Ask the Rov: Do french fries fried in oil used for schnitzel make me fleishig?
By Rabbi Chaim Hillel Raskin – Rov of Anash in Petach Tikvah
Shulchan Aruch rules that one must wait six hours after eating even a little bit of meat or poultry before eating dairy.1 According to Rashi, this is due to the meat’s fatty residue remaining in the throat and mouth. The Rambam explains that the concern is for meat that may be stuck between the teeth (but after six hours, the remnants are no longer halachically “meat”).2
In practice, we follow both views and if there’s still meat stuck in one’s teeth after six hours, it must be removed, but they don’t necessitate additional waiting (even if swallowed).3
The above reasons wouldn’t seem applicable to food cooked with meat and separated (tavshil shel basar), such as rice cooked with meat or eggs from a cholent.4 Yet, the Rama rules to wait just like after meat itself,5 and prominent Sefardic poskim rule likewise.6 Pareve foods cooked with milchigs one does not need to wait, as the waiting after milchigs is merely a hiddur.
What if pareve food was cooked in a fleishig pot that wasn’t completely clean?
The Shach rules that a small amount of residue would not necessitate waiting six hours since it is minute in the mixture.7 Others require that the residue be batel b’shishim (less than a 60th) relative to the rest of the dish.8 Similarly, an onion — or other sharp food — cut with a clean fleishig knife, although it cannot be eaten with milk, would not make someone fleishig, (though some are machmir that one who is fleishig shouldn’t eat an onion cut with a milchig knife, see issue 438).
Sometimes, french fries are fried in the same oil previously used for schnitzel or meat. Does one need to wait six hours after the french fries?
While some consider this a tavshil shel basar which requires waiting six hours, others hold it’s more lenient since the taste transfer was indirect — first into the oil and then into the fries – and it’s enough to wait one hour.9 The common custom it to wait six hours.
See Sources (open PDF)
From The Weekly Farbrengen by Merkaz Anash
Discussion
We appreciate your feedback. If you have any additional information to contribute to this article, it will be added below.