
An unintended side effect of kosher law: better tasting food - sergeant3
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/17/opinion/sunday/why-is-this-matzo-different-from-all-other-matzos.html
======
erelde
Though, not Jew myself, I've been a to private jewish school for two years.

I want to say: all kosher food does is restrict consumer choice to products
sanctioned by a small religious mafia perceiving a tax on every products they
"authorize".

You could conceivably have the quality of products the author describes in
products not sanctioned by religious mafiosos.

And the whole "holier than thou" some of the orthodox (of every religions)
have is very tiring.

~~~
jeffwass
So basically your comment is a "holier than thou" critique of Jewish Kashrut
laws, which concludes with you complaining about others having "holier than
thou" attitudes.

And ironically you've posted on a Friday evening when the religious amongst
the community you're criticising are not available to provide counterpoint.

~~~
jeffwass
So after four years of comments on Hacker News I've finally posted my first
negative-voted comment.

Am I right in interpreting this to mean it's perfectly acceptable for the
grandparent to write something insulting by saying : "all kosher food does is
restrict consumer choice to products sanctioned by a small religious mafia
perceiving a tax on every products they "authorize"."

But pointing out the inherent hypocrisy in the grandparents post as per my
comment above is out-of-bounds?

Edit - my first post was rated at -3 when I wrote his second comment. But was
up voted to -1 by the time I hit Submit.

------
dd9990
Unfortunately some religious rules require inflicting extreme and unnecessary
suffering on animals in the way they are killed. Interestingly some abattoirs
have created loopholes to these religious laws (to comply with the food
production laws, but maintain religious certification) by having the machines
that stun and kill the animals in the normal humane way "blessed" and prayers
said.

~~~
golergka
I assume you're not speaking about judaism right now — because the point of
kosher slaughter is exactly in avoiding unnecessary suffering and rendering
the animal unconscious instantly.

------
propter_hoc
Shmura matza is charred, chewy and robust in flavor - compared with soda-
cracker-like machine-made matza, it is really more like an artisanal, organic
whole wheat bread.

I don't think that strictly kosher food generally tastes any better than non-
kosher food, but in this instance the traditional hand-rolled product is
really way better.

------
anateus
This 100% doesn't affect most food. I grew up in Israel, where things being
Kosher is the norm rather than the exception. Although the central Rabbinate
covers most kosher foods, the more orthodox will often defer to the authority
of particular rabbis and buy from a smaller set of products than all of what
is nominally kosher. In my experience, they often tended towards the lower
quality end of the spectrum.

When you're dealing with a product that has only a few ingredients like
matzah, any increase in attention will have a positive overall effect. In more
complex processed foods, when your emphasis is on meeting various kashrut
guidelines the flavor of the food becomes secondary. Not only that, you know
that you have a captive market.

So, this is a fun story, but should really have

    
    
        s/food/matzah/
    

Applied to the headline.

------
GFK_of_xmaspast
The take-away I'm getting from this article is that the trick is actually
caring about growing and processing the food instead of just doing whatever
half-assed thing is cheapest and easiest.

------
hackaflocka
Does this fallacy have a name?

How can they presume that there wouldn't have been better tasting food without
the kosher law?

~~~
masterzora
I've heard a few before: "hypothesis contrary to fact", "what if" fallacy, and
"counterfactual fallacy". None of the names are really great and none of them
seem to be particularly common but I've never seen any better names for it or
any used more commonly.

------
Frozenlock
If I remember correctly, food can't be kosher if prepared by gentiles (non-
jews).

Could someone with proper knowledge confirm this?

~~~
joshrotenberg
Everything you want to know and more:
[http://www.jewfaq.org/kashrut.htm](http://www.jewfaq.org/kashrut.htm)

(We have our own FAQ!)

~~~
Frozenlock
Thanks!

So, it appears that whine can't be made by gentiles.

In addition, prepared food must also at least be made in part by a Jew.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bishul_Yisrael](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bishul_Yisrael)

Surely this clashes with anti-racism laws in some countries, doesn't it?
(Imagine food that couldn't be prepared by black people, or that would require
a white man somewhere in the preparation.) Is there some special alternate
rule for these cases?

------
jstewartmobile
I'm not Jewish, but going on a Kosher diet greatly improved my health and
discipline.

~~~
personjerry
I can understand discipline in the sense of having to follow a diet, but could
you elaborate how exactly it improved your health?

~~~
mjevans
My supposition is that it forced the OP to actually eat better quality, and
possibly also less portion size, food. It would also tend to reduce eating
overly complex foods as it would be more difficult to ensure that EACH
ingredient was kosher.

~~~
brianwawok
Chetohs and Oreos are Kosher. Not sure I suggest that diet.

~~~
Mz
Humorously, I am very picky about what I eat (for health reasons), I eat both
of those and did not know they were kosher.

I try to eat clean. I don't restrict myself to kosher foods, but I have found
kosher foids to generally be a good option.

~~~
brianwawok
I think the main thing is:

* Kosher meats are a lot of the time better than random factory farm meats. But not necessarily as good as the really expensive whole food stuff.

* Most big junk food makers get their stuff Kosher certified, to I guess not rule out any of their market. Not sure Kosher is adding much value here ;)

* Meat and dairy mixing may or may not matter to your health depending on what you read. If you find it matters, kosher can also help you on this side.

