The Cellar - Trendy, Schmendy..Kosher is suddenly hot

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Trendy, Schmendy..Kosher is suddenly hot

I've been eating kosher foods all of my life. Of course, I haven't been only eating kosher foods. I still prefer Hebrew National hot dogs over other beef dogs.

Who knew that one day I'd be a trend-setter.

From here

Quote:

In an era of heightened concern over food contamination, allergies and the provenance of ingredients, the market for kosher food among non-Jews is setting records.
Only about 15 percent of people who buy kosher do it for religious reasons, according to Mintel, a research group that last year produced a report on the kosher food explosion. The top reasons cited for buying kosher? Quality, followed by general healthfulness.

Quote:

The non-Jewish kosher market has been growing in earnest since the 1990s, when the koshering of the Oreo was hailed as a watershed event and ConAgra Foods bought the Hebrew National hot dog brand. Now, 40 percent of the food sold at grocery stores has a kosher imprint, according to the kosher and halal food initiative, a research project at Cornell University.
Recently, the pace has picked up. Major retailers including Wal-Mart, Costco and Trader Joe’s have kosher programs. At FreshDirect, the New York City grocery delivery company, orders for kosher chicken were up 30 percent in 2009. The kosher Tootsie Roll was introduced last month.

Ok, I knew that HebNat was bought by Con Agra. I did not hear about the koher Tootsie Roll, though.

Quote:

For some shoppers, kosher means purity of ingredients. Vegetarians know a parve label means absolutely no meat or dairy products. (Vegans, though, are out of luck. Parve food can contain eggs and honey.)

....and fish. Parve = Vegan + eggs + fish. I knew honey was parve, but it was only the eggs and fish that always puzzled me. Eggs and fish are animals (or potential animals). I always thought they should have been in the meat category. Since they weren't, and if the whole purpose is to separate dairy from meat, and eggs are parve, then why not make chicken parve? You can't milk a chicken.

Most vegetarians I knew in the UK did not consider that honey was vegetarian because its harvest can damage/kill bees and also disrupts their habitat. But they ate battery-farmed eggs which I consider to be pretty non-vegetarianly-principled.

Yeah mon I agree, same with cheese.

I am one of the people who believes that Kosher equates to a higher quality food product.

I am one of the people who uses the "Parve" label to quickly ascertain that something is dairy-free.

Quote:

Kosher beef is consumed in accordance with Jewish dietary laws, which dictate what Jewish people can and cannot eat based on the religion, and how foods should be prepared. The word "kosher" is an umbrella term for foods that fit into these dietary laws, according to jewfaq.org. Cattle that have died of natural causes, were killed by other animals or have diseases or flaws cannot be used for kosher beef, according to jewfaq.org.
According to oldandsold.com, once the cattle is slaughtered, the kosher beef must be used within 3 days. If it is used after that period of time, it must be washed every third day until 12 days have passed. At this point it won't be considered kosher and may or may not be used.
The majority of kosher markets or grocery stores that sell kosher beef only sell square-cut chucks, such as brisket, chuck and shin, according to oldandsold.com. Orthodox Jews tend to eat only the forequarters of the beef that have the ribs removed. All types of kosher beef are marked "kosher" for easy identification so that Jewish people can distinguish kosher beef from regular beef sold in markets.

I'm sure they don't make hot dogs from just the forequarters, and it doesn't say anything about what the live animal was fed... or injected with... before it got to the slaughterhouse?

Hebrew National beef franks are pretty tasty. The label holds the international K symbol for kosherness.

According to their website it is beef without artificial flavors, colors, fillers, and by-products.

right, but what went into the cow before it became beef?

Quote:

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce (Post 626427)

I'm sure they don't make hot dogs from just the forequarters, and it doesn't say anything about what the live animal was fed... or injected with... before it got to the slaughterhouse?

Don't confuse kosher with organic. Kosher is partly based on the health of the animal. It doesn't matter how it stayed healthy.

I'm not, but I fear consumers are. :eyebrow:

No bacon cheeseburgers? I ain't doing it. :bacon:

I'll have a kosher Jambalaya please.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pie (Post 626873)

No bacon cheeseburgers? I ain't doing it. :bacon:

And no pepperoni pizza, even turkey pepperoni (which tastes the same as regular). And none of this:

Quote:

Bubba: Anyway, like I was sayin', shrimp is the fruit of the sea. You can barbecue it, boil it, broil it, bake it, saute it. Dey's uh, shrimp-kabobs, shrimp creole, shrimp gumbo. Pan fried, deep fried, stir-fried. There's pineapple shrimp, lemon shrimp, coconut shrimp, pepper shrimp, shrimp soup, shrimp stew, shrimp salad, shrimp and potatoes, shrimp burger, shrimp sandwich. That- that's about it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by richlevy (Post 626377)

I've been eating kosher foods all of my life. . . and fish. Parve = Vegan + eggs + fish. I knew honey was parve, but it was only the eggs and fish that always puzzled me. Eggs and fish are animals (or potential animals). I always thought they should have been in the meat category. Since they weren't, and if the whole purpose is to separate dairy from meat, and eggs are parve, then why not make chicken parve? You can't milk a chicken.

Desert people, perhaps? Maybe they didn't know from fish... so much.

Or else it stops tartar sauce on a Fish-wich from breaking glatt kosher, which sure wouldn't be the case with a cheeseburger, as previously noted.

I don't understand the turkey pepperoni thing, though. Avoiding the occasion of sin, whether sinning or not? Is it something like Eastern Orthodox feeling all naughty if they eat seitan or TVP during Orthodox Lent? I'm not sure they actually do, but it seems they might.

No, I think he's talking about turkey pepperoni on pizza (cheese + turkey, très treyf)