Cooking on Shabbos: Practical Applications - part 1
A well-known halachic principle states that once a food has been cooked it cannot halachically become “cooked” again, since you cannot cook the same food twice. But can you roast or bake a food after it has been cooked? Can you cook a food after it has been roasted or baked? What about liquid foods which have cooled off; is reheating them a violation of Cooking? These and other questions will be examined in the following Discussion.
In order to simplify a very complicated—but very relevant—halachic problem, we will attempt to list various cases which arise on Shabbos both at the table and in the kitchen. The reader should be aware that even the slightest change from the exact case described below can change the halachah. In several instances, there is only a hair’s-breadth difference between a permissible act and a Biblically prohibited one.
Some general definitions:
All temperatures are Fahrenheit.
Cold—below 60-70°F
Warm—between 70-80°F to 110°F
Hot (yad soledes bo)—over 110°F1
Scalding (yad nichvies bo)—above 140-160°F2
Boiling—212°F
Cooked—completely cooked, ready to eat.
Kli rishon—a pot that is or was on the fire or any other heat source. Kli sheini is a plate or a cup on or in which the food is placed after being removed from the kli rishon. If a spoon was used to transfer the food from the kli rishon, then the spoon is a kli sheini and the plate or cup is a kli shelishi.
Dry food item—any food item which contains virtually no pourable liquid, e.g., bread, meat, pasta.
Liquid food item—e.g. water, soup, sauce, gravy.
Davar gush—a hot, bulky food item, e.g., a piece of meat, potato or noodle kugel. A davar gush retains its heat even after it was placed in a kli sheini or shelishi. We are careful, therefore, not to allow a davar gush to come in contact with other uncooked foods.
Question: What is permitted to do when eating hot soup or drinking hot tea on Shabbos? What should be avoided?
Discussion: Our Discussion is based on the assumption that the soup was poured in the bowl via a ladle or a spoon, which will make the soup in the bowl a kli shelishi3. Tea, however, is often drunk from a kli sheini. The following halachos apply:
It is permitted to pour lemon juice—which is generally cooked during processing4—into a cup of hot tea.5 But it is forbidden to place a slice of lemon into a cup of hot tea.6
It is permitted to add sugar to the tea, or salt [or any other previously cooked spice] to the soup.7
It is permitted to add soup croutons or cooked noodles to a bowl of hot soup.8 [Cooked noodles may even be added directly into the pot of soup, if the pot is removed from its heat source.9]
It is permitted to place an ice cube or cold water into a cup of hot tea or a bowl of hot soup.10 If, however, the tea (which is in a kli sheini) is scalding, some poskim prohibit doing so11 and it should be avoided.12
It is permitted to dip challah into hot soup,13 but it is forbidden to dip a piece of cake or a cookie into hot tea or coffee.14
1. Contemporary poskim debate the exact temperature for yad soledes bo. It is generally accepted that 110 degrees is the minimum temperature which must be considered yad soledes bo. When yad soledes bo is used for a leniency (i.e., when an item is to be considered cooked so that it may be reheated on Shabbos), 160 degrees is required; Igros Moshe, O.C. 4:74-3.
2. The exact temperature is undetermined. Simply put, it is hot enough that one cannot touch it with his hand or finger without getting burned immediately; Yad Yehudah, Y.D. 105:9.
3. The assumption is based on the following: The halachic status of a ladle is a matter of dispute. Some consider it a kli rishon, especially if it was left in the pot for more than just a short while, while others consider it a kli sheini. The poskim agree that concerning bishul min ha-Torah we are stringent and consider a ladle a kli rishon, while in regard to bishul miderabanan [and bishul l’chumrah] we may be lenient and consider a ladle as a kli sheini; see Shemiras Shabbos Kehilchasah 1:54 and 1:68. Since our Discussion here concerning soup does not discuss bishul min ha-Torah, we assume that the soup which was ladled into the bowl is in a kli shlishi.
4. According to some poskim, even uncooked lemon juice is permitted in a hot kli sheini; based on Shulchan Aruch ha-Rav 318:12.
5. Rav S.Z. Auerbach (Shemiras Shabbos Kehilchasah 1, note 172), since it is permitted to reheat cold liquids in a kli sheini.
6. Consensus of several poskim (Igros Moshe, O.C. 4:74-18); Rav S.Z. Auerbach (Shemiras Shabbos Kehilchasah 1, note 172); Rav Y.S. Elyashiv, (Me’or ha-Shabbos , vol. 1, pg. 221) unlike Chazon Ish (O.C. 52:19) who tends to be lenient as long as the water is not scalding.
7. Mishnah Berurah 318:71.
8. Many croutons are deep-fried, which is halachically considered as cooked and may be re-cooked. But this is permitted even for croutons which are baked, since we view the soup bowl as a kli shelishi.
9. Since it is permitted to re-cook dry items even in a kli rishon once it is removed from the fire.
10. Since water does not become cooked in a kli shelishi even when it is scalding hot; Igros Moshe. O.C. 4-74, bishul 4.
11. Chayei Adam, quoted by Mishnah Berurah 318:48.
12. See Chazon Ish, O.C. 52:19; Igros Moshe, O.C. 4:74-4; Minchas Shlomo 2:34-22.
13. Mishnah Berurah 318:47, since it is permitted to cook a baked item in a kli shelishi. Even if the challah is eaten with a davar gush it is permitted, since the davar gush can only “bake” the challah, which is permitted.
14. Rama, O.C. 318:5, since it is prohibited to cook a baked item in a kli sheini.