Cheres - Enamel Coated Pot

QUESTION: I have a metal pot which is coated in enamel. How do we view enamel fused to metal? Is this viewed like a metal pot, which can be kashered with hagalah, or is this like a ceramic pot which cannot be kashered with hagalah?

ANSWER: The Chasam Sofer (YD 113) was asked about this type of pot. He writes that he is concerned that the enamel contains elements of cheres (ceramic clay) and cannot be kashered. Therefore, he writes, the only way to kasher this type of pot is to fill it with burning coals. However, the Mishnah Berurah (Hilchos Pesach 451, seif 23, in a note printed below the Shaar Hatziyun) writes that many Rabbonim disagree with the Chasam Sofer and conclude that so long as the pot had not been used in 24 hours and is being kashered for year-round use (and not for Pesach), it may be kashered with hagalah. Although enamel is a mixture of glass and cheres, nonetheless these poskim were lenient to allow hagalah because the coating on the pot is so thin that when you cook in the pot, whatever ta’am is absorbed in the coating will always be batel (nullified).

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