Listen "Shabbos Treasures 28: Returning Food to the Heat Source"
Episode Synopsis
Question 1) is it OK to put a tray of cold roast chicken on the blech to reheat it?
Question 2) Is there a way to return a hot cholent pot back into a crockpot after you serve from the pot?
Question 3) Is it OK to take pot from fire and put on hotplate?
It is prohibited to return any food even if fully cooked directly onto the heat source, ie the "blech" during the course of shabbos.
So, this prohibition even applies to foods that one is otherwise permitted to reheat, eg you can reheat a cold tray of roast chicken if placed near to the blech, but you can't place it on the blech to warm up.
The reason it's forbidden to return food to the fire is it has the outward appearance of cooking and could lead people to think that cooking is allowed.
There are 4 conditions under which it's permitted to return a cooked food to the fire:
1) it must be fully cooked.
2) it must be the intention to return it.
3) it must be held the entire time even if held on a surface, eg a table.
4) it must be returned to a properly covered flame.
In the case of a mistake, as long as the food is fully cooked and returned to the blech, ie conditions 1 and 4.
You could transfer a pot from an oven to blech but not the other way round.
You couldn't transfer a pot from the blech to the hotplate as transferring is like returning. The only way to do this acceptably would be to put the pot on the hotplate with a sheet of foil or another blech would cover the hotplate.
There are 2 ways without the 4 conditions to permissibly warm food:
1) to place food near to the blech, even if the food to get properly hot.
2) to place food on a pot that's on the fire already or even to put down an empty pot on the fire. Eg if you want to heat up a cold kugel put it on top of an upside down tray. Now it lacks the appearance of cooking.
How does one return a crockpot to its cylinder?
On the surface this would be an issue of returning. The way to allow this is to cover the interior of the cylinder with aluminium foil. Then you would have to know its fully cooked, have the intention to return it and hold it whilst serving from it.
Question 2) Is there a way to return a hot cholent pot back into a crockpot after you serve from the pot?
Question 3) Is it OK to take pot from fire and put on hotplate?
It is prohibited to return any food even if fully cooked directly onto the heat source, ie the "blech" during the course of shabbos.
So, this prohibition even applies to foods that one is otherwise permitted to reheat, eg you can reheat a cold tray of roast chicken if placed near to the blech, but you can't place it on the blech to warm up.
The reason it's forbidden to return food to the fire is it has the outward appearance of cooking and could lead people to think that cooking is allowed.
There are 4 conditions under which it's permitted to return a cooked food to the fire:
1) it must be fully cooked.
2) it must be the intention to return it.
3) it must be held the entire time even if held on a surface, eg a table.
4) it must be returned to a properly covered flame.
In the case of a mistake, as long as the food is fully cooked and returned to the blech, ie conditions 1 and 4.
You could transfer a pot from an oven to blech but not the other way round.
You couldn't transfer a pot from the blech to the hotplate as transferring is like returning. The only way to do this acceptably would be to put the pot on the hotplate with a sheet of foil or another blech would cover the hotplate.
There are 2 ways without the 4 conditions to permissibly warm food:
1) to place food near to the blech, even if the food to get properly hot.
2) to place food on a pot that's on the fire already or even to put down an empty pot on the fire. Eg if you want to heat up a cold kugel put it on top of an upside down tray. Now it lacks the appearance of cooking.
How does one return a crockpot to its cylinder?
On the surface this would be an issue of returning. The way to allow this is to cover the interior of the cylinder with aluminium foil. Then you would have to know its fully cooked, have the intention to return it and hold it whilst serving from it.
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