As you may have guessed, the idea of this blog is to cook as many as possible of the recipes in Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking without violating Jewish dietary laws of Kashrut.
That said, there are a few premises that need to be accepted. First, I won’t mention the process of kashering all cookware, utensils and dishes, but is a basic step toward complete observance of Kashrut. Therefore, in the interest of verbal economy, we will assume that all tools involved are properly kashered (made appropriate for use according to Jewish law).
Second is that all ingredients are kosher. This presumes that packages have been examined for the stamps of the various oversight organizations (Circle-K, Star-K, OU, etc.) Generally, domestic cheeses in USA are considered kosher for all but the absolutely most stringent Jews, but even cheeses are supervised and to be safe labels on these can also be checked. Produce also is generally considered kosher as long as you don’t find any critters freeloading when the produce is inspected and washed. Meats from kosher animals (cows, chickens, sheep as opposed to pigs, for example) must be slaughtered according to Jewish law, so for the purposes of this project we’ll assume all meats, unless specifically discussed, are kosher.
Wikipedia has a good article that covers several viewpoints on many of the dietary laws.
Third, we’ll assume that everything is done at a time when it is allowed to be done. For example, we’ll assume that no flames were lit nor electricity used on Shabbat or on any of the holidays that prohibit such activities. (As a general rule, I won’t perform those functions, nor blog about them, on any day when it would be halakhically (by Jewish law) prohibited to do so.)
I think that about covers general basic assumptions upon which the project will rest. Obviously there are topics I’ve just presented that will merit further discussion over time, but seeing as it’s been over a week since my first entry, and I’ve spent a lot of time running over guidelines in my head, I thought I’d take another step forward.
As always, to be continued.
