Dear JennyLynn, You -- & anyone else with questions -- are more than welcome for any information that I can offer!

Please note that the P symbol for pareve can easily be mixed up with the "Suitable for Passover use" designation.  Curiouser & curiouser.  Mine is not the simplest religion on earth ...!

Yours in Him, Deb

What good information on kashrut you have given, thank you!

I am babystepping my way to kashrut. For now I do not purposely eat pork, shellfish, catfish, etc. I try to buy kosher labels on things like cheese or other foods that might contain pork, etc.

Good for you, Shoshana!  The famous would-be convert to Christianity, Franz Rosenzweig, decided to study Judaism before taking such a momentous step.  He became more & more intrigued, & abandoned all thoughts of conversion.  When people asked him whether he was taking this or that step in becoming more observant, he always replied, "Not yet."  For you, too, Shoshana, you are "not yet" keeping strict Kashruth, but you are becoming that way by now being conscious of being "ingredients-Kosher."   Your next step will be to not cook dairy & meat together -- no more meat lasagna.  Yours in Him, Deb

<<<>>Your next step will be to not cook dairy & meat together -- no more meat lasagna.<<>>

 I think I could easily switch to cheese lasagna and cheese enchiladas, etc.....what is the thing that seems hard is butter. I NEVER use margarine. I am also allergic to soy so many of the dairy substitutes are out. I don't like artificial stuff. No steak and baked potato with butter and sour cream, no desserts with butter in them with a meat meal and how to get Dh to give up butter on challah and butter on mashed potatoes with a meat meal????  

Dear Shoshana, ALways remember "Not yet."  Cheese lasagna & cheese enchiladas, etc are a big step.

BTW, At a large natural foods store like WHOLE FOODS, you can find rice, spelt, "wheat meat,"& other products that are meat alternatives that you might like to try.

Yours in Him, Deb

 The important thing to remeber with gelatin is that kosher certified yogurt can use fish based, and some articles even said pig based, "parts."

 Gelatin is basically collegen. It always, always comes from animals.

 

Parve can be egg, if you are thinking of using parve as a vegetarian signal. I don't eat egg, so I still read the labels.

Peacenik

28-year lacto veg who keeps kosher for the past six years

Dear Peacenik, First of all, Kosher gelatin cannot have more than 1 part in 60 of animal sources.  The 1 in 60 rule was developed by the Talmudic Rabbis (1st to 5th centuries Common Era/A.D.).  In practice, this rule has a fence around it, as do all of the 613 commandments.  The fence is a way of ensuring that there will be no breaking of a prohibition.  Therefore, Kosher gelatin is made of seaweed, & does not have animal ingredients.  The most that there can be is a very, very slight amount of chemicals that once & far away was derived from an animal.

Secondly, all vegan items are Kosher, but it is certainly not true that all Kosher items are vegan.  Eggs, cheese, & Kosher meat are (or can be, in the case of hte cheese) Kosher, but certainly not vegan.

Third, in my experience, most vegetarians are ovo-lacto vegetarians, who will eat eggs & dairy.  Vegans won't eat honey, eggs, or dairy, & most also will not wear leather.

Hope this helps.  Yours in Him, Deb 

 Gelatin has been in debate by halachic authorities far more learned than you or I .

agar/carageenan has not. and you are correct in that agar is kosher (as long as the facility get s certified)

 here is one take on true gelatin:

http://www.kashrut.com/articles/DryBones/

Or how about what OU has to say?

Animal bones and hides are considered inedible and “kosher” even if they come from a non-kosher or non-slaughtered animal (see Rambam, Hil. Ma’acholos Asuros 4:18), and are only forbidden mid’rabannan.

However, just two halachos later, Rambam cites the Mishnah that states a number of exceptions to the aforementioned rule. One exception is that the hides of domesticated pigs have the halachic status of meat, are considered edible and are most-definitely not kosher. Thus, even those who argued that gelatin made from the hides of beef or from bones is kosher, would have a harder time defending that position as relates to gelatin made from pig hides.

http://www.oukosher.org/index.php/common/article/5467

 

and StarK:

http://www.koshersupervision.com/kashrus/kk-palate-gelatin.htm

 

I respectfully disagree that all vegan items are Kosher.

 Some tofus are made in facilities that also process treif (shrimp rolls come to mind immediately).

 The tofu in my home is defintely vegan, but not certified Kosher.

 

yours, Peacenik

lacto veg, 28 years

 

 

Dear Peacenik, You ahve obviously made a very careful study of this matter, & I bow to your wisdom.  However, I am a subscriber to the vegan magazine, VEGETARIAN JOURNAL, & I keep up with which products are truly vegan.  I do believe that Ko-Jel & the other foods that I eat are Kosher -- but each to her own.  Yours in Him, Deb

jennylyn:

Deb, thank you so much!!  I am absolutely, so completely over the top excited, I can't even begin to tell you!  For years I have avoided gelatin of all kinds because I though it was not vegetarian (except for a brand that says vegetarian on it at Whole Foods but I rarely if ever buy it-I don't like it much on its own).  But as an ingredient in SO MANY manufactured items, I have simply avoided it as I wasn't sure that it was vegetarian or not.  You have completely made my day!  I can't wait to go to the store next time-so many blackballed items with kosher gelatin listed are now possibilities!! 

Well, don't get too excited yet. Some products made with gelatin that are labeled as "kosher - parve" could contain fish gelatin. At my local grocery store, kosher marshmallows are available only around Passover (don't ask me why--I mean, aren't marshmallows a natural for hot chocolate in the winter?), so I always grab a bag then, but they are made with "kosher fish gelatin." I can only eat them because I'm not a strict vegetarian.