Whole roasted cauliflower- how is it kosher

amother

↑ Magnolia

Wed, Oct 30 2024, 10:42 am

amother Broom wrote:

My question is: you don't eat in restaurants? Buy takeout salads? Buy a panini with lettuce in it? These places aren't washing and checking their produce, each leaf by hand. They're relying on heterim. So why can't I in my own kitchen?

Only if you are eating at unreliable restaurants. Any restaurant with a reliable hechsher has a mashgiach making sure that produce subject to infestation is checked according to guidelines. Ask in the kitchen before you eat. Restaurants have lost their hechsher for non compliance. Some kashrus agencies such as KCL will only allow restaurants to use bagged lettuce with a hechsher and wil not allow checking at all.

↑ nicole81

Wed, Oct 30 2024, 10:49 am

amother Broom wrote:

Also I can tell you that in the UK at the moment, all kosher restaurants are required to use the pre checked lettuce in order to qualify for a hashgacha. So idk who's not checking...

amother

↑ Lemon ↓

Wed, Oct 30 2024, 1:16 pm

This whole discussion is so depressing, as it is getting harder and harder to eat normal healthy food anymore.

I do eat at restaurants on rare occasions but I know that many hashgachas do rely on certain leniencies and heterime that I would rather not rely on so I often avoid the produce at these places. (I don't order salads or dishes with strawberries, fresh broccoli, etc). Same when eating at a catered affair.

Regarding Cauliflower, I had been checking it according to the CRC guidelines but the poster above who said her Rav said there is no way to check, is making me nervous...

amother

Lemonchiffon

Wed, Oct 30 2024, 1:24 pm

amother Lemon wrote:

Same. I feel like you have to be rich to eat vegetables unless you rely on those certain leniencies. I mean, you can eat more root vegetables and such, but those are nutritionally very different from the green leafy vegetables that are supposed to make up a significant amount of the food we eat.

↑ Bnei Berak 10 ↓

Wed, Oct 30 2024, 1:31 pm

amother Broom wrote:

When you check large amounts like in a restaurant it's generally accepted to take a sample of the batch. If it's clean one can assume the whole batch is clean.
You cannot compare your kitchen to a commercial establishment. It's a vast differences in volume size everything.

↑ Bnei Berak 10 ↓

Wed, Oct 30 2024, 1:35 pm

amother Lemon wrote:

Proportions. Most vegetables and fruits aren't infested.

amother

↑ Smokey ↓

Wed, Oct 30 2024, 2:04 pm

Mommyflower wrote:

I must digress…For most of my childhood and at least half my married life, no one was obsessed with bugs the way they are today. We ate strawberries, cauliflower, broccoli, asparagus, onions, garlic, all fruits. We weren’t big cabbage eaters, but my grandmother and great grandmother certainly made it. My mother soaked lettuce to remove dirt and I guess any bugs were removed. No one talked about light boards and thrips cloths and we all kept kosher. I have trouble signing on with this. I’m not a Rav, but I have difficulty believing that there aren’t organisms in everything we eat and somehow we have kosher food. Resume your chat.

Because there didn't use to be bugs!! There are a lot more infestations nowadays then there were before...
But go ahead to digressing Banging head

amother

↑ Smokey ↓

Wed, Oct 30 2024, 2:06 pm

amother Crocus wrote:

How can I roast whole garlic if I have to peel and cut each end?

Wrap garlic pieces in parchment paper and then silver foil. Pour oil in & close it. It's the closest you can get.

amother

↑ Black

Wed, Oct 30 2024, 2:12 pm

amother Smokey wrote:

Because there didn't use to be bugs!! There are a lot more infestations nowadays then there were before...
But go ahead to digressing Banging head

Bugs are a new phenomenon?

↑ Bnei Berak 10 ↓

Wed, Oct 30 2024, 2:32 pm

amother Smokey wrote:

Wrap garlic pieces in parchment paper and then silver foil. Pour oil in & close it. It's the closest you can get.

Very good idea! Thank you!

amother

↑ Hotpink ↓

Wed, Oct 30 2024, 2:42 pm

amother Lemon wrote:

So our Rav explained a little more, broccoli there's gaps, you can wash, rinse, shake it out. Cauliflower the are in the florets which are very tight and it's very infested...the are deep inside the florets...

amother

↑ Hotpink

Wed, Oct 30 2024, 2:49 pm

amother Broom wrote:

Correct, I don't buy takeout or restaurant food with anything that has regular infestation. There are 1 or 2 places where I've spoken to the Mashgiach and he checks everything not just a sample and then I might eat salad there. Also seaweed, needs to have a good hechsher.

amother

↑ Lilac

Wed, Oct 30 2024, 2:52 pm

amother Crocus wrote:

How can I roast whole garlic if I have to peel and cut each end?

Once it is peeled, just cover in oil and place in a covered dish in the oven. I just buy the pre-peeled and do this.

amother

Indigo

Wed, Oct 30 2024, 3:07 pm

Some masgichim are more thorough than others. And some hechsherim are stricter than others.
Some only allow frozen broccoli like b'gan. OH worked somewhere that he hechshar allowed fresh. Some batches he threw away the whole lot. Some were 'clean' and checked according to the hechshar's guidelines but he wouldn't eat it - he knew there could still be bugs. Seaweed (they used spring greens) he would only eat if he'd checked it himself and he wasn't happy with spring onions either!

↑ Brit in Israel

Wed, Oct 30 2024, 3:28 pm

Bnei Berak 10 wrote:

There are no fresh raspberries over here.
They are notorious for being extremely infested.

Right so when she was in the USA she was excited to buy a variety of fruit without worrying about maaser and hechsherim which is a problem in Israel and everyday for breakfast she had raspberries. She had no idea it's not allowed. I also told her she needs to check the strawberries there or atleast soak them in soapy water, it's not just in Israel that they need checking.
I think she didn't believe me and asked a Rav. I did ruin her upcoming trip...

↑ Bnei Berak 10

Wed, Oct 30 2024, 4:28 pm

Brit in Israel wrote:

You didn't do anything wrong, quite the opposite.

amother

↑ Smokey

Wed, Oct 30 2024, 4:46 pm

amother Hotpink wrote:

In Israel Rabbi Weiner (American Rav in Ramat Eshkol) goes around to restaraunts to check that they are doing it properly. He doesn't base it off the hechsher just checks if they are keeping the kashrus standards according to the hechsherim that they have.
He does this for the Americans so he can recommend restararaunts no matter the hechsher they have.
He went to a stand in the shuk that was Jerusalem Rabbinate and they had day old garbage in the sinks and according to Jerusalem health codes you can't check fresh vegetables over garbage so he said either they didn't follow the kashrus guidelines (to check the vegetables) or follow the health codes (clean sink when checking) so he advises not to eat there.
In general all the restaraunts with top hechsherim are fine.