Why does cholent cause tarnish on silver fork tines?

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OOTBubby

Sat, Sep 10 2016, 10:33 pm

We use sterling silver cutlery on Shabbos. I've found that the instant a fork touches cholent, the tines become tarnished. It is really weird because it happens as soon as contact is made. I'm wondering if there might a certain ingredient in the cholent that causes this. My cholent is very simplistic: meat, potatoes, onions, beans, barley and spices. No ketchup, BBQ sauce or any kind of other sauces. Any idea? I hate to constantly have to polish only the fork tines.

Chickpea

Sun, Sep 11 2016, 2:08 am

It's the beans. Any food with high levels of sulfur will tarnish sterling silver. Beans contain sulfur. And so do eggs(if you're putting them in your cholent), garlic, and beef. So basically, it's almost everything that's in the cholent.

OOTBubby

Sun, Sep 11 2016, 11:08 am

Chickpea wrote:

Thanks. I could leave out the beans (I put in very little to start with). I don't use fresh garlic, just garlic powder. Does chicken have sulfur too? I often make a chicken cholent.

Chickpea

Sun, Sep 11 2016, 1:07 pm

OOTBubby wrote:

Thanks. I could leave out the beans (I put in very little to start with). I don't use fresh garlic, just garlic powder. Does chicken have sulfur too? I often make a chicken cholent.

Your welcome!
All poultry contains sulfur. Garlic powder is just garlic in the dehydrated state. As a matter of fact, all protein contains sulfur.
Btw, I only make chicken cholent. Maybe we can compare our recipes.

OOTBubby

Sun, Sep 11 2016, 2:43 pm

Interesting. Using a fork on chicken (or meat) does not tarnish it unusually (even when cooked with fresh garlic). But the instant the fork touches the cholent, the tines get tarnished. My cholent (chicken or meat) is extremely simple. Meat or chicken, potatoes, barley, a little beans, fresh onion, spices (for meat only salt and pepper; for chicken I add onion powder & garlic powder). That's it. For a bigger meat cholent, I'll add a chunk of kishka crumbled in.

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