Meat and milk – What’s the problem?

Judaism seems to disagree with it. Keeping meat (fleishig) and milk (milchig) seperate is one of the guiding principles in what we like to call as “Kashrut”, Jewish dietary laws. That’s right. It means we can’t eat a bunch of regular people foods like Chicken Parmesan (or parma for the aussies), cheese burgers, lasagna or pepperoni pizza. Even sipping on a cappuccino while eating a chicken sandwich or spreading garlic butter on a piece of steak is a no-no. Meat and milk are kept separate, to the extent that in many Orthodox Jewish homes you will find two sets of plates, cutlery, cups, serving dishes and sometimes even two ovens, two stoves and two sinks. To make things even more complicated, some families have a third set of dishes for foods that are neither meat or milk, otherwise known as “pareve” – neutral (e.g fruit and vegetables).

There are also differences among the Jewish people as to how long one waits between eating a dairy product and a meat product. Some wait 1 hour, 3 hours, 5 hours or even 6 hours – but this will also depending on whether or not the person is eating dairy after meat or meat after dairy. Sounds complicated? Only just a little bit. Welcome to the Kosher world.

And all this originates from a verse in the Book of Exodus (Shemot) which forbids “boiling a kid in its mothers milk”. Don’t freak out. This is not referring to cooking children (although that should also be forbidden), but rather baby goats. From this simple one-liner the dietary laws around meat and milk developed into three main principles.

1)    No cooking meat and milk

2)    No eating meat and milk

3)    Not even getting any benefit from a cooked mixture of meat and milk.

That last one sounds a little strange, it means you would be unable to own a restaurant that served cheeseburgers even if you didn’t cook or eat them.

Just to confirm – meat refers only to meat and poultry from kosher animals, not fish (although some groups of Jews avoid eating fish with cheese for a different reason).

One of the motivations behind this principal is the ethical aspect it represents. Using the milk of an animal to cook its babies is somewhat inhumane and pretty disgusting if you think about it.

And here comes the nutrition aspect:

People are always trying to come up with reasons as to why we keep Kosher. In ancient times, it may have been more obvious that keeping kosher had a positive impact on health, but in modern times it’s hard to support this notion. On the flip side, there are more and more people that choose to buy Kosher products for the supposed health benefits, so go figure...

When it comes to the topic of mixing meat and milk together there is some evidence that claims eating the two together interferes with digestion. The other benefit I guess, is that any restriction on your diet usually (but not always) results in eating less. Meat and dairy are both quite high in energy/calories so avoiding one of the two in a meal should make the dish lower in calories, you would hope.  It also happens to be quite convenient for any vegetarians – if a dish contains any sort of dairy, you can be certain it is meat free. The same goes for any lactards – a dish with meat in it, means they can enjoy it without any worries. Despite these possible benefits, and any other suggested reasons for this Mitzvah – the simple explanation is that we keep kosher because G-d told us to, even if we don’t fully understand why. Not an uncommon theme in Judaism.  

Growing up in an Orthodox home, I was never tempted to eat dairy and meat together. It wasn’t something that appealed to me, probably because my taste buds had never encountered this mixture before. It did however, become particularly challenging for me, when as part of my degree I did a unit on practical cooking skills. First thing I had to make? A caesor salad with bacon and cheese (which apparently wasn’t a problem since bacon isn’t considered “meat” in the Bible). Next thing I had to cook? Chicken stuffed with pesto. Even though I wasn’t eating the food, I had to use substitutes in many situations. The problem was, I never knew which version was better.

So that brings me to my next point. I’ve come up with a few of the classic meat-milk combos that seem to be so popular around the world, and suggested an alternative for the Kosher population that are just as good, or maybe…even better. This is without using soy products and fake meat or cheese.

Cheese burger – the classic meat-milk mixture. Simple alternative – swap the slice of cheese for a grilled portabello mushroom. Healthier and more flavoursome (speaking from a biased point of view). Unfortunately (or fortunately in my opinion) the Kosher McDonalds in Ben Gurion Airport, in Tel Aviv has closed down. Sorry guys.

Lasagna – funnily enough, growing up I only ever had vegetarian lasagna with cheese. The concept of having a “meat-lasagna” never occurred to me. Alas, google a lasagna recipe and the traditional recipe requires minced meat, mozzarella cheese and a white cheese sauce. There is always the option of going veggie, or using weird soy protein meat substitute (which surprisingly tastes great). But moving away from fake food, you can simply make a “white sauce” with margarine, corn starch (to thicken it), coconut milk, fresh garlic, salt, white wine, and any optional minced vegetables for extra flavour (e..g mushrooms, onions, celery). Granted, it is a little more complicated – but definitely worth it!

Pepperoni Pizza – something I’ve always wanted to try but never have, is cracking a whole egg onto a pizza and baking it. Alternatively fry an egg, cut it up and place it around the pizza – let me know how it works out.

Spaghetti bolognaise (spag bol) – Instead of serving with parmesan cheese, sprinkle basil and parsley on top.  Ok, it may be different in texture, colour and flavour but still sprinkle-worthy.

Chicken parmesan – In majority of these dishes, I’ve suggested dairy replacements. In this case its easy – why eat chicken parmesan if you could have eggplant parmesan? And if you can eat eggplant parmesan, why not zucchini parmesan, or carrot parmesan, or pumpkin parmesan? Ugh...that does sound kind of gross. Maybe just put a dollop of chummus on top of the chicken, make Zohan happy.

Cream of chicken soup (is there such thing?) – It might be an Australian product, but adding a can of creamed corn to chicken soup is delicious. Another option, that may sound strange but happens to taste great – is adding rolled oats to chicken soup. It makes the soup a lot more creamier and thicker.

I hope that this has provided some culinary inspiration, rather than a sense of hopelessness at the limitations that come along with Kashrut.