA and I’m at the gate. Since there aren’t any seats by outlets, I opt for the next gate over which is empty. I see our aircraft arrive, and when I think it’s about time to board head back over to find… the departure monitor is blank. After a moment of panic (did the flight leave already?) the Blackberry chips the news again: Cancelled.
Based on the available flight schedule, the weather, and the number of cancellations already announced it has become rather obvious that I am not going to Fort Wayne today, at least by air. It’s time to regroup and weigh the options. One — fly tomorrow morning; instantly dismissed. I can’t make my route in one day, and staying Thursday night and traveling back on Friday is not appealing. Two – drive to Fort Wayne and run the route. Is there anything critical that has to be done this week? Running down the list mentally, it doesn’t seem so. I’d like to be at Pretzel’s Inc. for their kosher cheese run, but it’s not essential. The verdict: driving to Fort Wayne is not a good option. It will take four hours to get to the area, and with the time change it will be too late to see anyone today.
Now that Eastern Indiana is not going to happen, what’s the next option? Central Indiana still needs to be covered this month, and I should be able to cover the route in the day and a half that I now have left so — it’s back to the parking lot. The priority now becomes the traffic situation. Downtown Chicago lies directly between me and my destination, and that can be ugly. Finally though, travel luck has changed. The radio reports there is no delay through town. En route, cancel tonight’s hotel plans and rebook for a different destination, then let the family know about the latest change in plans.
I’m very fortunate and grateful that the OU has issued me a tablet PC computer. I am sent all of my assigned schedules regularly and can update them anytime online. This has been one of the greatest tools of my kashrut supervision career, and today is a perfect example of why. In the old days, I would have been loaded up with paper copies of the Fort Wayne area route plants – and the change in plans would mean no choice but to stop at home to switch documents; printing everything for a route could easily take an hour. Thanks to technology, no worries!
Crossing into Indiana, the Blackberry chirps away again. An email announces that my friends at Zentis have been presented with a production dilemma and need some assistance. They are on my central Indiana route, and I’m on the way to that area now. I think they were surprised when I walked in the door within 90 minutes of the email going out! The relevant staff and I meet, and I gather some facts on the situation. We work out a proposed plan, check out the rest of the plant and I bid these fine folks farewell. A quick call to the OU Kosher rabbinic coordinator apprises him of the plan, which he will consider and in short order let the company know if this plan is approved or not.
My next stop brings an unexpected surprise. Bay Valley Pickles is running sliced jalapeño peppers today. The front half of the plant is, at least in my opinion, uninhabitable. Fortunately, the warehouse and areas I need to visit are tolerable. I’m fond of some hot peppers here and there, but the concentration of all those peppers being chopped and pickled is something to experience!
After a quick supply run to the local supermarket, I’m ensconced in my hotel room. I have to say that over the years that I have been traveling for supervision, it’s become much easier to eat on the road. Many of the plant people I work with don’t realize that we eat kosher all the time. Twenty years ago, every trip meant take-along from home. Fortunately, there are literally thousands of OU products in stores across the country now and one can put together a pretty good hotel meal without too much effort.
This evening, I’m able to file all my inspection reports for the day and lay out the route for tomorrow’s inspections. The OU Direct website is another terrific tool that has been deployed. From my hotel room, I am able to get all my reports for the day filed – the rabbinic coordinators in New York are apprised of any issues or updates in a timely manner, and I’m saved a lot of time for when I get back home. Kudos again to the OU Direct team back at Headquarters!
A new day dawns, and the weather has not improved. I’m glad I don’t have to worry about flying back this evening, because the situation doesn’t look good. The hotel has pretty good coffee, and some OU General Mills cereal with OU Rice Dream and bananas is the right ticket to start an “OU” day.
Bimbo Bakery starts off the day. One line is down, and they are doing some heavy cleaning. Workers in space suits are making what looks like quite a snow storm. This doesn’t sound like a good match for a black suit, so we’ll detour from our typical route this morning. At Brother’s Baking, there’s some new equipment that has been delivered. We review the installation and usage plans, and I need to assess the kosher status. We discuss how the installation will work, and what the cleaning process will be to prepare the new items for service in their new home. Turns out that the items in question came from another kosher facility, and there will be no kosher issue at all.
The staff at McCormick’s South Bend facility have always been gracious hosts. The QC lab proves ever helpful as we research the warehouse locations for the ingredients I need to find and verify. Computer systems are wonderful – although it does take the challenge out of the great warehouse scavenger hunt of days past. A stop at International Bakers Service starts another search mission. With so many ingredients, how do they manage to know where everything is every time?
Michigan Milk has a facility that needs to be looked at as it embarks on a new kosher product’s production. Here we come across a minor ingredient discrepancy for the new item. I’ll record the pertinent information and send this off to the office to sort out. Turns out in the end that there is no discrepancy at all – the ingredient I recorded is not for the new product, and everything is correct.
My final stop of the route is at Valley Research, now part of the DSM family, to check out enzymes that they process. I’m sad to learn that my previous contact has left the company, but I meet my new contact and we get acquainted as we tour the plant. She is already well up to speed on kosher matters, and I see that this will be a simple transition.
The drive back to Chicago via the Indiana Toll Road is smooth and goes by quickly. On the way, I reflect on the success of the trip even with a rather inauspicious start. A little time lost, but no harm done and overall, a productive trip. I’ll still have to work out Fort Wayne this month, but there will be time to make that up. As Buckingham Fountain and downtown slide by — slowly, it is rush hour after all — it’s time to consider tomorrow’s plans….
Rabbi Simcha Smolensky comes from Denver, Colorado where in younger years he was avidly involved in many outdoor activities, including skiing and mountain climbing. A licensed pilot, Rabbi Smolensky was an active search and rescue pilot for the Civil Air Patrol – Colorado wing in the late 1980’s. He received his B.A. in Psychology and Judaic Studies, University Honors Scholars Program from the University of Denver in 1987. In 1995 Rabbi Smolensly, received rabbinical ordination from Chief Rabbi Shlomo Rivkin, Vaad Hoeir of St. Louis.
Rabbi Smolensky began his kashrut career with the Vaad of Denver in catering events back in 1987. In a brief hiatus from kashrut work, he earned a Master’s Degree in Educational Counseling from St. Louis University and was a counselor in several Midwest schools. Returning to the kashrut world in 1991, he has worked for several agencies in both a field and administrative capacity, including the Chicago Rabbinical Council, Vaad Hoeir of St. Louis and Vaad of Winnipeg. Most recently, he joined OU Kosher’s staff in 2008 as a Chicago-based rabbinic field representative.
OU Kosher: Consumer News • Industrial Kosher • (33) Comments •
Friday, April 16, 2010
Can’t Duck the Issue: The Runner Duck Has a Lengthy Past but an Uncertain Future
The mallard duck (Anas platyrhynchos) is one of the most colorful and common ducks in the United States, being found in wetlands as well as city ponds. Many of the ducks migrate across the United States, while others are supported year round by duck enthusiasts.
Since the mallard duck is the largest of the puddle ducks, it was an early candidate for domestication. Unlike the chicken, which was almost certainly domesticated in India, it is not clear that the mallard duck was domesticated in one place. Rather, it is far more likely that there were multiple domestication events, the descendants of which were transported around the world producing most of the domestic breeds of duck which now exist.
Some of these breeds, known as call ducks, are more compact and louder than their ancestors. In contrast, many of the breeds raised for meat are many times larger than their wild ancestors. Some of the domestic breeds have coloration which is similar to the wild mallard, while others vary in colors from pure white to teal green.
There is one domestic form of the mallard, the Indian runner duck, whose appearance is different from all the other breeds of domestic duck. This duck was domesticated in Java thousands of years ago in a region which was distinguished by its intense rice cultivation. It seems that the original motivation in raising these ducks was to use them to clear the rice paddies of vermin. While ignoring the rice, these ducks would energetically hunt the insects and snails which could ruin the entire rice crop if left unchecked. After eating their fill, the ducks were then kept for the night in cages which were suspended over water. In the morning eggs were collected and the ducks went back to the rice paddies. An abnormal placement and construction of this duck’s femurs resulted in it having abilities which would have been fatal in nature but were much prized by the rice farmers of Java.
The runner duck, unlike its ancestor the mallard, does not waddle but rather it walks. It is not encumbered by its own bulk and is able to travel over great distances at considerable speed. As a result, it was easy to herd these ducks from their housing to the rice paddies which contained the most vermin. The runner duck stands upright, which allowed many more to be housed in small cages than would be the case with the more horizontal ancestors. The runner duck was bred for elongated features allowing the bird to maneuver in the rice paddies, stretching its neck between the stalks and consuming the snails and insects nestled in the most hard to reach places. The vertical construction of the runner duck also facilitated the ducks having one of the highest rates of egg production in the United States, although constantly competing with chicken breeds such as the Rhode Island red and the Leghorn.
In the early 1900s, the runner duck was a popular breed in the United States. It was said that some of the ducks were able to sustain an egg production as high as 300 per year (certainly enough to rival a chicken). However, runner ducks need much more protein in their diet than chickens. It is estimated that it is five times more expensive to produce a duck egg than a chicken egg. With the decline of small farms and the falling costs of eggs, people began to stop raising these ducks. Currently, very few of these birds are raised in the United States, mostly by hobbyists who are intrigued by their unique features. OU certified companies have considered raising these ducks and their hybrids. Before certification could be given it was necessary to purchase a pair to evaluate their kosher status. Unfortunately, it was discovered that the white Indian runners which were known to be of pure ancestry are almost non-existent in the United States (although other varieties are more common). Of the less than one dozen breeders who had significant flocks, only Holderread Waterfowl Farm and Preservation Center in Oregon had a pair available. This pair was purchased by the OU and evaluated by the rabbinic authorities. It was determined that the birds were of mallard stock, and like the mallard the white Indian runner duck as well as its eggs could be certified kosher.
The runner ducks were delivered to my house in Long Island. In order to evaluate their permissibility, it was necessary to take the birds to the rabbinic authorities at the OU office in Manhattan. I take the Long Island Railroad to work every day, and since there is no policy regarding the transportation of ducks I decided to try my luck on the train. To make sure the ducks didn’t get out of control, my neighbors and colleagues at the OU, Rabbi Aharon Brun-Kestler and Rabbi Michael Morris, assisted me.
As we were sitting on the train with a pair of runner ducks, as one might imagine we attracted quite a bit of attention. I don’t know if it was three rabbis seated together, the ducks, rabbis with ducks, or perhaps some sort of combination of these factors. People began to ask questions and we explained that we were transporting very rare domestic ducks to the OU office so that their kosher status could be evaluated.
People began to notice how beautiful and docile the runner ducks were. As people began to gather and ask questions about what made these birds special, I described their unmatched level of egg production as well as their long history as domesticated birds. As the train pulled into the station, we began discussing how these ducks would probably be gone in the next few years, along with so many other breeds which have long been raised by people.
The next day, one of my neighbors sat next to me on the train and told me that he had been thinking about the ducks. Placing some bills into my hand, he asked me to further research the possibility of using these ducks to teach people not only about kosher food but also about conservation. With the money, I purchased a Sportsman Egg Incubator. Skeptical about the whole process, in particular whether these incubators were appropriate for amateur breeders, I collected eggs every day and following advice gleaned from the Internet, placed the eggs in the incubator in fourteen-day intervals.
This was a mistake and the hatch rate was rather low, but over time dozens of ducklings were produced. They were donated to children’s zoos in various camps and summer retreats in the Catskill Mountain region of upstate New York. They were raised by the zoo staff or the campers and served to help large numbers of children (and maybe their parents as well) learn about Jewish law, nature and conservation.
Two pairs are currently maintained by the OU to be used in presentations teaching people about the identification of kosher avian species. These ducks continue to lay eggs, which go straight into the incubator to be sent to schools and camps waiting to adopt, raise and learn about these birds.
Rabbi Chaim Loike, OU’s bird specialist, serves as OU Kosher rabbinic coordinator servicing egg, spice and chemical companies. His fascinating BTUS features on the pigeon, partridge, peacock and birds of the Bible continue to elicit much interest and positive feedback. Rabbi Loike co-stars with his exotic birds in the much acclaimed DVD “Kosher Birds: Who Are They?” as part of OU Kosher’s expanded educational outreach. He has also visited many schools as part of the “OU Kosher Coming” programs, as well as many of the OU’s Jewish Learning Initiative on Campus colleges, where he enthralls students and faculty alike with his birds and knowledge.
Corporate • Industrial Kosher • (3) Comments •
OUdirect.org: Your Convenient and Free Portal to Your OU Account
Why should I use OUDirect?
Loyal readers of these pages will not be shocked to learn that the Orthodox Union has invested large sums of money and some of its top talent in the OUdirect.org project. You know what OUdirect.org is: it’s the portal which allows your company immediate and 24-hour access to major parts of your relationship with the OU.
You’ve heard about some of the newest functions of OUDirect (our fulltime staff is CONSTANTLY working on fine-tuning, improving and adding to OUDirect) and you may have even tried out OUDirect yourself. If you are already enamored of OUDirect, you are not alone! We receive compliments and encouragement on OUDirect from OU certified companies on a daily basis. (Don’t worry, it’s not going to our heads.)
For companies that are wondering how OUDirect can help them make money, save time and be organized, stay tuned!
Scenario #1: Searching for Suppliers
An OU certified guacamole company is looking for a new supplier of vinegar, but needs vinegar made in the United States. A European canned fish company is looking for alternate suppliers of canned sliced olives. A distributor of citric acid is looking for OU certified potato flake manufacturers who might be interested in buying his product. How does OUDirect help?
After logging on to http://www.oudirect.org. click on the UKD (Universal Kosher Database) tab at the top left comer. Choose “Company Search” and narrow your search to include the company type and country you are looking for. Realize as well that your company may be the one making the vinegar, canned olives or potato flakes and your potential business match can find YOU by searching the UKD at http://www.oudirect.org without taxing your already overburdened sales force!
Scenario #2: Kosher Letters
Your company has hundreds of kosher customers for your organic bulk canola oil and all of them need updated kosher letters when your current kosher letter expires next month. A new potential supplier of refined olive oil claims to be OU certified, but the certificate he sent you is somewhat faded and he seems somewhat dubious altogether. Is his product really kosher? Will you be wasting valuable time doing R&D on a product which might not even be kosher in the end?
All of your products (and your OU certified suppliers’ products) are now identified by a UKD identification number, which acts as a veritable Social Security number for that product. With it, anyone can verify the current OU status of your product. To supply your customers with updated letters the sweat-free way, simply give them the UKD number of your product and forward them a link to our public database site: htlp://www.oukosher.orgiindex.phplprofesslOna//ukd. You can also post your own kosher
letters on your own company website. (For more information on this, contact OU Direct Help at 212-613-8322.)
Your customers can download your current kosher letter themselves rather than having your staff scrambling to email new letters to all of your customers! To check whether a potential supplier’s product is still OU certified, simply enter the UKD number into the Product Search engine and find out if it is OU certified before wasting valuable resources on bogus suppliers.
Scenario #3: Invoices
Your CFO is checking the status of unpaid bills and isn’t sure whether payment was sent to the OU for the special production of pareve Super Swirly Slippery Strawberry Sasquatches you made for the upcoming Bigfoot Admirer’s convention. How can you close out the records for 2009 unless you know if all the bills are paid? You sent a private label invoice to the label customer to pay directly, and you want to know if the OU received that payment, or if your company will be responsible for it down the line.
Good news, you checked the records and realized that the Super Swirly invoice was paid twice by mistake! Did the OU properly apply the overpayment to your account for use against the upcoming run of Greasy Green Grilled Grizzlies you plan on doing next month?
OUdirect.org offers an immediate breakdown of open invoices, payments and credits. Click on the Financial Overview tab and see which invoices are paid, which overpayments are sitting on your account as open credits and which invoices require additional attention. Print and email copies of open invoices and review memos for credits applied to open invoices.
Scenario #4: Users and Usage
Your company has ten plants, all of which make different products and use ingredients from different suppliers. The QA in each plant is the most qualified to manage Schedule A & B, but you don’t want to give each QA the main login to OUDirect.org. The bookkeeper needs access to invoices, but do you need him bothered by Schedules A & B?
OUDirect.org allows the primary user to assign additional users of your company’s
OUDirect.org account, as well as to assign rights to each according to your company’s needs. The
bookkeeper only sees the financials; your QA staff each controls its own plant’s schedules (including the ability to request new ingredients and soon to remove ingredients as well!).
If you are wondering how much extra use of OUDirect.org will cost your company, the answer is nothing. OUDirect.org is free to OU certified companies, including all of the aforementioned features and more. Your company already made the smartest decision possible in kosher supervision when you became a proud OU company. Make your OU account even more valuable to your company by logging into http://www.oudirect.org today!
Corporate • Industrial Kosher • (15) Comments •
Our Daily Bread: More than the Sum of its Calories
The restaurant was bustling. Joyous noise and laughter filled the room as waiters and waitresses bustled to and fro, bringing trays of food or removing the empty plates of sated diners. The tables were filled with people enjoying their meals – extended families celebrating a birthday or graduation or promotion at some of the tables, small families sharing the evening together, friends crowding into a booth in the corner, laughing about something one of them had just said. There are couples, some older, some just married, sharing a quiet, intimate meal together at candle lit tables.
At one table, the conversation drifted to a meal that the group had enjoyed in the past. At another table, they discuss their plans for the following dinner, even though they had yet to finish the elaborate meal on the table before them.
And everywhere you look, there was food. Food. Food. Food.
We need food. Along with air and water, it is essential to our very survival. However, unlike air and water, which we too often take for granted, our thoughts are drawn to food; we look forward to meals; we talk about food even when we’re eating.
Our eating habits are defined – and constrained – by rituals, culture and preference. We eat to live but, because we are created in God’s image, even those things that are necessary for our corporal existence can be given greater meaning. Food is more than the stuff we eat. More than air and water, food has meaning to us. We enjoy an intimate relationship with food. We love food. From the finest meals prepared at four-star restaurants by the finest chefs to the most modest meal that we find in every culture – the sandwich – food is central to our sense of who we are.
So, what are we? Physical animals who, like all beasts, must consume food to live, or are we something more? The answer to our question can be found in the modest sandwich.
Whether plain or elaborate, bland or delicious, it is the cornerstone to our eating habits, always enjoyed – whether a simple peanut butter and jelly sandwich or an elaborate sandwich with “all the fixings” – but too rarely appreciated for its symbolic weight as for its taste and its calories. For a sandwich can be so much more than the sum of its parts; it can represent freedom and independence.
In other words, sometimes a sandwich is more than a sandwich.
The essence of the sandwich, the concept of placing various fillings between two pieces of bread, lies in a practice meant to reinforce a memory of slavery and hardship and, therefore, emphasize a sense of autonomy. It was Hillel who, to honor the gift God presented to the Jewish people in redeeming them from their bondage in Egypt, combined the Pesach offering, matzah, and maror (bitter herbs), at the Temple to remind himself of the blessing of geulah (redemption) without losing sight of the bitterness of galut (exile). For Hillel, it was not enough to eat the Pesach meat and matzah, both of which signify God’s miracles in releasing the Jews from slavery, and maror, which serves as a reminder of those difficult times, separately; they must be eaten together so as to make sure that the happy and sad memories are as united as the separate sandwich items.
For how could one truly appreciate geulah without galut? And how could one possibly survive galut without the promise and hope of geulah? Despite the noble Hillel sandwich, history does not assign Hillel the honor of “inventing” the sandwich. That honor falls to John Montagu, the fourth Earl of Sandwich.
Montagu’s purpose was significantly less noble than Hillel’s. Montagu happened upon the “sandwich” by requesting roast beef between two slices of bread so that he would be better able to eat while continuing to play cards. Hence, in the popular mind, the “sandwich” was created. Following his example, men of the upper class began to order sandwiches while gambling, and came to symbolize games and gluttony.
The sandwich – symbol of freedom and grace, or gluttony and gambling?
Or both?
With the explosion of industry in Western Europe in the 19th century, along with the advent of sliced bread, the sandwich’s popularity rose significantly as its simplicity and portability made it a staple in middle- and working-class households. Soon, lands and cultures outside of Europe, including the United States, caught the “sandwich bug.” As bread – long the “staff of life” but not always so convenient or abundantly available – became a more essential part of the European and American diet, the sandwich became a quick, easy part of a meal, or even the entire meal itself.
The sandwich quickly became a worldwide phenomenon, with every culture embracing its own version, using its own type of bread and filling, usually ingredients common within that culture’s customs and traditions. For example, in Mexico and Central America where bread takes the soft, flat and pliant form of the tortilla, the sandwich is called the burrito – with the tortilla grilled or steamed and wrapped around fillings such as beans, rice, and meat. Or, in Southeast Asia, where flatbreads called roti or chapati accompany most meals. Though they are not normally used to make what we might commonly think of as a sandwich, diners often make use of chapati to get every last bite of food by wrapping them around each morsel of the dish. If that is not a sandwich, what is?
The bánh mì is a Vietnamese sandwich made with a Vietnamese baguette and native Vietnamese ingredients like coriander, hot peppers, fish sauce, pickled carrots, meats, and tofu. Falafel, a fried ball or patty made out of chickpeas and spiced fava beans, is often served sandwiched in the “pouch” of pita bread and has become a principal food in the Middle East.
The universality of sandwiches and their significance to regional cultures – and world culture – cannot be overstated. Following its introduction in 1940, McDonald’s quickly became the most successful restaurant chain in history – all thanks to their signature sandwich, the Big Mac!
Yes, sandwiches are universal and universally enjoyed. But unlike Hillel’s sandwich, they are not always “greater than the sum of their parts.” The Torah teaches that man does not live by bread alone. It is with the wisdom of this insight we return to the significance and importance of that first “sandwich” – Hillel’s.
While perhaps not as well known or universally enjoyed as the Big Mac, with its “billions and billions” served, the Hillel sandwich is a more perfect example of how food nourishes more than our stomachs; that a sandwich is much more than its parts; is much more than mere taste and calories. The Hillel sandwich makes clear that food must also feed the soul.
As with the entire Passover Seder and meal – which is not designed solely to gather with family and enjoy one another’s company, have a satisfying meal and engage in conversation – the point of the Hillel sandwich is not merely to eat but to think and to feel as well. Hillel does not seek to deny the pleasures of eating. Far from it. Just as Judaism does not deny or turn away from physical enjoyment, neither does Hillel. However, he rebels against reducing eating – or any action – to mere physical satisfaction. To do so robs it of meaning and diminishes our understanding of God’s role in our lives and in the world.
To enjoy and appreciate the luxuries we have accumulated is our obligation, but it would be pointless and inherently disrespectful if we viewed the acquisition of luxuries as being the point of our lives. So, when we celebrate the blessings of our freedom, it would be disrespectful if we did not also make sure to honor our ancestors’ hardships in Egypt. Noting how the Jewish people won their independence from slavery is as important as, if not more important than, taking pleasure in that independence. This complex balance, this intricate idea of honoring the past and living in the present, of embracing two divergent feelings to create a single whole, is realized in the simplicity of the Hillel sandwich.
What does the Hillel sandwich teach us? That we do not need meats, cheeses, vegetables, and sauces piled a mile high for our sandwich to be fulfilling. Quite the opposite. Our sandwich is fulfilling because of the meaning it contains, not the calories. The Pesach meat cannot be eaten. Only maror is necessary to stand for the bitterness of enslavement and only matzah to both recall the austerity of slavery and also to symbolize God’s miracles. The Jews did not have time to allow their bread to leaven because God decreed that the time to be saved was immediate. With the minimal combination of maror and matzah, you are reminded that God is always with the Jewish people.
Full faith is in God, that He is watching in prosperous times and in miserable times as well, is necessary. He certainly challenges us but will always be there to strengthen us and to help us overcome those challenges.
As we see in the Hillel sandwich, food is nourishment and symbol. The maror enlivens our taste buds but also reminds us of the bitterness of slavery. The charoset, with its sweet texture, brings to mind the mortar our ancestors used to build the pyramids. The karpas reminds us of the season of our redemption, when the cold depths of winter gives way to the rebirth of Spring.
Or the Four Cups of wine we drink at the seder. For millions, wine numbs and denies feelings. For Jews, on seder night, wine teaches us the sweetness of God’s blessings, of our redemption and our freedom, of overcoming the yoke of enslavement.
What is the most significant part, though, is that after God has helped us overcome, after He has redeemed us, we cannot accept that redemption as an assured state.
How many times, after overeating, have we told ourselves that we would “never be hungry again.” And yet, as surely as day follows night, we hunger again. Our feelings of being sated passes. Satisfaction is precarious. So too, salvation must always be looked upon as a precarious condition, one that could be taken away at any moment.
Recognizing the powerful symbolism of the food we eat helps us to keep our lives – the physical and the spiritual – in balance. By eating matzah and maror together we are reminded that God’s gift of salvation is always there, but we must remain aware of it for it to touch our lives. Without all of the proper ingredients, freedom could not possibly taste as sweet. One could not exist without the other.
Corporate • Industrial Kosher • (3) Comments •
Breakstone’s Butter: Five Generations of Perfection on Bread and Vegetables
Company Overview: American families have been reserving a place at the table for Breakstone’s® Butter for more than five generations. The perfect butter for all types of breads and vegetables, Breakstone’s uses only the best kosher ingredients to assure the rich flavor and quality that complement any meal. Breakstone’s Butter is Grade AA, kosher certified by the Orthodox Union, and the only butter certified Kosher for Passover. Visit http://www.breakstonesbutter.com to locate retailers that carry Breakstone’s butter and to browse delicious recipes.
Dairy Farmers of America, Inc. is a dairy marketing cooperative that serves and is owned by nearly 18,000 dairy farmers in 48 states. Through its Global Dairy Products Group, DFA is one of the country’s most diversified manufacturers of dairy products, including leading butter brands such as Breakstone’s. For more information, call 1-800-535-5371 or visit http://www.breakstonesbutter.com.
®2010 Dairy Farmers of America, Inc. All rights reserved. Processed and Marketed by Dairy Farmers of America, Inc. under a trademark owned and licensed from Kraft Foods, Inc.
Corporate • Industrial Kosher • (6) Comments •
Nothing Better than Butter!
Melty rich and the secret to so many dishes, who doesn’t love butter? Certainly not the folks at Organic Valley, America’s largest cooperative of organic farmers and one of the nation’s leading organic brands. Organic Valley has several butter products under its umbrella of offerings, not the least of which is its award-winning and OU Kosher certified European Style Cultured Butter and Pasture Butter.
Organic Valley began in 1988 with a group of Wisconsin farmers who shared a love of the land and a belief that a new, sustainable approach to agriculture was needed in order for family farms and rural communities to survive. Frustrated by the loss of family farms each week and the staggering number threatened with extinction, these farmers set out to create a solution: organic agriculture.
With this mission in mind, the farmers formed what is today is the largest organic farming cooperative in North America with more than 1,652 farmer-owners in 33 states and one Canadian province. In addition to providing farmers a way to stay in business, organic agriculture fulfilled their vision for a sustainable agriculture: farming without antibiotics or synthetic hormones and pesticides, pasturing animals, and ensuring the land would be preserved for future generations.
When Organic Valley wanted to ensure their butters were not only organic certified but also kosher certified, they came to the OU. “OU kosher certification is an additional level of assurance of the highest possible standards for Organic Valley products,” said Beth Unger, Certification Manager, Organic Valley. “The Orthodox Union is a premier kosher certifier with a friendly and efficient staff. Our regular communication with the OU and Rabbi Andrew Gordimer is definitely one of the highlights of my working day. They are very attentive to our needs and extremely helpful with questions. We truly value the working relationship we have with the OU.”
Top chefs endorse Organic Valley’s European Style Cultured Butter and Pasture Butter as elegant, luscious and high-performing. Organic Valley butters have multiple uses and applications, from the fussiest of French sauces and classic pastries, to serving suggestions as simple as herbed butter over succulent vegetables or rich cookies and baked goods.
Organic Valley European Style Cultured Butter is a specialty butter made in the age-old tradition of fine European butters. Organic Valley starts with organic milk from cows allowed to pasture freely, then adds a live culture to ripen the cream and bring out the sweetness of the butter. Upon reaching perfection in the culture tanks, the cream is churned in small batches. European Style Butter is churned longer than other butters, lowering the moisture content and increasing the butterfat to 84 percent, compared to regular butter at 80 percent. This time-honored style of butter-making enhances the inherent sweetness of the butter and yields a superior performance in cooking and baking.
Organic Valley’s Pasture Butter is a limited edition, rich and nutritious butter made from the milk of organic cows that enjoy grazing on the nutrient-rich, dense, green pastures at the height of the grazing season from May through September. Pasture Butter provides higher levels of antioxidants, CLA (conjugated linoleic acid), and Omega-3 and -6 fatty acids, which, according to the Healing Foods Pyramid, University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, can help reduce inflammation, and show promise in reducing our risk for heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, and even cancer. While the European Style is unsalted, Pasture Butter is lightly salted.
At the 2009 American Cheese Society Annual Judging & Competition, Organic Valley European Style Cultured Butter won first place in the Unsalted Butter Made from Cow’s Milk with or without Cultures category, and Organic Valley Pasture Butter placed third in the Salted Butter Made from Cow’s Milk with or without Cultures category. At the 2009 World Dairy Expo, Organic Valley Pasture Butter placed third in the Championship Dairy Product Contest in the Salted Butter category.
“Our butters are another example of using the highest-quality ingredients that nature provides,” says Theresa Marquez, chief marketing executive for Organic Valley. “From the organic pastures our cows graze on to the slow churning process, our butters are elegant, healthful and delicious. What could be better than that?”
Organic Valley butter-centric serving suggestions and recipes can be found at http://www.organicvalley.coop/butter.
Consumer Kosher • Industrial Kosher • (6) Comments •
Thursday, April 15, 2010
It’s Not Child’s Play: Understanding the Complexities of Kosher Baby Food
Baby food is big business. Infant nutrition is a multi-billion dollar sector! There are several major players in the “jarred” or “ready” baby food market. Probably the two most familiar producers are Gerber (a division of Nestle´) and Beech-Nut Nutrition (a division of Hero). Other major players include Nature’s Goodness (a division of Bay Valley Foods) and Earth’s Best (a division of The Hain Celestial Group) – the largest manufacturer of organic baby foods.
In addition to these familiar names, other manufacturers address important niche markets. For example, PBM Products, LLC is an important private label (store brand) manufacturer. Homemade Baby (Homemade Harvey) makes products certified organic as well as gluten free. Leaving the jar behind, Happy Family’s Happy Baby products come fresh frozen or in pouch formats. Bobobaby, Inc., a recent Canadian import from the Olympic city of Vancouver, also offers innovative fresh frozen products. One thing they have in common: they are all OU Kosher certified.
There is a natural marriage between kosher and prepared baby foods – and not just because the kosher-keeping population tends to have large families. Infant nutrition is closely linked to wholesomeness. People want only the best for their children, and baby food makers are held to a very high standard. As the demand for accountability and certification increases in the general food industry, it is all the more so in baby food. The public has come to see the OU symbol as a mark of wholesomeness and trust – knowing that certified companies are held accountable for their ingredients and processes by an unsurpassed regimen of inspection and verification.
Of course, one of the key concerns in baby food is allergens – as many children are sensitive to milk, seafood and certain grains. As many of these concerns are closely related to kosher, OU certification is an important indicator of quality to baby food consumers. Kosher, after all, requires key allergen separations. Pareve (non-dairy, non-meat) products not only do not have those categories as ingredients, the equipment must be thoroughly cleaned and koshered (special sanitization) in between. Kosher products cannot contain shell fish – a major allergy concern. Kosher for Passover products will not contain wheat, barley, spelt oats or rye – of great value to people with gluten intolerance.
On its surface, baby food is deceptively simple and many consumers have a mistaken belief that kosher certification of this industry is equally simple. Many baby foods – especially the kosher certified varieties — are vegetarian and contain little more than fruits and vegetables. They appear to be little more than fancy – and sometimes expensive – apple sauce and cooked soupy carrots. What consumers do not realize is what is going on behind the scenes. In order to fill the market’s desire for a wide variety of nutritional and tasty products – fit for a diverse demographic – baby food plants are, in fact, quite complex from a kosher standpoint.
Beyond fruit and vegetable purees, baby food product lines include a wide range of meat and dairy offerings. Normally, these are all made in a single production facility and, commonly, on shared production lines. Moreover, baby food production twins easily with other soup and sauce productions as the basic ingredients and equipment needed are similar. Adding to the complexity, modern facilities are designed to handle the widest range of products on the least equipment possible.
As a result, facilities and lines where strained carrots are made one day may well produce a meat formula tomorrow. Today’s apple sauce is likely followed by tomorrow’s apple and yogurt. The rice cereal made on a dryer or put in a jar today commonly shares equipment with oat and barley products. All of these scenarios, from a kosher standpoint, mean complexity.
A number of strategies are employed to address these problems. Whenever possible, we encourage companies to set aside dedicated lines for kosher pareve products. Another critical element is scheduling. The more we are able to separate kosher and non-kosher productions, the more we can minimize koshering and the associated costs. For example, if a company can arrange for a line to run in a sequence where kosher pareve is followed by kosher dairy and the week’s production ends with non-kosher products, much hassle is avoided. As most plants do not run during weekends, the required 24-hour wait before koshering is automatic.
Another benefit to the weekend break – companies undertake extensive cleaning regimens, including full CIP and sanitary washes. Many times, these procedures suffice for koshering (of course, they must be closely monitored). Other times, however, it is necessary to send rabbis to the facilities to implement special koshering protocols.
Baby food plants commonly have very long Schedule A (ingredient) lists consisting of hundreds of ingredients. Many, including special vitamin pre-mixes and specialty purees, are unique to each company. Additionally, new nutritional trends often carry unique kosher concerns. Omega acids DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) and ARA (arachidonic acid), both important to brain and eye development, are commonly derived from non-kosher sources, including fish oils. The quickly increasing demand for organic baby food means developing new kosher sources and ingredient streams. The demand for less added sugar means finding substitutions to maintain taste. The most common juice sweetener, white grape juice, is highly kosher sensitive. As the industry must be agile in response to market trends (read ever-changing parental expectations and demands), “keeping it kosher” can involve a lot of work and sometimes significant expense. Everyone from product development to purchasing needs to be “kosher cognizant” and everyone needs to work together!
As always, working closely with the OU office to review working assumptions and programs is crucial. Our vast OU Direct database (available to companies), as well as our internal database, contain tens of thousands of kosher ingredients and sources to help companies find the best matches. On the production side, many programs have been in place for a long time – but the plants have not remained static. Systems designed for older equipment can often be simplified when companies move to modern CIP lines or computerize. Sometimes a continuing problem with a retort system can be obviated by adding Bitrex or other chemicals that make the water non-palatable. Why? Because such water does not spread non-kosher taste! Of course, there may also be missed opportunities to move some products to different lines or change scheduling. As always, your rabbinic field representative and the OU office should be looked upon as resources.
One of the critical issues with baby food certification is audience. Many people do not realize that baby food is fed not only to children but to the aged and infirm. Moreover, what mother doesn’t taste the food before feeding it to her children? And when traveling or in a pinch, baby food makes an excellent and healthful adult snack. Why does this make a difference? Because there are important leniencies in Jewish law when children or the infirm are involved.
One crucial example of this is Passover. Normally, the OU – in keeping with Ashkenazi tradition – does not permit rice or soy for Passover. However, many babies, and some adults, need it for basic nutrition. Since these are cases of great need, there are grounds to permit rice consumption. However, it is not so simple. Flaked (dry) rice baby cereals are usually made on the same drum driers as barley and oats which are biblically classified as chametz — leaven. Moreover, the storage and handling of these items can easily lead to small amounts of admixture. Without a full koshering and special production, those items cannot be permitted. We are, however, able to make some exceptions for infant formula when it is strictly soy based. The matter is complicated and changes each year.
While baby food is very simple in appearance, keeping it kosher requires continuous effort and cooperation. Behind the scenes, baby food is actually a complex industry from a kosher certification standpoint. Baby food is very important to the OU’s core population, for whom the care of children and the elderly are central. We are proud of our leading role in continuing to provide truly kosher products to this important market sector.
Consumer Kosher • Industrial Kosher • (36) Comments •
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Off the Beaten Track: In a Visit to Armenia, an OU RFR finds Pleasant People and Excellent Products
Bordered by Georgia (the one Stalin came from, not the one Scarlett O’Hara came from), Azerbaijan, Turkey and Iran, and located between the Black and Caspian Seas, the former Soviet republic of Armenia, independent since 1991, has become the latest country to produce kosher products certified by the Orthodox Union.
When I received a call from Rabbi Nachum Rabinowitz, head of the OU European Desk, to go to Armenia, I was on the one hand slightly skeptical, not knowing what to expect, and on the other looking forward to add the stamps to my passport.
Therefore, in July last year I flew from Vienna (having just done some regular visits there) to Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, arriving at 4.30 a.m. (they are three hours ahead of Central European time).
By doing so, I stepped into a country where there has been a Jewish presence at least since the first century BCE and where some 800 Jews live now, with their community officially recognized in 1991 by the government. Conversely, there has been an Armenian presence in Israel since the time of the Roman Emperor Titus, so much so that since the 14th century an Armenian Quarter has existed in the Old City of Jerusalem near the Jaffa Gate. Approximately 2,500 Armenians live in Jerusalem, with 1,500 residing elsewhere in the country.
So producing kosher food in Armenia is not as strange as it sounds. The Chief Rabbi, Gersh Meir Burshtein, has worked tirelessly to make sure that kosher food is available for Armenian Jews to eat and in the process, to build a kosher industry for export. That’s how I came to be there.
I actually went to Armenia to do three initial inspections — at Waterlok LLC and SIS Natural, in Yerevan, the capital; and at Proshyan, in Yerevan and in Artashad, a 30-minute drive away.
All the plant personnel I met were both friendly and helpful. I met with Chief Rabbi Burshtein, who assisted in my visits and will be continuing the supervision there, as the OU representative. The three companies were enthusiastic about getting kosher supervision and especially in being able to attain the OU’s high standard of certification.
Waterlok produces bottled still and sparkling water. We met with the president of the company, Mr. Antonyan, as well as Mr. Janiachian, who is in charge of international relations. The plant prides itself on its modern equipment and in exporting its product to the United States.
SIS Natural produces high quality fruit juices, jams and preserves. At its plant we met with the director Mr. Armen Haobyan and with Mrs. Ruzanna Navasardyn, quality manager. Most of their products are made from fresh fruits grown in the area by contracted farmers under the guidance of SIS. The fruits are of excellent quality and are indeed tasty.
The next day, at Proshyan, we met with the director, Mr. Armen Gasparyan and the export manager Mrs. Lilit Avetisyan, who were both very helpful. On the way to Artashad, in the distance we passed high mountains which are called Ararat and which the Armenians claim to be the Biblical Mt. Ararat where Noah’s ark came to rest.
In Artashad the company produces pomegranate wine, both of the semi-dry and semi-sweet varieties, made from fresh Armenian pomegranates. In Artashad they produce in bulk and then ship the product by truck to the Yerevan plant. In Yerevan pomegranate vodka and pomegranate liqueur are also produced, using the pomegranate wine made in Artashad and distilling it, resulting in a high-quality product. The company is in the process of installing a new automated bottling line.
The Armenians’ pride and enthusiasm in being able to attain OU certification was constantly communicated to me in each of the plants I visited. And I left with a nice keep-sake to remind me of my Armenian visit. Proshyan gave me a souvenir wine bottle shaped like the menorah from the Temple in Jerusalem.
Industrial Kosher • (9) Comments •
Thursday, February 04, 2010
Dairy Industry Training Webinar
On Friday October 16th the OU presented the first of a two-part webinar (Internet seminar) on dairy hashgacha. The second session took place one week later on Friday, October 23. Rabbi Yaakov Mendelson, Senior Dairy RC, moderated the sessions and presented e-mail questions sent in advance and on-the-spot by RFRs; Rabbi Avrohom Gordimer and Rabbi Avrohom Juravel responded verbally and live to the questions.
RFRs were encouraged to e-mail questions about any and all topics relating to dairy kashrus supervision and policy to .
RFRs were sent a detailed dairy kashrus information packet for use during and after the webinar.
There was very positive feedback from Senior Management and RFRs on the success of this webinar in terms of ongoing RFR education and training. We look forward to more such excellent webinars in other industries as well.
The topics that were covered in the webinar were
1. Fluid milk
2. Powdered milk
3. Fresh cream
4. Whey cream
5. Butter
6. Hard cheese
7. Soft cheese
8. Whey
9. Sour cream
10. Yogurt
11. Ice cream
In the following RFR’s were given guidance concerning each topic as to what Kashrus issues they should be aware of as they do their inspections.
Webinar Dairy Issues
By Rabbi Avrohom Juravel and Rabbi Avrohom Gordimer
Fluid milk.
When going to a fluid milk plant, it is important to ascertain what else is processed there. While fluid milk is intrinsically kosher, it goes through various processes that could have kashrus problems. These include, but are not limited to: separators, pasteurizers, and storage tanks. Chocolate milk, egg nog, and even chicken soup have been found to be processed on the same equipment as fluid milk. Due diligence is not only a virtue, it is a requirement. Note: In ultra-high pasteurization (UHT) dairies, which make long shelf-life product in boxes or pouches, the likelihood of shared equipment issues is very great.
Powdered milk.
This product starts off as fluid milk, goes through a separator where the cream (fatty part of milk) is removed. From there it goes through a series of evaporators, mixing/holding tanks, and from there to a spray dryer. It is imperative to keep track what the equipment is used for. It can easily be used to dry other materials besides milk, which may not be kosher.
Fresh cream
Fresh cream (also called “sweet cream”) is taken from the milk by putting the whole milk into a separator, which is really a centrifuge. Cream is lighter than milk, so it floats to the top when put through a centrifuge. The optimum temperature for separating the milk from the cream is about 140F. Therefore, the milk is put through a heat exchanger before it gets separated. An RFR must have a thorough knowledge of the workings of the plant and keep track of what else is going through the heat exchanger that heats the cream. He must also keep track of where and into which tanks the fresh cream is going, and ascertain that the tanks are not used for anything non-kosher.
Whey cream
Whey is a by-product of cheese making. There are plants where both the cheese and the whey are non-kosher. Just like milk has a cream content, whey also has a cream content. (As with milk, whey’s cream is its fat component.) By putting whey through a separator just like milk, you will end up with whey cream. Most factories keep the whey cream and the fresh cream separate. These are two very different commodities with very different values. However, in a plant where the whey is not kosher, one must keep track of where the whey cream is separated, stored, heated, etc. to make sure the kashrus of the fresh cream is not compromised. For this very reason, we do not accept fresh cream from any plant that also deals or produces whey cream, unless it is properly kosher-certified.
Butter
Butter is made by taking cream and churning it. The churning process smashes the fat molecule and inverts it, thus yielding a very smooth, uniform, and almost solid product. The water that does not go along with the butter is called classic buttermilk (not to be confused with cultured buttermilk). Butter can be made both from fresh cream and from whey cream (See Chasam Sofer Yoreh Deah s. 79). Even USDA grade AA butter can contain significant amounts of whey cream. The certification program at a butter plant revolves around checking the cream sources. The cream will be coming in bulk by tanker truck. Each load has paperwork as to where it was picked up and produced. The RFR must meticulously check ALL the cream deliveries. He must also check what other ingredients they add to the butter against the schedule A.
Hard cheese
This product is made by starting with milk (whole, skim, powdered, or combinations of the above), adding cream and/or skim milk when called for. All these are put into a cheese vat, cultures are added, and when the pH changes, rennet is added. The vat is left alone for anywhere from 20 minutes to 3 hours, the cheese is cut, and the whey is drained out. The OU is machmir like the Poskim who say that the cultures and the rennet must be put into the vat by a YID. After the whey is drained out, the cheese is pumped into molds and sometimes it goes into brine. For kosher cheese productions, the brine must be fresh brine, not having been used previously for any non-kosher cheese, and the brine tank must be new and kosher-dedicated or kashered or lined in accordance with OU policy .
Soft cheese
Milk, non-fat dry milk (“NFDM”), whey and cream are put into a vat. Various acid cultures, possibly other acids (such as vinegar) and stabilizers are put in, and in these temperature-controlled vats the mixture is allowed to separate. The whey is drained off, and we are left with soft cheese. The cultures and the temperatures will determine what type of cheese it will become. Since there is no rennet, what is making the cheese here is the acid. Therefore this is known as acid- set cheese. The whey, which is a by-product of this cheese production, is always going to be an acid whey. The RFR must check the schedule A very carefully to see that the cultures match schedule A. He must also be aware that since acid set cheese is very often made at high temperatures, the equipment used in this type of cheese making must be dedicated for kosher use or be kashered before a production.
Whey
Whenever there is cheese production (or casein production), there will be whey. Whey is the uncoagulated part of the milk that is the by-product of cheese production. When the whey is coming from hard cheese, the RFR must check that the temperature of the cheese vat does not reach or exceed 120 F. If the temperature reaches or exceeds that, we have whey cooking with GEVINAS AKUM. He must also see that all the rennet and cultures are kosher. If they are using animal-derived rennet to set the cheese, then the whey is not acceptable to the OU. Usually, the whey comes off the cheese vat after the cheese coagulates. In some instances, the coagulated cheese is washed with hot water in order to get it to expel more whey. This process is known as scalding the cheese. The whey that comes out of this process is not considered kosher.
Mozzarella cheese goes through an additional process called stretching. This is accomplished by immersing the cheese in a very hot bath which will soften it, and then through a mixer/molder which stretches it. The water from the hot bath (“cooker” in industrial terms) is generally between 150 F-175 F. Sometimes, this water is returned to the rest of the whey. When this happens, not only is the whey non-kosher, but the whey cream which comes off the whey will also become non-kosher.
It cannot be emphasized enough that the RFR at a whey plant must be totally familiar with every part of the process, and evaluate whether there are any pieces of machinery (separator, pasteurizer, heat exchangers, evaporators, tanks, etc.) that can become kosher-contaminated along the way. Please remember that we are certifying the whey which is the by-product of non-kosher cheese (GEVINAS AKUM). Total segregation of kosher and non-kosher is imperative.
Sour cream
Cream, milk, cultures, stabilizers, and emulsifiers are standard ingredients in sour cream. Cream, not like its closely-related cousin butter, is a liquid, not a solid. In order to solidify cream, cultures are put in which will change the taste and have some effect on the texture. This is still not enough to solidify it. Starch, stabilizers, and emulsifiers will accomplish this task. The problem we encounter is that a lot of sour cream stabilizers have non-kosher GELATIN in them. This is especially relevant in light sour creams. The less the cream content, the more the gelatin. The stabilizer itself can have high amounts of gelatin, even though the final sour cream product has only a small amount. We will not certify the product even with a minimal amount of gelatin in it.
The gelatin problem rears its ugly head when a plants adds gelatin or stabilizer that contains gelatin to a small amount of cream in a liquefier, creating a “pre-mix” A liquefier is a very-high speed mixer which will mix and blend the gelatin into a small amount of cream, and then send it to the big vat of sour cream mix. This is done with other stabilizers also, even the kosher ones. Oftentimes, the liquefier is heated, rendering it non-kosher because of the large amount of gelatin in the pre-mix. Although the total amount of gelatin in the final product is botel, in the liquefier it is not botul. When the same liquefier is used for a kosher stabilizer, it can be rendered non-kosher because the liquefier was not kashered. Similarly, if the liquefier processed a pre-mix which contained gelatin that was not botel therein, and that pre-mix gets mixed into the rest of the product (which it surely does – that is the whole idea of a pre-mix), the rest of the product will become non-kosher, as we view the entire pre-mix as non-kosher (ChaNaN), and the pasteurization equipment will thus also need to be kashered. It is necessary to verify that a pre-mix which contains gelatin is not made, or that the entire line is kashered if such a pre-mix is made.
Again, unless the RFR understands the complete workings of the plant, he may check the formula of the non-kosher gelatin and decide it is always botul, and he will ignore the fact that the liquefier (and subsequently the pasteurizer) is TRAIF!
Yogurt
Yogurt starts with milk (fresh or NFDM) and cultures. The milk is inoculated with the culture, it is kept in a thermostatically-controlled holding tank, and after many hours, the whole thing turns into yogurt. After we have yogurt, flavors, sweeteners, starch, fruit fillings, and stabilizers are added. The best way to keep the fruit in suspension is by adding a stabilizer called gelatin. An RFR must carefully monitor the stabilizer systems they use and ascertain which products contain gelatin and which do not. He should also be checking all the other ingredients (stabilizers, fruit preparations, flavors, cultures, etc.) and compare them to the labels of the finished products. The same exact issue of pre-mixes with gelatin that was detailed in the case of sour cream applies equally to yogurt plants, where it is quite common. RFR beware!
Ice cream
Cream (fresh cream or whey cream), milk powder, sweeteners, stabilizers, emulsifiers, and flavors make up ice cream. When a product like ice cream freezes, small ice crystals form. This is not what the customer wants to taste. He wants the smooth mouthfeel of a creamy product. We all know that oil and water do not mix very well. In order to get the components of ice cream to mix, stabilizers and emulsifiers are used. When the right ones are used in the right proportions, a smooth creamy product will be the result, even when frozen, and it will not form minute ice crystals in the product. The RFR must be very vigilant in checking the stabilizer systems.
Ice cream comes in many flavors and varieties. Some may be kosher, while some may not be kosher. Rocky road is usually not kosher because of the non-kosher marshmallows it contains. Often, other ice cream varieties contain non-kosher marshmallows and are called by different names (e.g. Heavenly Hash, etc.). While the flavors are usually put into the ice cream mix after the ice cream is made, rework and remelt is an issue that must be very closely monitored.
Industrial Kosher • OU Programs • (6) Comments •
Monday, December 21, 2009
Too much to eat: Is gluttony a disease or a choice?
Judaism teaches that we are to enjoy the beauty, benefits, and bounty of creation. However, when it comes to overeating, Judaism is clear that too much of a good thing is a bad thing.
Gluttony – let’s call our reckless overeating by its proper name! – is dangerous and damaging. Sadly, it is also at epidemic proportions in the world today. In the United States alone, there are nearly four million individuals who weigh more than three hundred pounds! There are nearly one-half a million (mostly men) who weigh in at a nearly gargantuan four hundred pounds. The average adult female now weighs more than one hundred and sixty pounds!
These are astonishing numbers. And frightening. Of even greater concern are the trend lines when it comes to obesity – the necessary consequence of overeating.
Between 1962 and the year 2000, the number of obese Americans grew from 13% to an alarming 31% of the population;
63% of Americans are overweight with a Body Mass Index (BMI) in excess of 25.0;
31% are obese with a BMI in excess of 30.0;
Childhood obesity in the United States has more than tripled in the past two decades, and;
According to the U.S. Surgeon General report obesity is responsible for 300,000 deaths every year.
These frightening trends towards more and more obese Americans are growing, as are the negative consequences of obesity. As more and more doctors and nutritionists have “weighed in” on the overeating crisis, they have contributed to a debate about whether overeating is a “disease” or “willful behavior.”
Most people, when confronted by the question whether overeating is a disease or a behavior, answer reflexively – and with a sense of certainty that comes from such a reflexive answer. The question though, deserves more thoughtful consideration. It is not as simple a question as it first appears. And our response to it has a number of direct implications. Some argue that that other eating disorders – like anorexia and bulimia – are considered a disease. Why not overeating? And if obesity is a disease, then much of the stigma of being severely overweight disappears; it becomes easier to get treatment, and could open the door for insurance providers to cover treatments for people grappling with weight problems.
Others reject the argument that obesity is a disease. They consider obesity and overeating solely a failure of self-control. After all, they would argue, we each have total control of the calories we ingest and of the time that we spend exercising.
“If you’re fat, you’ve made a choice.”
Disease or choice?
As it does on other questions of behavior, on this question Judaism assigns responsibility to the individual.
We should never forget that Judaism considers the enjoyment of physical things, including food, to be a very good thing. This is why God created the world, after all. Raavad advises us that we should not avoid tasty food… it is enough to avoid what is already forbidden by Torah. The reasoning is clear. God has taught us what we are to avoid. What we are not instructed to avoid, we can – and should – embrace. If God has not instructed us to avoid something, then it is to be enjoyed. However, even when enjoying the beauty of creation, it is possible to overdo it. Raavad tells us that when one is eating and has had enough to feel full, yet he still wants more, he should hold himself back to honor God, and not surrender to his desires.
This understanding suggests that eating – like any kind of enjoyment of God’s creation – is really a kind of prayer, a kind of devotion. We should enjoy it. But to overindulge is to give in to extreme desire which dishonors God and His creation. Therefore, so one does not accidentally show a lack of honor to the Creator, he should leave over a little food before the last morsel is gone. This practice is known as Taanis HaRaavad – the Raavaad’s fast.
Just as on Yom Kippur, when Jews fast to focus their minds and thoughts on God, each day it is possible to engage in a “small fast” that accomplishes the same purpose!
The overindulgent one, the gluttonous one, is often the object of condemnation in the Bible. The Torah depicts Esau’s eating habits as a key element to his degradation and corruption. He gruffly demands that Jacob pour the food into his mouth, and then the Torah states, “He ate, he drank, he got up, and he left; thus Esau spurned the birthright.”
Esau’s downfall is tied to his gluttony. The Torah’s damning description of the wayward son, the ben sorer u’moreh, is one who is “a glutton and a drunkard.”
In the Torah portion Ha’azinu, in Deuteronomy, the next to the last portion in the annual Torah cycle, God warns of the terrible spiritual slide the people might experience. The portion begins by warning the people that if they become overly involved in physicality, they will remove Godliness from themselves – that there is a direct connection between how we are physically in the world and how we are spiritually. “…you became fat, thick and rotund and deserted God…” the Torah says of Israel.
Sin is the necessary consequence of overeating.
One of the sad ironies of overeaters is that they no longer even enjoy the food being eaten. Too often, they finish their meal without ever having taken note of the pleasure of the food or the eating. Their eating is purely carnal.
This is, of course, one of the major causes of overeating – eating without thinking. We should eat slowly and savor the taste of each bite, taking time to recognize God’s gifts. In this way we will feel full before we overeat. We will be sated. Satisfied.
One would think that someone who overeats does so because he or she completely enjoys eating. But, ironically, enjoyment and satisfaction are the first “losers” when it comes to overeating.
People do not overeat because they love food and take great pleasure in eating it. As we have seen, in a Jewish context, overeating is tied to sinfulness. However, even the secular world recognizes that overeating and obesity is “bad.” Go into any bookstore and you will find shelf after shelf of dieting books.
People eat to excess. This is not a disease. It is a moral problem.
What drives someone to overeat? While there may be as many answers to that question as there are overeaters, but there are a number of broad areas that we might consider.
Despite our 24/7 culture, in which stimuli are thrust at people – on television, the Internet, Smartphones – constantly and incessantly, many overeaters do so because they are bored. People eat when they don’t have anything “interesting” to do or look forward to. Even worse, when people find themselves watching television, they are bombarded by commercial after commercial celebrating food – usually junk food and soda.
Those images conspire with the boredom and drive many people to eat, and not just eat but to eat empty calories.
For others, the reason they overeat is deeper. Our world is profoundly isolating. People reach out to friends but they are “virtual” friends, friends they “twitter” or visit on Facebook, or email. But people need more than “interaction.” We all need contact. We need community. We need the support of others. Too many people turn to food when they need love and comfort.
Reaching out to people is hard to do at the end of a long, stressful day at work. Food is so much more accessible. Gratification is immediate – gratification and not satisfaction! Relationships take work and work takes energy. If you are already tired and feeling burnt out; if you feel it is near impossible to muster the energy to reach out to others… well, food is an attractive alternative.
Some people overeat because they have “given up.”
“Why shouldn’t I just keep eating? I’m already fat…”
“I’m so fat, no one’s going to ever love me anyway…”
Our society breeds such self-contempt for our bodies! We have created a culture in which young women (and men) are confronted with impossible body ideals and so are left feeling that they are “ugly” and “fat” even if they are perfectly normal. Already feeling that they are fat and ugly, they overeat because “what difference does it make anyway?”
They are sad and lonely. And because of their negative body images, they don’t believe they deserve to feel any different.
There are those who overeat in reaction to an emotional hurt. When someone says or does something to hurt another, they eat to make themselves feel better. They eat in response to anxiety and emotional stress.
God has created a world that is good. Jewish teaching holds that we are to engage and enjoy the world. This is certainly true when it comes to eating – our celebration of the most joyous event in our calendar, the Exodus from Egypt, takes place around the dinner table! Our holidays are associated with food – blintzes on Shavuot, apples on Simchat Torah, jelly donuts and latkes on Hanukah. To eat is to live.
But to overeat is to cross over from the enjoyment of God’s creation to the dishonoring of it.
Industrial Kosher • (12) Comments •
Baker’s Cheese: On the Crossroads Between Acid Cheese and Rennet Cheese
Leaf through any cookbook and you will be convinced that baker’s cheese is crucial for gourmet dining. I have heard it said that a cheesecake made with anything other than baker’s cheese is just simply not worth the calories. With its soft, spongy consistency, baker’s cheese fills the gap between rennet cheeses (such as mozzarella and cheddar) and acid set cheeses (such as cottage cheese and cream cheese). As its name implies, it is often the baker’s cheese of choice for creating real cheese fillings for pies and cakes. Although fundamentally an acid set cheese, because baker’s cheese is made with a touch of rennet, it has the proper degree of firmness that gives cheese cake its proper texture. Baker’s cheese lies on the crossroads between acid cheese and rennet cheese, and as we will see, exactly how it is classified will have important ramifications on its kosher status.
From a kosher perspective, rennet is one of the most sensitive ingredients. Although microbial rennet is inherently kosher, because it mimics the effect of animal rennet, there are many restrictions placed on its use. However, it is relatively easy to maintain a kosher program for acid set cheeses, such as cream cheese, which do not require the inclusion of rennet. Baker’s cheese is principally similar to cream cheese in that it is essentially an acid set cheese that is set with a culture; however in dairies today it is made with the inclusion of a small amount of microbial rennet. If baker’s cheese were classified as a rennet cheese, then it would require full time rabbinic supervision, but if it is considered an acid set cheese then periodic reviews of the factory would be all that is necessary.
What is important to note in making this determination is the exact amount of rennet that is added. While the amount of rennet in a rennet set cheese will range from 70 milliliters to over 100 milliliters of rennet per 1000 pounds of milk, baker’s cheese will typically have about 4 milliliters of rennet. Without the addition of the culture, this amount of rennet would have very little effect on the milk. It is for this reason that it is the position of the OU as well as most major kosher certifying agencies to consider baker’s cheese an acid- set cheese.
For those who wish to be extra careful in this area, the OU also certifies chalav Yisrael baker’s cheese which is made with full time rabbinic supervision and all of the stringencies as though it were a rennet set cheese.
Rabbi Eli Gersten serves as OU rabbinic coordinator – recorder of OU policy. In that important capacity, he works closely with the OU’s senior rabbinic team that reviews and formulates OU Kosher policy. Rabbi Gersten’s article,“The Fascinating Story of Kosher Gelatin,” appeared in the Winter 2009 issue of BTUS.
Industrial Kosher • The Certification of Specific Industries • (25) Comments •
Ask the Rabbi
Dear Rabbi:
While visiting the Summer 2009 Fancy Food Show in New York it was indeed impressive to see more OU certified companies than ever before featuring baked goods, chocolates, olive oils from all around the globe, condiments from Turkey, rice from India, tea from Australia and the list goes on. But I did not notice too many exhibits featuring OU certified cheeses, soft or hard cheeses produced in Italy, Spain, Chile… Why is that? Are there special kosher laws for cheeses? Someone told me that it was more difficult to kosher certify cheeses than chocolate chip cookies. Is that true?
Awaiting your response, with thanks.
Dear _______________:
In truth, there are some top-quality kosher cheeses from Italy and other European countries which bear the OUD symbol. However, as you noted, the number of such cheeses is quite limited – and for good reason.
Although acid-set cheeses such as cottage cheese and cream cheese are not difficult to certify — for like chocolate chip cookies these cheeses are kosher so long as their ingredients and equipment are kosher— rennet-set cheeses such as cheddar, mozzarella, parmesan, edam, feta and so forth have special requirements which must be met in order to qualify as kosher.
Kosher rennet-set cheeses need full-time, on-site rabbinic supervision, similar to kosher meat and wine. Unless a company has rabbis conveniently living nearby who are interested in spending many days at the plants without compensation for their time, the cost of kosher rennet-set cheese making is quite considerable. Aside from the travel (and often lodging) costs associated, manufacturers must be able and willing to invest in the hightened supervision requirements.
These cheeses, in order to qualify as kosher, also necessitate that the supervising rabbis personally add the rennet (or activate its automated entry) to each vat of milk. This means that the rabbi(s) must be present and very involved in the cheese making process.
The rennet used in many international (and organic) cheeses is often animal-based. Kosher cheeses cannot use animal-derived ingredients. This has resulted in the OU’s rejection of some cheeses for kosher certification.
Since “regular” (unsupervised) rennet-set cheeses are deemed non-kosher, cheese plants must often have their equipment kosherized and their brine replaced for kosher productions. These are delicate and sometimes costly processes.
Don’t give up, though. The number of international cheese companies which seek to enter the kosher market is steadily growing. All good things take time…
Rabbi Andrew Gordimer
Rabbinic Coordinator OU Kosher – Dairy Specialist
Industrial Kosher • The Certification of Specific Industries • (49) Comments •
Recipe for Success: The Making of an OU Restaurant
Kosher dining definitely ain’t what it used to be. “Will it be French, prime rib or sushi tonight?” is not a question kosher diners would have ever imagined asking before the last quarter of the twentieth century. Yet, it looks like the growing attraction to the more exotic kosher fare has joined the classic craving for pastrami on rye with a side of pickles.
Despite the fact that restaurant businesses constantly face hefty competition and a high risk of failure, a growing number of kosher dining enterprises are defying the dismal statistics. Whether offering an elegant ambiance or fast-food flurry, they’re breezing the critical five-year trial period and booming way beyond it.
“Today’s OU kosher restaurants seek to provide upscale cuisine,” says Rabbi Menachem Genack, CEO of OU Kosher, “with a tasteful milieu to match.” And the kosher public is savoring each opportunity.
As the kosher consumer’s palate yearns for a more elaborate, worldlier cuisine, the OU’s impeccable supervision required increasingly more sophisticated programs. “The amount and range of ingredients used in restaurants is much broader today and the availability of kosher components is fantastic,” says Rabbi Yaakov Luban, Executive Rabbinic Coordinator. “The kosher supervising agency has to determine whether certain ingredients can be used; it is the role of the Rabbinic Field Representative (RFR) to make sure those standards are implemented.”
Meet the “Rabino” in the Kitchen
A phone call comes in to OU headquarters from a Manhattan restaurateur interested in opening up a kosher eatery. As with every applicant, Rabbi Leonard Steinberg, rabbinic coordinator in the new company department for fourteen years, informs him that the OU requires that he employ a full-time onsite kosher supervisor called a mashgiach temidi (Hebrew for a continuous RFR). The OU supplies the professional, but the owner pays for his services. “That’s usually the biggest hump to get over,” says Rabbi Steinberg. “Since a restaurant needs constant supervision, a mashgiach temidi is necessary. Aside from all the ingredients going into the myriad dishes on any given menu, what makes an OU certified restaurant 100 percent kosher is the vigilance and acuity of ‘the rabbi in the kitchen.’”
If the restaurant agrees to a full-time RFR, the OU conducts an initial inspection of the establishment in order to determine what equipment, dishes, cutlery, etc. need kosherizing. After the details of the contract are finalized, the owner receives a letter of certification and the OU appoints an RFR, the sole keeper of the keys to the refrigerators, freezers, ovens, cabinets, as well as every other kosher-sensitive area in the place. In every sense, he is an OU-certified restaurant’s key man.
By accepting the position as OU Kosher restaurant supervisor, the OU-trained RFR takes on one of the most demanding jobs in the kosher world. He is not only a kosher connoisseur; he’s a manager, sleuth, diplomat, teacher, scientist, inventory control expert, vegetable-checker, with a knack for foreign languages and, according to Rabbi Yermia Indich, Rabbinic Coordinator (RC) for twenty-five years, “has eyes in the back of his head.”
“The RFR has to be on top of everything,” says Rabbi Indich, “from the moment he opens the doors until he locks up at night.” In between, he turns on the ovens (Kosher law mandates that a Jew participate in the cooking of foods); checks deliveries to confirm each product has proper kosher certification; meticulously cleans and checks vegetables – making sure they are free of bugs; cracks the eggs – checking them for forbidden blood spots, all the while monitoring the kitchen crew to ensure that all is running according to strictly kosher guidelines.
“Unlike big manufacturing companies, in a food service environment, things can go wrong in the snap of a finger,” says Rabbi Steinberg. “In a factory, they use 55 gallon drums of ingredients and get deliveries far less frequently (than restaurants.) We obligate them to have only what’s in their schedule and produce according to what we’ve outlined in the contract, whereas a restaurant could receive orders throughout the day and at any time decide to put something new on the menu. It requires a lot of supervision.”
Apparently, OU-certified restaurants welcome the rigorous oversight. “We wanted a nationally recognized certification known for having a clear and solid set of rules and standards,” says Steven Traube, managing partner of two popular restaurants on Manhattan’s east side, The Prime Grill steakhouse and Solo, which offers “Mediterranean with an Asian rub.”
“The OU has a corporate structure; they offer a standardized system, complete with training and updated handbooks for the food service RFRs, and always-available RC’s. I barely know any cell phone numbers by heart, but I know Rabbi Dov Schreier’s (one of the RC’s responsible for OU food services).” The Prime Grill actually requires two kosher supervisors, one for each of its two operating kitchens. “Our RFR’s are dedicated and hardworking, and the staff appreciates and respects it,” says Mr. Traube. “The employees see them washing vegetables, packing orders, ordering produce, fish, and groceries. They understand that ‘rabino’ (Spanish for rabbi) is management and that we are here to work together to churn out food while remaining under strictly kosher standards.”According to Rabbi Zvi Zinstein, RFR for five years at Mike’s Bistro on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, establishing this sense of teamwork with the kitchen crew is critical to the success of his job. “The most challenging part is helping them realize that I’m not a barrier for them,” he says. “You have a chef who has been working in a kitchen his entire life and now he’s not allowed to even turn on his stove or oven; that’s hard for him to understand. If they see that I’m going the extra mile, they’ll go the extra mile for me.”
Rabbi Zinstein, who’s been working in food service since the summer of his fourteenth year, not only goes the extra mile, he racks up plenty of reward miles every workday. He’s the first to arrive and the last to leave. In between, he cleans 25 pounds of vegetables (plus an array of herbs), keeps close track of the restaurant’s daily order inventory; he’s on top of orders that go out and deliveries that come in (consulting with the chef and bartender to make sure they have everything they need), and oversees the kitchen throughout the six-hour dinner service stretch. By 11:30 p.m., he’s locked up the refrigerators, dry goods, wine and front door and calls it another successful OU-Kosher restaurant day.
“I’m gratified that kosher diners can eat high-end food, something that wasn’t available to them before,” says Rabbi Zinstein. “At the same time, it comes with a major responsibility; the OU puts its name on the line. As the RFR, I’m the one making sure it’s kosher. I can’t let anything slip by and deem it not a big deal.”
But he never feels he’s shouldering the task alone. Thanks to the OU’s abundant at-the-ready RC’s and resources, the RFR’s find their job a lot less daunting. “If something comes in with a dubious kosher certification, I call Rabbi Indich,” says Rabbi Tzvi Margo, RFR at Eden Wok, a kosher Chinese and sushi establishment in Midtown, Manhattan. “He will tell me yes or no or ask that I fax over the label. Rabbi Indich allows me to call him at his own home if need be. The RC’s are always available.”
To ensure that the OU’s policies are operating up to par, a designated outside RFR conducts unannounced visits to the over 30 OU-certified restaurants across Manhattan. “I don’t want to give the impression that I’m there to catch anyone,” says Rabbi Issar Mordechai Fuchs, RFR. “I’m not there to police them; I try to be there for them.”
Rabbi Fuchs helps keep the RFR’s on top of their innumerable tasks, while keeping himself apprised of all the duties covered; he supplies each with a protocol list, as well as logs and checklists to fill out regularly. His schedule includes visits to an average of ten restaurants per week. “I’ve developed a good relationship with the RFR’s, as well as the restaurant owners,” he says. Save, maybe, one innocent grumble. “There’s a restaurant where they complain that the RFR is in the kitchen too much,” says Rabbi Fuchs. “I like those kinds of complaints.”
Habla-ing Español, Taking the Heat and Dodging Curve Balls
With Manhattan’s constant influx of immigrants filling food-service positions, the RFR’s have had to ensure that the kitchen crew knows exactly what is expected of them in a strictly kosher environment. They’ve peppered the workplace walls with signs in appropriate native tongues, stating: No outside food or beverage permitted in the kitchen; All deliveries must be checked by rabbi; Do not turn equipment on; and All vegetables must be checked by rabbi.
“I’ve learned to deal with people of different nationalities,” says Rabbi Margo. “I speak a form of ‘Chinglish.’” He’s also learned to apply his vegetable-checking skills to Chinese cabbage (ten heads per day) and nori seaweed. In his four years at Eden Wok, he has developed a discerning Chinese-food palate “Lately I’ve been running around the kitchen trying to figure out what to eat,” he says. “I’ve tried them all.” (Sesame chicken remains his favorite.)
Just as employees are expected to keep up with the rigors of maintaining a kosher kitchen, the RFR’s quickly learn to adjust to the difficulties that come with working in a continuous cooking environment, especially in the summer, when the kitchen temperature can exceed 100 degrees. “At the height of the morning, nine or ten fires are burning simultaneously,” says Rabbi Margo. “It can feel like a sweat bath!”
Despite the hot summers and the long hours, Rabbi Margo takes pride in his work and never underestimates its importance. “Kosher customers are relying on me,” he says. “They are putting their (religious) observance in my hands. Employees ask me why I spend so much time looking at broccoli. (Truth is), they see that this person who appears a little different from them is taking so much care in doing his best for the customers.”
Since every step of every day’s food preparation demands a flawless “live performance,” the pressure behind the scenes runs high from opening to closing. “In a catering facility or hospital, you know what to expect,” says Rabbi Zinstein. “You know exactly how many guests are coming and how much vegetables you need to wash. In a restaurant, you never know how many people will be walking in each day. There are always curve balls – a change in the menu that day or the chef wants a certain product that needs to be checked out. It’s a lot more intense.”
The surprises are not always food-related. While interviewing Steven Katchen, manager of Mendy’s Kosher Delicatessen, a popular high-end deli with five locations across Midtown Manhattan, his chef interrupted our conversation with some urgent news. Mr. Katchen promptly informed me that he had to go. “I have a refrigerator to fix.”
“The most challenging part of the job is maintaining one’s cool,” says Rabbi Schreier. “It happens that, due to extenuating circumstances, an RFR can’t come in to work. We keep a list of potential RFR backups, (just in case). It’s a 24/6 job.”
Some restaurateurs welcome the drama. “There’s always disasters that have to be dealt with,” says Mr. Traube. “A hood broke down; our main drain is clogged. It’s the nature of the restaurant business; that’s what keeps it exciting.”
Others view the constant contact with the public as a character-building experience. “It’s my favorite part (of the job),” says Bracha Silverstein, owner and operator of Dougie’s in Brooklyn, NY. “I get to meet a lot of people. Because they (also) come with a lot of expectations, it can get challenging. One has to swallow one’s pride.” She makes sure not to take it to heart. “You can’t take care of all of their problems in a dinner.”
Nonetheless, many are discovering that going out to a first-rate kosher restaurant certainly couldn’t hurt. According to Rabbi Steinberg, OU Kosher upscale eateries are here to stay. “They’ve proven to have longevity,” he says. “They are great places to take clients and wine and dine them.” He attributes these triumphs to the winning working relationship these establishments and the OU consistently enjoy. “Communication is our strong point,” he stresses. “They realize that we are partners. We want their businesses to succeed and we want kashrut to succeed.”
Jose Meirelles, owner of Le Marais, an acclaimed Midtown Manhattan kosher steakhouse and Clubhouse Café, a Portuguese wine bar (across the street), concurs. “The OU explains the kosher issues in a straightforward way that (even) a layperson can understand,” he says. A graduate of the French Culinary Institute in Manhattan, Meirelles says he managed to overcome what he calls his “biggest (kosher) hurdle,” – preparing traditional French dishes without butter. “So, we make our sauces without the extra fat,” he says, “which (in the end) turns out to be more healthful.”
Die-hard deli lovers don’t fret! Pastrami on rye still satisfies. The OU Kosher restaurant “menu” and its devoted service have simply (and scrumptiously) expanded. Go enjoy!
To Help Whet Your Appetite:
The above mentioned restaurant owners’ and RFR’s’ favorite dishes:
Steven Traube: managing partner of The Prime Grill and Solo – Porcinni Mushroom Soup.
Steven Katchen: manager of Mendy’s Delicatessen – A tie between Skirt Steak and Burger Deluxe, medium rare
Bracha Silverstein: owner and operator of Dougie’s, Brooklyn – Steak Caesar Salad
Rabbi Zvi Zinstein: RFR at Mike’s Bistro – Gnocchi, fried potato dumpling
Rabbi Tzvi Margo: RFR at Eden Wok – Sesame Chicken
Jose Meirelles: owner of Le Marais and Clubhouse Café – Le Marais’ Prime Rib for Two and Clubhouse Café’s burgers
Consumer Kosher • Behind the Scenes (Theoretical Kashruth) • Industrial Kosher • (14) Comments •
How Sweet it Is! Jams and Jellies Reflect Their Own Kosher Issues
People have enjoyed the sweet taste of processed fruit for ages. Jams and jellies were originally produced many centuries ago in Middle Eastern countries where sugar cane grew naturally. The returning crusaders introduced these products to Europe and they became quite popular by the late Middle Ages. When the Spanish arrived in the West Indies in the 16th century, they preserved the fruit using domestic sugar cane. It is interesting to note that the word jelly can be traced to the French word “gelée” which means “to congeal.” Some claim that marmalade was created in 1561 by the physician to Mary, Queen of Scots. He mixed orange and crushed sugar and this product was able to contain her seasickness.
Throughout the years, marmalade has been a king’s delicacy. Many different types were served to royal families. Louis XIV had magnificent feasts which concluded with marmalade and jellies served on silver dishes. Some of the fruit was grown in his own garden.
The early settlers in the United States preserved fruits with honey, molasses or maple sugar. Pectin was extracted from apple parings in order to thicken jellies. In 1897, Jerome Smucker first pressed apple cider at a mill in Orrville, OH. (The corporate office of Smucker is still located here.) Subsequently, Mr. Smucker started producing apple butter. Paul Welch received the first grape jam patent for the puréeing of grapes in 1917. The product was named grapelade and the entire production was purchased by the United States Army and went to the troops during World War I. This product was made in large quantities because the soldiers enjoyed it so much.
In 1940 the Food and Drug Administration established the Standards of Identity to define jam, jelly, preserves and fruit butter. The FDA decided that jelly is compiled of fruit, whether concentrated or unconcentrated and it lacks pieces of fruit. Jam is made from crushed or chopped fruit; it does not contain chunks of fruit. Preserves consist of large or whole pieces of fruit; the fruit is suspended in the syrup base. Preserves are not as smooth as jam or jelly. These items usually contain sugar, pectin, corn starch and lemon juice.
Marmalade is another type of preserved fruit. This is a soft jelly, usually citrus based, which contains the peel of the fruit or its flesh. The sweetness of the jelly is offset by the bitterness of the peel. Fruit butter is fruit purée or pulp containing sugar, lemon juice and spices. It is cooked slowly in order to obtain a smooth consistency, but does not contain any butter. Fruit spread is a reduced calorie product that has fruit juice concentrate and low calorie sweeteners replacing some or all of the sugar.
There are a number of issues pertaining to the kosher status of these products. Grape juice can be an important ingredient for preserved fruit. Grape juice is a kosher sensitive item and it requires special rabbinic certification. Therefore, if grape juice is used one must be careful about its kosher status. Flavors are also of concern. Since flavors can be created from many different sources, then proper certification is a must. Another ingredient which must be monitored is the defoamer. Since it is a fatty acid product, it therefore requires proper certification. In addition, processed fruit that are Kosher for Passover may not contain any corn syrup. There is a tradition not to consume any legume products on Passover and thus corn syrup may not be utilized during the holiday.
Presently, the most popular products are grape jelly and strawberry jam. Other favorites include grape jam, red raspberry jam, orange marmalade, apple jelly, apricot jam, peach jam and blackberry jam. These products account for approximately 80 percent of United States product. Another 28 flavors include the remaining 20 percent.
Research has shown that children prefer jelly while adults usually consume preserves. It has also indicated that the average child will eat 1,500 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches by high school graduation.
Jams and jellies are quick energy foods. They contain half the calories of butter or mayonnaise. An added bonus is that they lack fat.
OU certified companies include J.M. Smucker Co., as noted above, of Orrville, OH; Roseland Manufacturing, whose brand name is Polaner, of Roseland, NJ; Clearbrook Farms of Sharonville, OH; Hero of Latham, NY; Clements Foods of Oklahoma City; Amazing Fruit Products Ltd. of Toronto; Meduri Farms, Inc. of Dallas; and SkylarHaley LP of Alamo, CA.
Rabbi David Gorelik joined the Orthodox Union as an OU Kosher rabbinic coordinator in 1995. Born in Holyoke, MA, he pursued his post-high school studies at Yeshiva University, where he received his B.A. degree as well as his rabbinic ordination and a Masters degree from its Bernard Revel Graduate School specializing in Medieval Jewish History. Rabbi Gorelik also spent time studying at the renowned Yeshivat Har Etzion in Israel.
Prior to joining the OU, he served on the rabbinic staff at the Park East Synagogue in New York City, and as rabbi in Richmond, VA from 1991-1995.
Married and father of three children, Rabbi Gorelik resides in Passaic, NJ where he assists the communal board with kashrut administration. At OU Kosher, Rabbi Gorelik is rabbinic coordinator for General Mills, as well as companies producing cereals, jams and jellies, dried fruits and nuts, and snacks. He also administers the OU’s yoshon flour program.