Only one kitchen sink - kashrus...

amother

Green

Fri, Sep 11 2015, 10:54 am

Im trying to improve my kashrus standards but to be honest I have a very small kitchen, only one sink and find it difficult to keep things separate. I want to invest in a really good toaster oven for dairy big enough to fit a 9x13 pan - any suggestions? Also looking for suggestions what do other people do with only one sink? We really enjoy dairy so not having it at all is not an option... any tips at all are greatly appreciated.

GramaNewYork

Fri, Sep 11 2015, 11:02 am

I have a Graetz toaster oven which works very well for my milchig baking like muffins, brownies, cookies, baked fish and casseroles.

Having one sink is so annoying to me which is why I hardly ever have meat! I keep the dairy tub in the sink almost all the time and then for Shabbos I put it on top of the toaster oven (in case any dairy dishes are used, they go in the dairy tub) and I put my meat tub in the sink. I hate having one sink and I am way too lazy to be constantly changing from dairy to meat. In this way, by eating dairy/fish most of the time, meat/chicken is special for Shabbos and yom tov.

TeachersNotebook

Fri, Sep 11 2015, 11:28 am

I am also looking for a toaster oven big enough for a 9x13. Which model Graetz do you use?

Having only one sink is very annoying, but very doable. Using tubs is a good idea, but I don't think it's halachically necessary. (Check with your LOR.) If you wash out the sink in between uses, you can just switch the sink liner on the bottom- get different colors for milchig and fleishig. Due to convenience, you'll probably end up using one gender more often than the other. But I have two sinks now and do that too! We naturally end up having more milchig during the week and fleishig on Shabbos.

However, if you're able to keep up with the dishes fairly regularly, it's not hard to switch between milchig and fleishig.

seeker

Fri, Sep 11 2015, 11:40 am

One sink is no big deal. Growing up I didn't know ANYONE with two sinks. We all kept kosher.
Generally we have separate racks for the bottom of the sink, and separate dishpans to keep the dirty dishes in so you don't need to rush to empty the dairy out of the sink before you have a place to dump your meat dishes. You keep one in the sink and one under the sink or on a counter or something.

Pretty much nothing gets treif. If something falls under the rack or gets mixed up it's almost always fine. Get into the habit of NOT running scalding hot water straight into your dishpan just in case the wrong thing is hiding in there. Other than that, chill.

mille

Fri, Sep 11 2015, 6:13 pm

We have separate racks for the bottom of our one sink, we don't use a dishpan (like a basin where you fill with water), we just wash under the running water. We use one drain board for CLEAN meat and dairy stuff. One sink is totally manageable, I think two sinks is a luxury! You just have to make sure you stay on top of dishes so you don't need to, say, defrost something meat in a sink full of dairy dishes!

chani8

Sat, Sep 12 2015, 1:02 pm

You're so far away from boiling a baby goat in it's mother's milk, that one sink is really not a problem.

Jews used to heat their pots of food in the same town ovens where the non jews were heating their treif food. Keep a healthy perspective on your kashrus.

seeker

Sat, Sep 12 2015, 9:00 pm

Just to clarify, my use of separate dishpans is a convenience thing, not halacha. You don't need to use dishpans at all. I just find they help keep things neater. I am also the kind of person who dislikes feeling like I'm spending all day washing dishes, I prefer to pile things in their respective dishpans and then spend a solid half hour or so washing everything one after another.

amother

Indigo

Sat, Sep 12 2015, 10:24 pm

We have one sink, and we use the plastic sink inserts that they sell around pesach time. One meat and one dairy. I find it convenient this way.