Wrapping Serving Dishes
QUESTION: I poured hot cholent into a serving bowl. There was a delay in the meal, and I am concerned the cholent will cool down. May I wrap the serving bowl with towels to prevent it from cooling down?
ANSWER: Shulchan Aruch (OC 257:5) writes that if food was transferred from the pot in which it was cooked to a second pot (kli sheini), it is permissible to wrap up the second pot. Since an action was done to cool down the food (i.e., it was transferred into a cold pot), the concern of hatmana (that one might be surprised to find that their food has cooled and place it back on the fire) no longer applies. While it is clear in Shulchan Aruch that this halacha (that there is no hatmana on a kli sheini) applies to a liquid that was poured into a second pot, the question is whether this halacha applies as well to a davar gush (solid food) such as a bowl of cholent. Many poskim rule that a davar gush retains the status of a kli rishon even when transferred to a second pot. If so, does this mean that one may not wrap up the serving bowl? Rav Nissim Karelitz zt”l (Chut Shani 2:28:6) writes that one may wrap up the serving bowl. He explains that even though the food retains the status of a kli rishon, hatmana does not apply because the transfer of cholent is an action which cools down the food.
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