Want to make sure the mouthwatering steak you’re gobbling down is kosher, that is, it’s been prepared according to the laws of kashrut? For your steak to be kosher the animal it comes from must be killed as painlessly as possible. Of course this requires that only a kosher expert must butcher the animal.
Although a typical steak comes from beef, especially in America, the one you are eating can come from any edible animal that can be sliced the way steaks are sliced. So you can get your steak from fish (it helps if it’s large fish), from sheep and goats and for that matter even from camels if you’re ready to savor them.
So what makes your steak kosher? There are certain animals that are considered kosher if the Jewish law halacha deems them fit. According to the Torah, cloven hoofed, cud-chewing mammals are kosher. This means cows, sheep and goats are kosher whereas pigs and rabbits are not. There are certain birds that are kosher, for instance, duck, goose, chicken and the all-American favorite, turkey.
For your steak to be kosher there should be no blood in it and the blood must be drained out within 72 hours of slaughtering the animal. Any meat that has blood or its trace is not kosher. But why so much importance to draining all the blood out? According to Torah the blood is the soul of the animal being consumed. Blood is life and it carries the spiritual qualities of the animal. If you consume blood, you also consume the spiritual traits of the animal. Therefore, to make your steak kosher, “proper”, you must make sure it has no blood.
The ritualistic slaughtering of an animal among Jews is called shechitah and most of the blood is drained out during shechitah. To make sure no blood is left soak the steak in cold water for about 30 minutes, take it out, and rub coarse salt over it. Keep it that way for an hour and again soak it in clean water. This drains the blood out completely and you’ve got yourself kosher steak.
Tags: Kosher Food, Kosher Steaks