Question:
- Does one need to toivel a sous vide machine? It does not touch the food, but rather just a means of cooking.
and also, could one leave it on through shabbos? - If you put it in the pot with the meat, and just left it until the seudah leil shabbos, would that be fine?
Answer:
- The sous vide immerser does not need tevilah, because it does not come in contact with food, and it is meant to merely be a heating element.
- There are essentially to issues with leaving it to cook into shabbos, shehiya- the prohibition to leave food on an uncovered flame, and hatmana- the prohibition against insulating foods, ( on shabbos and if it is in a heat sources even from before shabbos). If the meat will be a third of the way coked before shabbos, then it would not be an issue for Ashkenazim, however for Sefardim it would have to be full cooked, (or cooked to the degree that you would serve it that way to your guest). Therefore shehiya may or may not be an issue.
The main issue though would be hatmana, because the bag is immersed inside the pot of hot water. Therefore it should be removed from the pot before shabbos, and warmed up on the blech, and not kept inside the bag to keep on cooking.
Best Wishes
Sources:
- R’ Y. Belski zt”l, and numerous contemporary poskim, including R’ S. Felder, R’ Forchheimer, R’ Y. Cahen shlit”a.
- O:CH 253-1, 258-1, M:B 258-2, R’ Osher Weiss shlit”a Ohr Hashabbos 28 pg. 21-23.
I thought hatmana should not be an issue, as I thought I recalled learning that if the food is being immersed to cook, oppose to merely keeping it warm, then it Is not called hatmana. Thus, being that the food in the plastic bag is immersed to finish the cooking of the item, I thought it would be permissble.
Is this logic flawed.?
There are a number of heteirim to hatmana, but if the food indeed is insulated in a way that it is not permitted, then it would not matter what the intention is, if it is to actually cook the food or just to warm it up. There is a heter the food doesn’t insulate food, but if that heter wouldn’t apply, even if it is for cooking it would not be allowed.
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