Setting up Kosher Kitchen! Help Please!

Active Poster Joined: Sep 29 2009 Posts: 96

Hello,
I recently got married and we have just moved into our new apartment. The apartment kitchen is pretty small and I have never set up a kosher kitchen as there always was one. My question is in your opinion, what is the best way to do this? MEAT AND PAREVE? OR MEAT AND MILK? I like to make alot of dairy dishes but is it going to be extremely hard in a small kitchen? I know people do it, but I figure the best place to start is on this site. I think we have enough room for meat and milk but only 1 sink so we will have to get a sink basin. Help! I need to start setting up so that I can start cooking :)!!!
Thank you :)!

I never heard of meat and p kitchen, only meat and milk or all three. I pers. find it hard to keep ANYTHING pareve let alone half ny kitch so I usually just stick to meat and milk

Active Poster Joined: Sep 29 2009 Posts: 96

I have never heard of it either but my mother in law suggested that this will be the best in our kitchen and I didnt really think that this was a good idea. She is the only other woman I know where I am living now so I wanted to double check.... THANK YOU

Active Poster Joined: Sep 29 2009 Posts: 96

On a small counter space, can a milk "counter" be next to a "meat "counter"??? Im getting very nervous... who should I call for advice? A rabbi? I am not crazy about my mother in laws idea and my mother is not here to help!

Can you contact the town rebbetzin? maybe she can help or give ideas
_________________

"You will have many many children and make successful shidduchim beh", rebbetzin Esther Jungreis
"It's all cultural, disagree respectfully", me

Diamond Member Joined: May 20 2007 Posts: 2838

Personally when I had a small kitchen, I needed the milk and meat counters separated, or I would constantly be mixing things up. This meant that I had a very small milk counter, which was hard at times, and then DH bought an extra cabinet and counter top at Home Depot which really helped. Can you do that?

I would skip pareve - to me pareve is a luxury when you have extra space.

The one sink means you have to consider it treif, and store dishes in some sort of basin, and then put something in the sink when you wash them.

Good luck!

Platinum Member Joined: Jan 01 2006 Posts: 48145

it really depends on what suits you.

Executive Member Joined: Aug 13 2009 Posts: 306

Don't quote me on this but I think if you use the sink for milk and meat you won't be able to use hot water. We have a small kitchen and it's all meat. We just have a milk toaster oven and sandwich maker. We use it in the spare room. If you like to cook a lot of dairy it's worth using the kitchen for both if possible. Maybe you could have a plug in burner, toaster oven (stored in a cupboard) and cover the counter with a milk table cloth when you want to use it. I guess the main issue is the sink though b/c you won't be able to strain a pot of boiling water in it. When our sink was treif (in Israel) we used a big basin to strain but it was annoying. Also do you have a laundry room sink? That would help. If you have a self clean oven and you hold that you can change from milk to meat that would also make your life easier.

We have 1.5 sink and use the large one for milk/meat. (the half sink is a shallow one really just for washing veggies). You'll need to get two separate plastic sink bowls of different colours. You can drill a hole on the bottom if it doesn't have one so you can drain the soapy water you use for washing. You can also gate two separate metal racks but it's a bit tricky when things slip below and touch the sink itself.

My understanding is using tepid water is more for caution, JUST IN CASE mixing/touching the sink happens.

For countertops, I think the safest thing is to designate one side to meaty, the other side to milky so you don't have to worry about placing hot pots/plates etc.

Do you have a double-ovens? Separate hobs?

I won't ask Rebetzen, but instead ask Rav. For tricky things like hobs or ovens that need libun, we've usually asked a chabad rabbi who can come with a big blowtorch.

Look at a bright side... It's much easier to turn a small kitchen into pesachdik one, and lot less scrubbing and cleaning to do... Wink