Kashering a Pan of Unknown Status

Q. I no longer recall whether a frying pan is milchigs or fleishigs. I would like to kasher it and designate it as fleishigs. How should this be done?

A. Ordinarily, the minhag is not to permit kashering a vessel from meat to dairy or dairy to meat, because the person may become confused and not remember the dairy or meat status. However, in this case, it is allowed, since the pan might really be fleishig (See Rebbi Akiva Eiger in his commentary to Nida 27a). Although the Shulchan Aruch (YD 121:4) writes that a non-kosher frying pan requires libun, the Shulchan Aruch rules that a chametz frying pan may be kashered for Pesach with hagalah (immersing in boiling water) or libun kal. Poskim explain that we are more lenient with chametz because at the time when you are kashering the pan, the chametz is not yet prohibited. Shach (YD 121:8) writes that the same applies when kashering a kosher pan that had been used with milchigs. Even though it was used with dry dairy foods directly on the fire, it may be kashered with hagalah.

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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.