Can Muslims & Jews eat artificial bacon bits… the type that says “contains no meat”?
Well, according to my friend Guya, a card carring Muslim, she could eat them, but that’s not the same as *would * eat them.
Shes like me - the smell of bacon, real or fake makes her sick.
I presume you’re talking about soy product. Your OP stirs thoughts of some hilarity when the makers of such first try for kosher certification. I don’t know.
Check for the little Kosher “K”.
Well, it would depend on the preperation, but assuming there are really no meat products in the bacon bits and nothing’s done during preperation to make the food non-kosher, it should be, calling it bacon bits notwithstanding. I mean, I could decide to market bread under the name “hamlobsterpork”, and that wouldn’t make the bread non-kosher.
Sure… Most “simulated bacon bits” are soybean flavoured with hickory smoke. Cautious folks will want to make sure that they are certified kosher, like these.
You shouldn’t check for a Kosher K, because a K posted on a product can also mean it contains potassium as well, and they’re trying to dupe you. This was SOP for a lot of companies until the 70s. Rather, check for the U inside the O, which means that it was certified by the Orthodox Union, which would be acceptable for all but the most frum Jews.
To answer the OP resolutely, yes, observant Jews can eat (fake) bacon bits. I don’t like them much, but my children love them.
Larry Mudd, cool link, but other, more common brands, are Kosher. Like Bac-Os.
I only meant that, to be sure, you should make sure that it’s certified. Since manufacturers simply put “Natural Flavour” on the list of ingredients, you really don’t know what the flavouring agent is.
As for the relative “coolness” of my link, I missed the boat-- I’d much rather have used the link to PMS Foods’ page for Imitation Bacon Flavoured Chiplets.
What is it that I find unsettling about "Curley’s Famous All-Natural Barbeque Sauces, from PMS Foods"?
In joke: I’ve always thought that the ultimate in this sort of thing would be a parvedik cheeseburger, made with soy instead of beef and with non-dairy cheese… the thought of adding soy-bacon had never occurred to me.
A Jewish deli I eat at has beef bacon. The word “bacon” is not a problem.
But, starfish, beef bacon is ALSO not kosher as it comes from the back half of the cow and anything from that half is trefe.
[hijack]
Can Muslims & Jews watch Kevin Bacon movies that show his back half? :D:D
[/hijack]
I’m not Jewish, but I am surprised to read that. Do you have a citation? Anyway, my meat-curing cookbook has a recipe for beef bacon (which it doesn’t call kosher), using beef plates. The plates come from the underside of the animal, near the sternum.
Additionally, don’t some authorities prohibit foods made to resemble non-kosher food? I thought I read that somewhere, but I can’t find it now. Of course, if beef or mutton bacon is traditional in Jewish cuisine, then that wouldn’t apply, since it wouldn’t be in imitation of pork bacon.
AWB:
No, we must maintain at least six degrees of separation. (
right back atcha)
We have entered the realm of the surreal – Chaim is posting Kevin Bacon jokes, and I’m making serious commentary on kashruth. Somebody call Rod Serling.
First the disclaimer, I’m a reform Jew that doesn’t even pretend to keep kosher. Thus, my info will differ from that of a seriously observant guy like cmkeller.
I don’t have a citation, but it’s common knowledge among us Hebes that the hindquarters of an animal are unclean for purposes of kosher/non-kosher. Bacon made from the breast portion of the cow (meaning the chest, not the udders) should be perfectly acceptable.
As to the discussion of whether you should be eating parve or technically-kosher foods that resemble trefe, that’s a sticky point. Kosher bacon is an old concept – way back at the beginning of the 20th Century (and possibly before) this was fried pastrami. My parents and older relatives all remember it, and they grew up a lot more observant than I did. However, many jews feel that soy-burgers with soy cheese and turkey bacon should still be avoided, since it violates the spirit of the kosher directives. My uncle, a reform rabbi, agrees, though he’ll be the first to break out the nutcracker when you offer him lobster. He keeps kosher in his home for the sake of his congregants, and he eats a fairly conservative diet away from home, but shellfish is where he draws the line – loves the stuff.
Interesting thread. I suppose Kosher bacon is not far removed from my Mormon friend drnking an O’Doul’s. I have mentioned to him that Joseph Smith’s Words of Wisdom only say to avoid hot drinks but I don’t push the issue. My savior’s first reported miracle was to make wine, and good wine at that, for the wedding at Cana so I take my lesson from that.
Well, there’s always TURKEY bacon, which I love-easier to cook and not nearly as greasy.
BTW, since the meat and dairy thing is about an animal in its own mother’s milk or something, could you eat a chicken sandwhich with cheese, since they’re not from the same animal? I think it’s a no no, but I just wondered…
Forgive me, but what is
anyway? I’ve heard many differing things about this.
I don’t have it in front of me now (if anyone really wants I can try to find it) but there is a Midrash (I don’t have a good definition, but it is an ancient Jewish text) that says how for everything that God forbade us to eat in the Torah, there is another kosher food that tastes just like it.
I have no problem eating anything kosher - including kosher “shrimp”, “ham”, “crab”, etc. I didn’t grow up Orthodox, and I miss those foods. I’m still waiting for the kosher “lobster”…