I brought home a jar of Kosher Pickles the other day ( Mr. Ujest hates pickles, so this was a rarity for me to buy them)
when the question was put forth of " Why are pickles kosher? It’s not like they had to be slaughtered…"
Not being one of jewish faith, I know nothing about kosher stuff,and leave it to those that do.
Cucumbers, by themselves (like all vegetables) are kosher.
However, there may be agents in the pickling juices or preservatives that aren’t kosher. Unfortunately, I’m not an expert on pickle manufacturing.
Zev Steinhardt
It has to do with the source of the vinegar used to pickle the cucumbers. The wine used to manufacture the vinegar must be kosher.
There’s nothing particularly non-kosher about other pickles; it’s just that “kosher pickles” - the plump, lumpy, sweetish pickles New York is famous for - were originally made by American Jews and sold in kosher delis. The pickles popular among North Afdrican Jews, OTOH, are very different (smaller and more sour) but are, of course, equally kosher.
Of course, it also may be because they’re made with kosher salt.
So what makes salt kosher or not kosher?
I have always wanted to know this. Yet again, thanks SMDB, for being a forum that reminds me of what I don’t know but I forgot to ask about.
Kosher salt is used in the koshering process to draw the blood out of the slaughtered animal. It has long, coarse crystals that further remove the blood. No meat that has not been bled can be certified kosher, the animal must be certifed by a rabbinical official as free from injury, and the blade used to slaughter said animal must be free from cracks and nicks.
And all this time I thought to make kosher pickles you just had to snip the tip…
(BTW, FTR, regular salt is “kosher” and can be used by Jews. Kosher salt, as was pointed out by False_God, is so named because it is used when kahsering meat.)
Zev Steinhardt