Szőke Judit - Kiss Kitti: A kóser konyha. Skanzen füzetek 3. (Szentendre, Szabadtéri Néprajzi Múzeum, 2010)
The separation of dairy and meat dishes. „Do not cook the young goat in its mother's milk." says the Torah. This is the origin of the prohibition of the consumption of milk and meat dishes which is a very important rule of kásrut— the Jewish laws of eating. An important part of the kosher requirements is the careful separation and serving of the milk and meat dishes. The dishes that do not contain milk or meat are called párvé— vegetables, fruits, spices, grains, egg and the artificial additives. When consuming vegetables and fruits care must be taken that insects do not get into the flesh of the plants. 8 These rules determine the equipment and the use of the traditional Jewish housewife's kitchen as well. In the households complying with the regulations the pans used for the preparation of milk and meat dishes, the kitchen towels and the storage dressers are separated in the two distinct parts of the kitchen. The utensils used for the different dishes are of distinct colours—red indicates the meat dishes and blue the dairy dishes. The dishes and utensils are not used together even when serving or doing the washing up; the rules are strictly kept. If by mistake a meat dish is put in a milk pan, the unclean tool must be made kosher so that it can be used again following the ritual cleaning administered by the rabbi. 9 In the 19th c. in Hungary a common means was to dig the tréfli, i.e., the unclean, ritually unusable tools under the ground to clean them. , n In the kosher kitchen it was extremely important to have simple cleanliness so the walls were covered with tiles or oil paint and dishes were only rarely hung on them. It wasn't easy to take care about everything in the kosher kitchen. There is a Jewish saying about kasrut n; "Aron found out the kasrut in order to keep away his wife from boredom." 8 Rékai 1997. 69-80. 9 Book of Jewish housewives, 1935. 7-8 1 0 Körner 2005.85. 11 The rules of the kosher life. 13
