Jewish: cheese and tradition
Kosher cheese, the dairy meals of Shavuot and the cheese latkes of Hanukkah.
Under kashrut, the Jewish dietary laws, cheese needs special care. Meat and dairy are kept apart, following the verse that forbids cooking a kid in its mother's milk, so cheese is never eaten with meat. Many authorities also require Jewish supervision of cheesemaking, gevinat Yisrael, and the rennet must be kosher. Shavuot, the festival of the giving of the Torah, is celebrated with dairy foods, and Hanukkah has cheese customs of its own.
Meat and milk
The Torah forbids cooking a kid in its mother's milk three times, in Exodus and Deuteronomy, and rabbinic law extends this to eating meat and dairy together. Kosher kitchens keep separate dishes and utensils for each. Observant Jews wait between eating meat and dairy: six hours in many communities, three or one in others, following family and local custom. Many also wait after eating hard, aged cheese before eating meat.
Kosher cheese
A cheese is kosher only if its rennet and every other ingredient are kosher. Under the rule of gevinat Yisrael, many authorities require a Jew to be present at, or to take part in, the making of the cheese. Cheese made with microbial rennet, or with rennet prepared under rabbinic rules, can qualify. Kosher certification marks identify approved cheeses, and Israel's dairies make kosher cheeses in nearly every style, from white brined cheese to aged Gouda types.
Shavuot and Hanukkah
On Shavuot, many families eat dairy meals: cheesecake, cheese blintzes and cheese kreplach, and in Sephardi homes bourekas and sambusak. Explanations offered include the Torah being likened to milk and honey in the Song of Songs, and the idea that the Israelites, newly given the laws of kashrut, ate dairy while they learned to prepare kosher meat. On Hanukkah, some eat cheese and cheese latkes in memory of Judith, who in a medieval telling fed salty cheese and wine to the general Holofernes before she killed him.
Worth knowing
- Cheesecake: A Shavuot favourite
- Blintz: Thin pancake filled with sweet cheese
- Kreplach: Dumplings, filled with cheese for Shavuot
- Bourekas: Sephardi pastries filled with cheese
- Sambusak: Cheese pastries of Iraqi and Syrian Jewish kitchens
- Latke: Fried pancakes, made with cheese for Hanukkah
Sources and further reading
- Kashrut on Wikipedia
- Milk and meat in Jewish law, Wikipedia
- Shavuot, Wikipedia
- Book of Judith, Wikipedia
Original text by the EveryCheese desk, written with AI assistance and checked against the sources above. Customs are described as tradition, not as advice. If we have something wrong, tell us.
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