Instant Soup Noodles

Q. On Shabbos, may I prepare a cup of noodles from an instant soup by pouring hot water from an urn onto them?

A. Unlike regular pasta which is still raw, Instant soup noodles are fully cooked. The reason they are hard and brittle is because they are dehydrated, and they can be rehydrated simply by soaking them in warm water. Therefore, it would seem logical to assume that the rule of “ain bishul achar bishul” (it is permitted to cook something that has already been cooked) should apply and it should be permissible to pour hot water onto soup noodles. However, it is important to note that some instant noodles are cooked at the factory with steam, not water. Live steam is sprayed at the noodles as they pass through a tunnel. Cooking with a steam is a different process than cooking with water and yields a different taste. Just as rewarming baked items in hot water is not permissible for Ashkenazim because “yeish bishul achar afiya” (a baked item may not be boiled), so too, one may not pour hot water from the urn onto the noodles. However, Mishnah Berurah (318:47) writes that it is permissible to place bread into a kli shlishi (third vessel). The same would apply here as well.

(It should be noted that the flavor packets that come with the instant soups may contain uncooked spices and the dehydrated vegetables that are not fully cooked.)

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The Gerald & Karin Feldhamer OU Kosher Halacha Yomis is dedicated to the memory of Rav Yisroel Belsky, zt"l, who served as halachic consultant for OU Kosher for more than 28 years; many of the responses in Halacha Yomis are based on the rulings of Rabbi Belsky. Subscribe to the Halacha Yomis daily email here.