QUESTION: I roasted onions and garlic in an oven at the same time as I was roasting meat. The onions and garlic were subsequently mixed with dairy. May the food containing the onions and garlic be eaten, or should it be thrown away?

ANSWER: In general, the halacha follows the lenient opinion in Pesachim (76b) that reicha lav milsa (aroma is not significant). Bedi’eved (after the fact), if the aroma of a non-kosher food was absorbed into a kosher food, the kosher food may still be eaten. However, Shulchan Aruch (YD 108:1) points out that there are exceptions to this rule in which we are strict.

One exception regards spicy foods. Aroma which is absorbed into spicy foods is considered significant (reicha milsa). The assumption is that spicy foods will absorb a higher level of flavor from the meat. Therefore, if meat was roasted in proximity to onions and garlic, the full flavor of the meat will get absorbed into the onions and garlic and they will become fleishig. It is therefore forbidden to eat them with milk and even bedi’eved if they were mixed with dairy, the mixture will need to be thrown away. Although a previous Halacha Yomis noted that if one has no other bread available, according to the Rema one may serve bread that absorbed the aroma of meat together with milk, this leniency does not apply to spicy foods such as garlic and onions.

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The Gerald & Karin Feldhamer OU Kosher Halacha Yomis is dedicated to the memory of Rav Yisroel Belsky, zt"l, who served as halachic consultant for OU Kosher for more than 28 years; many of the responses in Halacha Yomis are based on the rulings of Rabbi Belsky. Subscribe to the Halacha Yomis daily email here.