Hot Fish on a Clean Fleishig Plate

I mistakenly placed a hot piece of fish, straight out of the oven, on a clean, fleishig plate that was used for meat in the past 24 hours. I had in mind to prepare this fish with a butter-based sauce. May I still do that?

(A subscriber’s question)

Yes (Rama, Y.D. 95:2). This scenario illustrates an important principle often at play in a kosher kitchen. Chazal stated that if the ta’am, the taste (or flavor) of meat is absorbed into a plate, and then that absorption is transferred a second time into something that is pareve, such as fish, the original presence of meat is so faint that it can no longer participate in creating a prohibited mixture of milk and meat (Taz, ibid:1). Therefore the fish can be eaten with dairy.

This concept is referred to as nosein ta’am bar nosein ta’am (nat bar nat) which refers to the second transfer of either absorbed meat or dairy.

We avoid generating this chain of events l’chatchila however, and therefore, as you point out, you should not have put the fish on the fleishig plate in the first place (Shach, ibid:3).

The factors involved in employing this principle are numerous and one should speak to one’s rav for clarification. For example, a pareve food that was cooked in a fleishig pot affords less flexibility than a case of hot fish placed on a plate. For how cooking relates to the principle of nosein ta’am bar nosein ta’am – see the next Halacha Yomis.

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.