Status of Pareve Food Cooked in a Meaty Pot
Question
I always thought a 6-hour waiting period before eating dairy is not necessary after eating pareve food off fleishig dishes. But I recently was over the home of a rabbi who told me a 6-hour wait is required after eating pareve food that was cooked in pots or pans that were previously used to cook meat, even if there is no meat present at the meal. What’s up with that?
Answers
It is all a little complex as it depends on when the food was cooked and what it was cooked with. In general, the Rama rules that pareve food that was cooked in a pot that was last used for meat more than twenty four hours previously may be eaten with dairy. The reason for this is that once twenty four hours have passed, the meat flavor absorbed by the pot no longer imparts a taste, and therefore the flavor transmitted to the pareve food is no longer considered “meat.”
However, it is important to add that the Rama rules that the lenience of cooking in a pot that hasn’t been used for twenty-four hours does not apply to “sharp” foods. Therefore, someone who fried onions in a meaty pan that hadn’t been used for twenty-four hours, must treat the onions as meaty, with all the stringencies that entail.
Best wishes from the AskTheRabbi.org Team