Signs of Bread

Yesterday in my travels through Boro Park I was struck by 2 different signs regarding bread. One was in a subs eatery. It said: "All bread is now Hamotzi." Well, the fact of the matter is that bread is alway Hamotzi by definition. That is why mezonos rolls and bagels are misnamed and lead astray the halachically ignorant. Another sign that surprised me was one in a takeout place that informed buyers that all the challahs sold there were baked in a meat oven. Now, among the halachos associated with bread is an edict to keep it parve. That is so no one should stumble by making a deli sandwich on dairy bread, for example. The meat bread is a more unusual situation, though I would imagine it should also not be considered permissible. The only way it is considered acceptable to have non-parve bread is if the bread is marked in some way. So butter croissant could be acceptable as they are distinctive in appearance and would not likely be mistaken for regular rolls. But if a challah just looks like a challah, I can't see how it is OK to make it anything but parve.

Comments

Josh M. said…
Is the halacha that bread must be baked in a pareve oven, or that it cannot be baked with milk (or, I suppose, fat) as an ingredient?
Ariella's blog said…
I believe it must be absolutely parve -- no restrictions on eating it together with either meat or dairy. You can see the OU article on allowing dairy English muffins here: http://www.oukosher.org/index.php/common/article/6259
Josh M. said…
The siman on the issur of kneading bread with milk in Yoreh Deah in the ShA seems to be makpid only on milk or fat either included in the recipe or cooked at the same time as the bread for fear of contact (despite the fact that one may still not be allowed to eat the bread with milk even if it's merely cooked in a clean fleishig oven - IIRC, my rebbe said that it's a machlokes.)
Orthonomics said…
I am under a different impression, that the ingredients must be parve but that bread can be baked in any oven since the ingredients are dry.

I understand that no kashrut agency would certify such, but I was not informed of any issue when I went to discuss our one oven situation.
Ariella's blog said…
If the oven is clean -- no gravy drips and that sort of thing in it, then the bread baked in it should not become fleishig. But for this place, they said that the challah was baked in fleishig oven, which sounds like they cannot vouch for the it to be really parve. Now, while one may be able to do that in one's own kitchen, it is surprising to find it in a place under kashruth certification.

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