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If you have a steak medium to rare, such that it's still pink in the middle, is it kosher? At what point is meat cooked enough?

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One Kosher establishment I have been to refuses to serve their steaks well done for fear of overdoing it and losing money on the return. – YDK May 29 '11 at 18:28
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Welcome to Judaism.SE, and thanks very much for bringing your question here! Please consider registering your account so that the site can keep track of all of your contributions. – Isaac Moses May 29 '11 at 21:17
Can someone put into the question the reason why you would think that meat has to be "cooked" to be kosher? I enjoy kosher raw meat sometimes. – avi Dec 15 '11 at 11:59
@avi, I think that's the answer to the question. I think the question rests on the assumption that meat needs to be cooked somewhat to be Kosher, which is not correct. – Seth J Dec 15 '11 at 15:48
I also think the title asks a very different question than the body. The answer to the title is, "Yes, a rare steak is Kosher." The answer to the body is, "Your question is based on a faulty premise." – Seth J Dec 15 '11 at 15:50

4 Answers

up vote 20 down vote

I'm assuming you are talking about steak which has been processed under rabbinical supervision.

Presently, in th US, with the exception of liver, all meat is salted to remove problematic blood by the certifying agency before it hits the stores and restaurants. So meat which is edible does not have to be cooked "enough" and rare is fine.

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Ya, that's the way I like it. The law of eiver min hachai was put in the Torah for people who like meat the way I like it... :) – Shaul May 30 '11 at 6:48
@Shaul see the last sentence in this Mishna he.wikisource.org/wiki/… – David Perlman May 30 '11 at 9:31
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I have found unsalted meat in a kosher butcher shop. It was so unusual I made a point of buying it, and then soaking and salting it myself. But I'd agree that most meat sold kosher in America is soaked and salted in advance. – Ze'ev Felsen Jun 28 '11 at 14:37
@Ze'ev Felsen, that's strange. Did they have a private shochet? The hashgacha companies don't like to rely on us poshute yiddin and require that products are finished kosher. As a small boy, my family bought from local butcher shops and salted chickens themselves. I don't remember if meat was like that. – YDK Jun 28 '11 at 14:47
I really don't know. – Ze'ev Felsen Jun 28 '11 at 14:51
up vote 14 down vote

What Monica answered above, that it is 'meat juice'. To find out in much greater detail about this, see here:

  1. No matter what the source of the issur, the Ran asks: We clearly observe that blood continues to come out of meat even after the salting process is over. Indeed this blood is sometimes even redder than the blood that was originally expelled. Why do we permit this meat after the required time of salting, even though there blood still appears to be inside?

He gives two explanations :

A. The liquid which comes out of the meat after the period of salting is not blood but is called mohul (juice). The Gemora refers to it as chamra boser (the wine of the meat). In other words, although it may have the appearance of blood, it is not in reality blood that is ossur at all.

B. The issur of blood that comes out through the salting process is only forbidden Rabbinically, and the Rabbis limited their prohibition to blood that comes out of the meat during the period of salting . After that time, anything that comes out of the meat, although it may be blood, it is not within the Rabbinical enactment. Therefore it is blood of heter and not of issur.

This, based on the gemara in Chullin 113b.

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And actually, the pink color in a rare steak isn't even necessarily blood or meat juice anyway; it can simply be the natural color of the muscle tissue. – Alex May 29 '11 at 23:10
@Alex I was skeptical, but you win! cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/24208/why-is-meat-red – Double AA♦ Jun 7 '12 at 6:52
up vote 10 down vote

Chabad says that what's left in the meat after it's been kashered is juice, not blood, and ok. No sources cited, though I've heard this from a number of people (for what that's worth).

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indeed. see over here: diaspora.org.il/Jewish_Law/on-line/05-milica.htm – josh waxman May 29 '11 at 22:30
up vote 7 down vote

There are a lot of answers being presented, some decent and some, no offense guys, seriously lacking and/or confusing. What they all have in common, though, is that they all leave out (though YDK's mentions it somewhat vaguely) the fact that cooking has nothing to do with the Kashering process. Yes, we could get technical and discuss ways to roast meat in lieu of salting, etc., but the question is clearly based on the faulty premise, probably due to a misunderstanding, that meat needs to be cooked 'X' amount to be Kosher. It does not.

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