Assorted Kashrus questions

Question:

I have a few questions that I was hoping you could clarify:
1) If a 10-ish year-old child can take a plate/bowl out of the microwave and bring it to the table without the help of a towel/something else, can I say that the plate and food are not yad soledes bo? This is very relevant because then they’ll accidentally put it down on the wrong surface, use the wrong ketchup, etc..
2) My kitchen is set up like many kosher kitchens- two sinks side by side with a couple of inches of counter and a small barrier in between. I have cabinets above the sinks and counters. Anway, I used to hang my oven mitts/towels from a cabinet on the fleishig side, 2 or 3 cabinets over from the dairy side. A while ago I realized that this might be a problem because when I drain something into the dairy sink (like cheese ravioli), the oven mitts are in the path of the dissipating steam. However, my understanding is that there would only be an issue if the oven mitts got wet. Since I used to do this and I no longer do, can I just assume that if the cabinets don’t get wet, the oven mitts most likely didn’t get wet? And if not, is there something I should do?
3) A concept I don’t understand so well is how liquid can transfer taste after 24 hours. When I learned this, I thought it meant something that is soaked in the liquid for 24 hours- for example, a bottle with milk inside for 24 hours, or a spoon soaking in a cup of milk, would become milchig. However, let’s say a couple of drops of milk sat on a fleishig spoon for more than 24 hours- would that spoon now be treif? Or if 2 keilim are merely touching with water in between them for more than 24 hours- ex: a treif cutting board on top of a dairy plate with water in between- would there be a transfer of taste? Or what about a dairy spoon that was found at the bottom of a wet, fleishig sink with no signs of meaty gravy and sat there for more than 24 hours?

3 questions from my personal home in regards to this: a) A couple of years ago one of my kids spilled chicken soup down the dairy sink that was full of dairy dishes. I left the dishes in the sink until we got a psak from a Rav that I just need to wash the dishes off well. I’m pretty sure it was somewhat less than 24 hours when I got the psak, but I have this chashash that maybe it was just about 24 hours. Is there anything I need to do? I read in a kashrus book that there is an opinion that this halacha applies only to food- is that something that I can rely upon here?
b) My challa basket that is usually only used at fleishig meals was recently left on the table during a diary meal when my kids were eating cheese toasts. I don’t know 100%, but I got a bit nervous that maybe some cheese toast landed in the basket. Since it’s made of cheap plastic and I wanted to get myself a new one anyway, I was just going to toss it out, but in the meantime, it ended up in my wet fleishig sink with fleishig dishes and sat there for more than 24 hours. Could this potentially cause any problems? Like, if there were tiny bits of cheese toast in the basket that got wet- could they transfer taste?
c) ketchup- I recently had a few half-open bottles of ketchup in my fridge. One of them most likely got a bit dirty by the squirty part of the top with fleishig grease that was on someone’s fingers. In retrospect, this wasn’t the smartest thing to do, but I tried hiding it in the back of the fridge to save it for a fleishig meal, but

I have a concern that one of my kids might have used it on a dairy plate, though I don’t know for sure as there were a few ketchups in my fridge. Anyway, then that plate sat in the wet dairy sink for much more than 24 hours with other dishes.  Any concerns there?
Thank you.
Answer:

Hi,

In order to keep track of the answer to each of your questions, I will copy the question in the answer:

• If a 10-ish year-old child can take a plate/bowl out of the microwave and bring it to the table without the help of a towel/something else, can I say that the plate and food are not yad soledes bo? This is very relevant because then they’ll accidentally put it down on the wrong surface, use the wrong ketchup, etc.

Answer: Interesting question. Being able to take the plate of bowl out of the microwave, does not say how hot the food actually is, because they heat up at a different pace. We would have to deal with each mishap for itself.

• My kitchen is set up like many kosher kitchens- two sinks side by side with a couple of inches of counter and a small barrier in between. I have cabinets above the sinks and counters. Anway, I used to hang my oven mitts/towels from a cabinet on the fleishig side, 2 or 3 cabinets over from the dairy side. A while ago I realized that this might be a problem because when I drain something into the dairy sink (like cheese ravioli), the oven mitts are in the path of the dissipating steam. However, my understanding is that there would only be an issue if the oven mitts got wet. Since I used to do this and I no longer do, can I just assume that if the cabinets don’t get wet, the oven mitts most likely didn’t get wet? And if not, is there something I should do?

Answer: It is hard to imagine that the steam is hot and concentrated enough when it is so far away. It is safe for you to assume that there is no significant steam there, and it is fine. But if you want, you can take a pot of pareve hot water and test it out.

• A concept I don’t understand so well is how liquid can transfer taste after 24 hours. When I learned this, I thought it meant something that is soaked in the liquid for 24 hours- for example, a bottle with milk inside for 24 hours, or a spoon soaking in a cup of milk, would become milchig. However, let’s say a couple of drops of milk sat on a fleishig spoon for more than 24 hours- would that spoon now be treif? Or if 2 keilim are merely touching with water in between them for more than 24 hours- ex: a treif cutting board on top of a dairy plate with water in between- would there be a transfer of taste? Or what about a dairy spoon that was found at the bottom of a wet, fleishig sink with no signs of meaty gravy and sat there for more than 24 hours? Answer: The basic halacha is the way you are writing it, that something soaked in a cold liquid will absorb its taste after 24 hours. However, regarding the cases that you wrote there are other factors here. If a couple of drops of milk actually sat inside a fleishig spoon for 24 hours, it would need to be koshered. Regarding the cutting board, if you have a kosher home, it is quite rare that the cutting board would actually be trief, unless you cut hot meat and then hot pizza on it. Otherwise, I would need to know why you are assuming that it is trief. Regarding the dairy spoon at the bottom of the fleishig sink, and there isn’t any real fleishigs there, if the spoon didn’t have milk inside it, then it isn’t a problem, because both utensils were not a ben yomo, and they can’t make something else trief. Otherwise, I would have to know the specifics, to answer you.

3 questions from my personal home in regards to this: a) A couple of years ago one of my kids spilled chicken soup down the dairy sink that was full of dairy dishes. I left the dishes in the sink until we got a psak from a Rav that I just need to wash the dishes off well. I’m pretty sure it was somewhat less than 24 hours when I got the psak, but I have this chashash that maybe it was just about 24 hours. Is there anything I need to do? I read in a kashrus book that there is an opinion that this halacha applies only to food- is that something that I can rely upon here?

Answer: It is a long time since this happened, and at that time, you weren’t afraid that it was more than 24 hours, as you were pretty sure that it was less.  You do not have to be afraid, of what you did then, and you can assume that everything was done correctly.

1. b) My challah basket that is usually only used at fleishig meals was recently left on the table during a dairy meal when my kids were eating cheese toasts. I don’t know 100%, but I got a bit nervous that maybe some cheese toast landed in the basket. Since it’s made of cheap plastic and I wanted to get myself a new one anyway, I was just going to toss it out, but in the meantime, it ended up in my wet fleishig sink with fleishig dishes and sat there for more than 24 hours. Could this potentially cause any problems? Like, if there were tiny bits of cheese toast in the basket that got wet- could they transfer taste?

Answer: This is nothing but nerves. Don’t get yourself another one, because then you are only feeding your nerves, which is not healthy. The bread basket, is not essentially milchig not fleishig, and even if something landed on it, it will not make it fleishig nor milchig, and it would not need anything more than to just wipe it off. Therefore, you have nothing to worry about.

1. c) ketchup- I recently had a few half-open bottles of ketchup in my fridge. One of them most likely got a bit dirty by the squirty part of the top with fleishig grease that was on someone’s fingers. In retrospect, this wasn’t the smartest thing to do, but I tried hiding it in the back of the fridge to save it for a fleishig meal, but I have a concern that one of my kids might have used it on a dairy plate, though I don’t know for sure as there were a few ketchups in my fridge. Anyway, then that plate sat in the wet dairy sink for much more than 24 hours with other dishes.  Any concerns there?
   Answer: There is no concern here at all. First of all, the whole thing is based on a “might”, which will not make anything problematic. Secondly, even if the ketchup bottle got a little bit of grease on the outside, it will not make the ketchup in the bottle fleishig to the degree that it could make anything trief. It is a good thing to keep separate ketchups, but in retrospect the actual ketchup in the bottle is not fleishig or milchig, because someone might have touched it with dirty hands.

Best wishes