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A lot of people have a custom of boiling 3 eggs at a time, as mentioned here, among any other places.

One reason given for this practice is that if one egg turns out to be unkosher, the remaining two kosher eggs will be a majority against the prohibited taste, and they and the pot will remain kosher.

I do not understand this reasoning. If you boiled 3 eggs and cracked one open and found a neveila chicken inside, it is totally clear to me that everything would be prohibited. Kashrus 101: You need 60 parts kosher to nullify the 1 part unkosher! So what good does it do to have 3 eggs?

Is this practice really justifiable by that reason or not?

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  • Three eggs make up 100%. One egg is 33.3%and the other two add up to 66.6%. No? 2/3==10/15 > 9/15==60%
    – CHM
    Aug 8, 2012 at 3:31
  • @CHM - 60% != 1/60. You need 60 parts kosher to nullify the forbidden taste, i.e. 98.4%
    – Shaul Behr
    Aug 15, 2012 at 11:44
  • @Shauk ah Ok. Wondered.
    – CHM
    Aug 15, 2012 at 15:50

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There are two cases I can think of in which having a majority of eggs will help.

  1. If you mix up the eggs and don't remember which was the non-kosher one, you can have any of them if rov were kosher

  2. If the eggs got mixed up, but they all taste the same, then you only need a rov (51%) to permit the entire thing (Yoreh Deah 109:1).

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  • the second is probably the reason
    – ertert3terte
    Jul 31, 2012 at 21:09
  • That's talking about yavesh b'yavesh, where there's no taste transfer. Our case is where one part treif was cooked with 2 parts kosher. In which case you need 60:1 to nullify the taste. Yoreh Deah 109:2 - thanks for the link!
    – Shaul Behr
    Jul 31, 2012 at 21:35
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    @Shaul ba clarified that they all have the same taste. (I can't vouch for the metziut.) Also, are you sure taste transfers through an eggshell?
    – Double AA ♦
    Jul 31, 2012 at 22:03
  • @DoubleAA - have you ever had a chullent with whole eggs in it? The eggs fully absorb the meat taste. So yes, eggshells are porous.
    – Shaul Behr
    Aug 1, 2012 at 9:48
  • @DoubleAA - Regarding them all having the same taste, that's exactly the case that YD 109:2 is dealing with, where you have min b'mino, i.e. the same taste, and you still require 60:1 to nullify the issur.
    – Shaul Behr
    Aug 1, 2012 at 9:51

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