By keeping kosher, you are following the Torah, leading a Jewish lifestyle, identifying yourself with the Jewish People, and carrying the Jewish legacy to another generation. Find step-by-step instructions on how to make your kitchen kosher.
Difficulty: Hard
Time Required: 1-3 days
Here's How:
- Oven: Put oven through full self-cleaning cycle. Consult rabbi if oven is not self-cleaning.
- Stove Top: Dissemble parts. Thoroughly clean surface and parts with steel wool, soap and water. Reassemble. Ignite fire to high for a few minutes.
- Microwave: Clean thoroughly. Put glass with a few ounces of water inside. Turn microwave on high to boil water. Let water vaporize into steam.
- Metal Sink: Boil water, and immediately pour onto every inch of the sink. Porcelain sinks can not be made kosher.
- Nonporous Counter: Boil water, and immediately pour onto every inch of the counter. Consult rabbi if counter is made of porous material.
- Refrigerator: Thoroughly clean with soap and water.
- Metal pots and pans: Clean thoroughly. Wait 24 hours. Immerse each piece into a vat of boiling water. Each part being immersed must be completely surrounded by water. Remove with tongs, and rinse in tap water.
- Frying and baking pots and pans: Glow with blow torch or in a self-cleaning oven (on full cycle). Given the difficulty of kashering these pieces, replacement with new pieces is recommended.
- Silverware (made of one piece of metal): Clean thoroughly. Wait 24 hours. Drop each piece, one at a time, into a vat of boiling water. Remove with tongs, and rinse in tap water. Plastic and wood utensils can not be made kosher.
- Dishes: To kasher china, earthenware, porcelain, corningware, corrella, pyrex, duralex enamel, and glazed stoneware, put in a self-cleaning oven for a full cycle or replace with new dishes.
- Dishes: Valuable porcelain dishes which have not been used for one year may be kashered, with a rabbi's permission, by dipping in boiling water 3 times.
- Dishes: Glassware used for cold, or for tea and coffee, may be kashered by soaking in room temperature water for 72 hours, changing the water every 24 hours.
Tips:
- Consult a rabbi. Rabbis will be supportive and helpful.
- Be organized, methodical, and patient. Trying to do everything at once and quickly will be overwhelming.
- Focus on meaning. The work should be spiritually uplifting rather than physically exhausting.