Circa 1961, A company sent me to Israel for over a year to teach/organize a programming staff for a computer. When in a foreign country, I avoid hotels/motels which cater to American tourists. This resulted in some confusing entrees. I would order Roast Prime Ribs & Filet mignon would be served. I might order a London broil & be served sirloin steak. An investigation indicated that The language used by the chef only had only one word for meat from a cow or steer. The person who prepared the menu for English Speakers used a language dictionary. In that dictionary the chef’s word for cow meat had a large number of entries: Roast prime ribs, Salsbury Steak, London broil, et cetera. The person preparing the menu picked one of the terms, avoiding any term he had used recently.
Sounds strange. There are many cuts of beef that are intrinsically non-kosher (sirloin, round, porterhouse) so it is important ot know the difference.
Just copy this picture or have it ready whenever you travel to show what you want and from which part of the animal. Steer.... Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Cow....... Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Mathman: From your Post #2 I am an atheist goy, but fairly familiar with Kosher laws. I never knew that certain cuts of steak were non-Kosher. What is the criteria for the distinction among the various cuts?
It's not that the cuts of meat are non kosher, it's that the sciatic nerve and its adjoining blood vessels may not be eaten. Removing the nerve and blood vessels is time consuming, so it is usually not done, and the hindquarters are simply sold to non-kosher butchers.
Me too. How the animal is killed (One clean throat stroke with a very sharp knife) and that it is healthy I think is all that is required. My best friend in high school was the was the rabbi's son. I once had a high Jewish holiday dinner with them. The one where he was asked: "Why is this night different from all other nights? ..." I leaned how to put on "tifillen" binding my heart and mind to the will of god, but He was for me the Christian god. I was the gentile (called shickengle) for a month's fishing vaction in Canada - I prayed for terrible storms on Friday afternoon, because two boats with many fish caught would otherwise come home just before dark, and only I could clean them all. Friday night I had to shut any windows and turn off the lights - throwing a switch is "work" and that could not be done on the Sabbath by a very orthodox Jew. The rabbi had spent a few week ends learning how to kill a chicken so it would still be kosher. He bought them from a local Canadian farmer, whose wife's cleaning was normal part of the price but she used hot water to get the feathers out - that made the slightly cooked, still live, bird non-kosher. The farmer was incapable of understanding why the rabbi wanted the birds live and not getting all he paid for. When friend ate with us, he had his own utensils and his plate was covered with fresh Al foil as our plates had been used with both meat and milk meals. We always had some kosher food for him. They were very strictly kosher and I was almost "family" so think I know as much as any goyya can about kosher requirements and AFAIK, any part of the cow can be kosher. I even know the test for how much water must be used when washing your hands before eating, and few Jews know that. (That is an important thing if crossing a desert.)
The cuts of meat that are non kosher are those from the hindquarters. It is based on the story of Jacob wrestling with an angel. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob_wrestling_with_an_angel
Thanks, but I don't think that is universal, in US's kosher Jews. The problem would be with the limping as no injury, even slight, is allowed. Why the rabbi had to practice holding the chicken without slight injury to it, and still have one had free for quick cut of throat with sharp knife. I may well be wrong - just never noticed that any beef eaten was from the hind half of the steer.[/QUOTE]
From the reference: "Therefore to this day the people of Israel do not eat the sinew of the thigh that is on the hip socket, because he touched the socket of Jacob's hip on the sinew of the thigh." This got to mean don't eat meat from the hindquarters.