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msh210
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Shalom
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How can I avoid Bishul Akum with a rice-cooker?

ASSUMING:

  • I have a rice cooker here that's absolutely, certainly, never used for anything other than plain rice. The rice contains no flavorings, bugs, or anything else non-kosher.
  • Rice is raw inedible and needs cooking.
  • The way a rice cooker cooks rice was included on the Talmudic ban
  • Rice is its own food and not secondary or a condiment
  • Rice is a significant enough food that a head-of-state would eat it (Chazon Ish), or that it would be served at a state dinner (most American poskim).

THEN:

This 100% kosher-ingredient rice would be non-kosher if made entirely by non-Jews, because of Bishul Akum.

The solution would be to get the Jew involved in the cooking. Which of these actions (or combination of actions) would be considered enough involvement?

  1. Adding rice or water to the pot initially
  2. Mixing the rice/water before starting the cooking
  3. Adding salt (okay assume plain salt is kosher) to the pot intially
  4. Placing the pot into the rice cooker
  5. Plugging in the rice cooker
  6. Turning it on (I assume we'd all agree that step works?)
  7. Fluffing the rice mid-cooking or post-cooking
  8. Other?

Thoughts?