Making coleslaw and potato salad on Shabbos

Question

All of the halachos in regards to lisha on Shabbos have always been difficult to understand. What do the poskim say in regards to making coleslaw (mixing together small pieces of cabbage and carrots together with mayonnaise and other ingredients) and potato salad (mixing together relatively bigger pieces of potato together with mayonnaise and other ingredients.) Seemingly the coleslaw (without making a shinui) would be a problem as by mixing in the mayonnaise it puts together the salad. However with the potato salad perhaps this would be muter (even without a shinui) since mixing together the potatoes with the mayonnaise doesn't actually stick them together like it does to the coleslaw or other mixtures. I'm looking for sources for this two questions with poskim that speak about them.

Answer 1

The definition of the melocha of losh is that multiple ingredients are converted into one entity (Shmiras Shabbos Kehilchosa 8:1 citing Mishna Berura 321:50). Therefore a mixture of bits or chunks of food that cling together with a liquid or oil is not included in losh, because the pieces do not appear to melt into a single mass, but rather are clumped together by the liquid medium which acts somewhat as a glue. Since the individual segments visibly retain their separate identities, they cannot be classified as a solid, unified mass (the "39 Melochos" book by Rabbi Dovid Ribiat Volume 2 pg. 547 based on Taz 321:15 and Mishna Berura S"K 68). Based on this, Shmiras Shabbos Kehilchoso (8:4) permits preparing potato salad on Shabbos, and the "39 Melochos" book (pg. 548) writes that coleslaw is also permitted. Although the cabbage strips stick pretty well they still remain individually identifiably and not one mass of salad.