Re: Gotta try it

Nicky <ukc802466929@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
: On Mon, 7 Apr 2008 13:05:51 +0000 (UTC), "W. Baker" <wbaker@xxxxxxxxx>
: wrote:

: >In the kosher market in NYC I guess you could say were as scarce as hen's
: >teeth:-)

: Wendy, my kids are asking questions about kosher after I told them
: what you said about not eating the back part of animals, because of
: the sciatic nerve. They want to know, does that apply to a chicken?
: And if not, what's the smallest animal that you're allowed to eat that
: you do divide in this way?

: TIA,

: Nicky.
: T2 dx 05/04 + underactive thyroid
: D&E, 100ug thyroxine
: Last A1c 5.6% BMI 25

OK, I will give this a try.

It does not apply to chicken which are problematical for another reason.
Since it says in the Bible that you cannot seethe the claf in its mothers
milk, the whole concept of not mixing meat and milk developed(too complex
to discuss here). As a result you can't make beef stroganoff or eat
butter on your steak, or a cheeseburger. There was an issue as to what to
call a chicken as it has no mothers milk:-) It, essentially, was declared
to be considered meaat by a majority of rabbinic decisors way back in the
early days of the common era. So no creamed chicken, but eating a
drumstick is just fine as the sciatic nerve issue did not applly to birds.
they may not have been that strong in anatomy in those days.

As to how small an animal we get to another issue. Again, in the Bible we
are told that suitable 4 legged animals to eat must both chew their cud
and have cloven hooves. Pigs have cloven hooves, but don't chew their
cud, so tht is why we don't eat pork. Cows, goats, sheep, deer, etc are
all OK, but not horses, rabbits, and all the preditors. I guess if you
were to fine a cloven hooved,, cud chewing mouse sized animal, I guess you
could eat it if it were possible to bucher it. Size is really not the
issue, just type. Ungulants, ruminants are the class from which we draw
our permissible meats.

Another point your children may be interested in is some aspects of kosher
slaughter. It is based on two principles, minimum pain to be inflicted on
the animal and the greatest amount o draining of the blood. Again we turn
to th eBible for the oorigin. Weh we were given permission to eat meats
we ae told, not only to not eat the sciatic nerve, but not to eat the
blood as the blood is the life. As a result there are gret efforts to
remove as much blood as possible from the meat, first, by slaughtering by
cuttting the throat with a VERY sharp knife that has no nicks that could
catch and cause pain. This leads to rapid death and rapid blood draining
from the carcase. Once the meat is butchered, it undergoes a salting and
soaking proceedure (origially done by the housewife, but now, usually by
the butcher) to remove as much blood as possible. This all can sensitize
you to the fact tht a life was taken for you to enoy this meat. Not a bad
idea to have. These systems were developed thousand of years ago, well
before modern methods of slaughter.

As you can see, there is no special blessing or anything to be made by a
rabbi or anyone in this process. It must be supervised, however, by
someone very knowledgeable in the who laws of kosher slaughter. The knife
must be checked for sharpness and smoothness before each us, etc. In
addition, as only healthy animals are to be eaten, the lungs of the animal
are inspected for smoothness, to make sure there are no diseases(visual
inspection-this proceedure is very ancient) no downed or naturally dead
animals can be used for food. Chicken require much he same slaughter adn
blood removal, but I am not sure about the lung check as I am NOT an
authority on this subject. An interestsing side light. Kosher chicken
often have many pin feathers that have to be removed. This is because the
blood draining requirement prohibit the use of heat, either hot wter or
hot wax to be used in removing the feathers.

This is about the limit of my knowledge on this subject.

Wendy
.