Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Pesach Countdown--6 Days to Go

Suggestion of the Day: Double check the rules you follow for kashering sinks and stoves. Some hold that a sink must not be used for 24-hours before it can be kashered. Then there is having to self-clean an oven twice before it is considered kashered. Self-clean an oven twice in one day and you are taking a chance that you are going to need a repair person out. All the manufacturers advise against doing this. Whatever procedure you follow, schedule your week so that you can follow it.

7 comments:

Orthonomics said...

Self-clean twice? What are you referring to? I've never heard this to be standard procedure, but I do believe each to his own.

JS said...

Never heard of self-cleaning twice. I can't even imagine what this would accomplish. If your oven isn't clean after a self-clean cycle, the oven is likely broken and is not reaching the appropriate temperature.

This kinda stuff reminds me of the old story about the mother who would cut off both ends of the brisket. Her daughter asked her why she did that and the mother responded that that's the way her grandmother did it and the way her mother did it, it was tradition. The little girl asked her great grandmother about it who responded, "Back in Europe the ovens were smaller. Because the ovens were smaller the pans were smaller. Because the pans were smaller the brisket wouldn't fit in the pan. So, what could I do? I cut off the ends!"

To each their own is fine, except for the fact that every few years it seems to become "accepted practice" to do this kind of mishugas. Kashering a kitchen for Pesach is really a rather simple endeavor, it's this chumra on top of chumra on top of chumra nonsense that makes it a nightmare.

abba's rantings said...

PROFK:

self-cleaning? sorry, but in my book you just lost your status as the the pesach clean queen!

Miami Al said...

This year, self cleaning only burnt one of our ovens out. And we were told by the repair man to go with the minimum time on it.

Running it twice?

Care to offer a prayer to Allah and send $500 to Saudi Arabia's Islamic outreach fund as part of Pesach prep as well?

ProfK said...

Okay people, will say this just once: everyone--read EVERYONE--has their own way of doing things, a whole lot of them based on what their LOR--local orthodox rabbi--has told them to do. And then there are those who follow the advice given in the kashrut for Pesach booklets. Yes, I know people who self clean their ovens twice based on answers they were given--once empty, cool down and wipe out the white ash that may accumulate in the oven, and once with the burner grates and with the racks inside. Never said I do it this way. For one thing, my grates cannot go into the selfclean. And as I understand it it also depends on just how dirty the oven is before you self clean it

A lot of this also depends on the age of your self cleaning stove and the material that the periferals are made out of--some really cannot be self cleaned unless you don't mind replacing those items every year.

Let me rephrase this so people won't get so jumpy--today is a good day to self clean your oven if you haven't already done so--your choice as to how.

Lion,
Before we got a self cleaning oven my hubby used to regularly torch the oven and I used to regularly pray that the oven would stay in one piece while he was doing it. As far as I'm concerned, the invention and proliferation of self cleaning ovens was a gift sent from God to the women of klal--those women who are actually the ones responsible for Pesach being ushered in in almost all frum homes. Yes, there are some men who help their wives, but those men who single handedly make Pesach are few and far between--probably urban legend. So yes, a self cleaning oven, and I and a whole bunch of other clean freaks kiss the ground those ovens sit on. Would it help to regain my "title" if I admit that the stove top has to be done by hand and so does the inside window of the door and the base portion around the door?

Miami Al said...

If your oven is so dirty that you need to self clean it twice for Pesach, I will not eat in your home.

Not out of Kashrut concerns, but Pikuach Nefesh concerns.

Anyone concerned with the white ash being Chometz should learn a little Halacha. The methodology of Kashering an oven hasn't changed ovens were hearths/pots on a fire. You heat it up to it's hottest point and burn everything off.

abba's rantings said...

PROFK:

"men who single handedly make Pesach are few and far between--probably urban legend."

ahem.

but i admit that most years i simply closed up the oven for the the chag. then one year my wife insisted we needed it (not sure what for, since we don't own even one pesach pot, cooking utensils, etc.). i burned my arms using the easy off and ended up taking off the inside of the oven apart because i was paranoid that i couldn't get all the easy off out of the corners and crevices. since then i've begged her not to make me clean it again.

"Would it help to regain my "title" if I admit that the stove top has to be done by hand and so does the inside window of the door and the base portion around the door?"

i think i'll have to wait until the next installment before i consider reinstating the title :)

AL:

"Not out of Kashrut concerns, but Pikuach Nefesh concerns"

LOL!
(but seriosly, shouldn't 30 minutes at 450 should kill bacteria anyway?)