Conference taveng::bagels

    Hmm, that must be why no one had CocaCola this year (I don't drink it
    anyhow, but other people like it...).  I saw both the walnut and
    grapeseed oil.  I don't know what grapeseed tastes like, so I bought
    olive oil (and peanut oil).  Walnut oil is good, but the Pesachdic
    variety of it was impressively expensive (so was the olive oil).
    
    /Charlotte

Reproduced without permission from THE LAWS OF PESACH DIGEST (5751-1991 edition)
by Rabbi Avrohom Blumenkrantz


Many frozen vegtable companies produce blends containing pasta, and blanch
them together.  The same equipment is used to prepare and blanch plain
vegtables. There are some companies who also produce breaded vegtables.  In
addition, companies may subcontract other producers and purchase processed
vegetables from another source.  All of this creates difficulties and the
potential error in verifying the status of any particular brand of frozen
vegtables for Passover. Therefore, the use of frozen vegtables on Pesach
becomes questionable. 

This year, the OU is endorsing the Pesach frozen vegtables under the brand
name SNOTOP which are distributed by Peltz Foods (Hunts Point).  They
include sliced carrots, cauliflower, collard greens, leaf spinach, chopped
spinach, yellow squash, zucchini squash.  We also have confirmation that
Inn label frozen vegtables (distributed by Inn Foods Inc.) are processed in
a plant which does not process any pasta and/or any grains of any type or
meat products of any type.  They include broccoli spears, cauliflower, leaf 
and chopped spinach, cholled collards, kale and turnips.  These are 
distributed from the Hunts Point Fruit and Vegtable Terminal by Peltz Foods 
and by Nick Penachio Co.  We also have confirmation that FineLine, Topmark, 
The Best brands of frozen vegtables are also permissible.  They are 
produced in Trappe, Maryland.  They are distributed by Paris Food 
Corporation.  Their letter states as follows:  "The (Troppe, Maryland) 
packing facility is dedicated exclusively to frozen vegtables and frozen 
fruit production.  We do not produce nor package any pasta products or 
animal products in this plant or any other Paris Food or Troppe Packing 
Corp. facility".

We surely like to encourge that you preferably purchase vegtables that have 
hashgocho.

This information is very valuable for year round purposes.  Since pastas 
may be not Kosher and surely if meat is produced in the plants, the frozen 
vegtables could not be used.  One must be, therefore, careful to buy frozen 
vegtables which are Kosher.  Throughout the year one may use Bird's Eye or 
Seabrook frozen vegtables with a "K" and which have no sauces added to them.
For Pesach, these brands should not be used.  However, the above brands 
(SnoTop, Inn Label, FineLine, Topmark, The Best) may be used Pesach and all 
year round.

re .0
>Rabbi X (one of the leading halichic authorities in NYC) stated 
>that Coca-Cola contains a minute amount (less than  1/60th) of kitnyous.
>He suggested that Ashkenazim avoid Coca-Cola products "...if you are 
>scrupulous regarding the rest of your passover preparations/shopping,
>you can go one week without your Coke".  The rabbi specifically asked
>that he not be named as it could make him liable for lawsuits.

With all due respect this is absurd.
The whole issue of kitniyot is misunderstood (probablly by me as well :-))
and another example of inflationary religious practices.  But without
getting into that, any Rabbi X who would use such hit and run practices
and not be willing to be named is worthy of contempt, if indeed he exists.
Equally likely -- this is a rumor spread by Coke's competition.

Sid

>Equally likely -- this is a rumor spread by Coke's competition.

   You mean Tempo?? :-)

    We couldn't find pesachdic CocaCola locally (in fact, a couple of
    stores were out of any kind of Classic Coke), but my mother-in-law got
    us some in Connecticut, so Paul can have his caffeine-and-sugar.  I
    wonder what the alleged kitnios was?  Seems to me that the most likely
    candidate would be corn syrup, but there is no question that that would
    make a non-Pesachdic product by anyone's definition.  So this is
    probably just another one of those pre-Pesach panics, like the year you
    couldn't buy peanut oil.
    
    /Charlotte

re peanut oil:

Many Ashkenazim don't use peanut oil since peanuts are considered kitniyos.
Some don't use cottonseed oil either, since they also consider it shemen
kitniyos.  About the only oils that seem to be universally accepted are
grapeseed, olive, and nut oils.  And, of course, the one you really need
after a few days of Pesach food...




					mineral oil.

    to continue the rat-hole...
    
    re.   .6 - mineral oil -
    
    An alternative is 
    
    	you could always increase the prune ratio in the tsimis.
    
    	-Barry-
    

    Boy, I can relate to that!  One of the fellows in my group brought in
    some really GOOD pesachdic prune cake yesterday - that stuff was good
    enough to make a person actually ENJOY eating prunes!  I brought in nut
    balls, which were also a big hit.  I've been eating a lot of rhubarb,
    which also seems to help, but Paul hates rhubarb and won't eat it.
    
    /Charlotte (going to eat some RICE Saturday night!!)

    re .6
    
>Many Ashkenazim don't use peanut oil since peanuts are considered kitniyos.
>Some don't use cottonseed oil either, since they also consider it shemen
>kitniyos.  About the only oils that seem to be universally accepted are
>grapeseed, olive, and nut oils.
    
    Why are peanuts kitniyos? 
    
    Because they grow in the ground? 
    
    Malcolm

    Peanuts are a legume.  Every year I wonder why peanut oil is (usually)
    OK for Passover use but soybean oil (for example) is not.  I shouldn't
    complain, though, or we may all get stuck with cottonseed oil (or
    expensive but good-tasting alternatives like olive oil) next year!
    
    /Charlotte

This seems like a likely note --

According to the Pesach issue of Koshergram, the stuff they use to stick
paper towels to the roll and to stick the first towel down is made from
starch.  They recommend throwing out the first 5 (?) and the last 2 (?)
towels.