"Homemade" mishloach manos - do you eat the conten

The thread octopus started got me thinking-
We rarely eat the contents of "home baked" mishloach manos. While the cookies are often cute, the hamentaschen and sweet rolls smell delicious, unless they came from someone who we know well enough to a) trust their kashrus b) know we wouldnt be grossed out to eat at their house
the contents generally get taken by me to school and left in a lounge somewhere, where people dont care about where the filling was purchased or what type of hashgacha was on it.
Am I fanatic or mean?
Growing up my mother never let us eat random peoples homebaked deliveries on Purim....

Platinum Member Joined: Jun 09 2005 Posts: 11840

I would eat it from someone I trusted if I was also sure that it wasn't recycled.

I would never recycle someone else's homemade goods; why should the next person trust someone they don't even know they're trusting? Shocked

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everyone in our community knows not to send us homebaked stuff for kashrus reasons.

I think its a bit snooty to say everyone elses kitchens are not hygenic. if you know the people and that they are normal people who know how to wash their hands, why not eat it?

Its not like you personally have a monopoly on hygiene. other people may have been let into the secret. Why are people you don't know giving you mm? don't they have better things to spend their time and money on?

Platinum Member Joined: Aug 29 2007 Posts: 12057

the poll asks if you get shalach manos from people you don't know very well or strangers.
so why is one of the choices close friends and family only?
in any case, I'm from a very small community & I only get shalach manos from people I know well. the people I don't know as well can spend $1 per name & have their name on the mikvah list shalach manos for the entire membership.

Posted: Sun, Jan 11 2009, 7:38 pm Post subject:

Platinum Member Joined: Jun 09 2005 Posts: 11840

Thank you for clarifying your position. Wink

Platinum Member Joined: Sep 10 2006 Posts: 6566

I think hygienic might be....well, little Shmelky is helping mommy with the hamentashen...he wipes his nose and rolls his dough and puts in some preserves and then sticks his finger in and licks it and takes another taste, and then mommy lets him bake it and it ends up in the basket going to the Stein's.....
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I'm not answering the poll. there is no option for "yes. I know that the people who would bother giving me mishloach manos are shomer shabbos and kashrus to the specifications of their family rav. as far as I know, that means I can trust their kashrus. my family doesn't keep any chumras that would prevent us from eating other families' home-made goodies."

when I moved in to the neighborhood, two neighbors brought me home-baked cakes. I did not question them on their kashrus practices. the cakes were positively yummy.

Platinum Member Joined: Oct 27 2005 Posts: 6746

So if its an absolute no assuming you have no close friends or relatives who keep kashrus, what if your Rabbi sent it, still no?

Yes, if I would eat at their houses, would be willing to eat their food if they send it over.
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Platinum Member Joined: Aug 29 2007 Posts: 12057

my friends and neighbors put little notes in their shalach manos that say things like: x is yoshon, or y is pareve, z is made on c"y milchig keilim. people communicate around here.

oh, and I meant to add something about the hygiene issue-

the cake is in a 350 degree oven. germs get killed in there. I'm not saying I would want to eat dough with snot in it, but I think it's silly to assume the mother doesn't keep an eye on her kids while baking. if he licks some jam off the spoon while she's not looking it still won't hurt you. I bake with my two year old, and he does little more than counting cups of flour and mixing with a spatula. sometimes he touches the cookie dough. we wash hands before starting, and he doesn't wipe his nose in general. unless you know the mother to be unhygienic in her cooking practices, I don't think it's fair to assume her kids have contaminated the hamantaschen.

Platinum Member Joined: Sep 10 2006 Posts: 6566

yeah, just I have said an internal "no thanks" to some things bc they just look...like kids little hentilach were all over it (like the jelly is all over the hamentash, not in side it and not bc it exploded).

At the same time, if I have already filtered re: kashrus, it ends up in the hamentashen pile and I have no idea who sent it then.

As an aside: I also don't eat meatloaf made by others than my closest friends (would be famly but can't get the kashrus there....) my meshugas.

if I would eat at their house, I would eat their homemade mishloach manos.

Platinum Member Joined: Aug 01 2005 Posts: 16922

Th eonly people that would bother sending me shlach monos are my good friends and family, and they buy all their baking ingredients in the same grocery we buy our baking ingredients, so it's not a problem.
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Silver Member Joined: Feb 11 2008 Posts: 981

I think it also depends on how it looks, I once got MM that was supposed to look like a burger and fries, while the idea was cute it just looked really "gepatchket" the burger bun was cake... it was from a close neighbor, but I just threw it right out Crying or Very sad

I guess we're unpopular-- I never get shaloch manos from people I don't know.

Platinum Member Joined: Sep 22 2004 Posts: 9754

I will eat if it looks really good. I myself bake but I spend money on really professional looking packaging and only make things that look clean and crisp so it never has the homemade feel, just the homemade taste. I find when you package it well people will eat, and I always get a bunch of compliments and requests for recipes so I know at least some people eat. (Where I live people don't really go crazy for MM anyway and I think people are happy to get something else from me rather than a bunch of Hershey kisses and grape juice in a bag.)
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Platinum Member Joined: Apr 15 2007 Posts: 5828

you need an option that says "only if it's from someone whose kashrus I trust"
the option for close family or friends doesn't cut it
some posters have family whose kashrus they don't trust
I have friends who don't keep c"y.