This is probably the stupidest question, in the history of stupid questions....

OK,

I don't make challah often for this reason: when I separate, the little piece BURNS and makes the whole house smell like.... burning bread.

HOW DO YOU PREVENT THIS!?!?!??

I want to start baking every friday afternoon.

And just for fun, here's a picture of my son helping me put the egg wash on.

Do you wrap it with foil before it burns?

Uuuuh no....


(I"m a convert, so when my mom baked it when we were kids ~ she likes it, there was no separating....)

double wrap it with foil then stick in oven, that shld get rid of the smell

I also learned to double-wrap it b/c technically, the separated challah is not "kosher" (not fit to eat) and generally, we don't cook non-kosher in our ovens (or vice versa, we don't cook kosher in a non-kosher oven) unless there's a double-wrapping between the food & the oven so it doesn't make everything non-kosher.

I fold it carefully in a paper napkin and place it gently in the garbage.

This is gonna sound insane.... can technically I just ..... feed it to my pups then?


If its going in the trash or getting burned up....


Or would it being fed to something negate that. (like i said, Reform convert here. )

My stove and kitchen aren't kashered.

Hopefully someday, but at this point in our lives, we can't do it. We don't ever bring treyf into the house (in fact my FIL once tried and I went ballistic on him) but... its not kashered, and we only have one set of dishes. We tried for a while to have 2 sets with the goal of eventually kashering everything but my mother in law and mother kept putting things in the wrong places and using the wrong spoons, and neither of them were willing to actually "learn" and INSISTED on "helping" so I just gave up.

I wrap it in foil and "toast" it on my gas range top with the fan on. Generally is fine as long as I don't forget it...Didn't know you could wrap it and chuck it, Zephyr. Very interesting. The more I hang out on forums, the more I scratch my head at what I was taught was "halacha".

I freeze mine and we burn them all in one go on the BBQ erev pesach.

Interesting that there are options, I wasn't aware I could put it in the garbage.

Mag, nothing you can say will sound insane. You have to remember - 2000 years of Halachic discussion of boundary conditions. It is highly unlikely that you will think of something that hasn't been brought up ever before

Giving something to your dogs would mean that you are benefiting from it. You cannot benefit from the Challa that you separate. It is, however, the solution for non-kosher meat. If for some reason you got some non-kosher meat in the house, you can feed it to your dogs. But not meat and milk together, because that you cannot benefit from.

The Minhag is in fact to burn it, but like Zephyr, I wrap it up well and get rid of it.

Mag, about keeping 2 sets of dishes - you don't need to give up on this just because your family gets mixed up. That happens to everyone. Even in households where everyone was brought up with it, there are children, there are guests, there is household help. Stuff happens. It can be dealt with, it's not a big deal.

So when you're ready, try it again.

And just to confuse you further....
I was taught to burn it, but that it isn't necessary to wrap it as long as nothing else is cooking in the oven (and that I shouldn't do it when there's something else in the oven). I was also taught that it didn't have to be totally incinerated (which is what some people I know hold by) just burned till it's inedible.
When dh complained about the smell (once he started to work from home) I was told I could keep the pieces in the freezer and do them in batches, so I started doing them a couple of times a year, which was logistically easier than doing it between taking challah and baking loaves.
And then, I went to a challah baking class, and learned that our Rav holds by double-wrapping and putting it in the garbage.

So, it seems there are many ways of dealing with it, all with the aim of making sure you don't accidentally eat it.

FYI, from what I learned, the reason one would double-wrap it before putting it in the garbage is that it wouldn't be respectful to put it in the garbage unwrapped, but double-wrapped protects it, while still rendering it inedible b/c its in the garbage.

just interrupting to say I love this forum and learn from it constantly!

Mag, nothing you can say will sound insane. You have to remember - 2000 years of Halachic discussion of boundary conditions. It is highly unlikely that you will think of something that hasn't been brought up ever before

Giving something to your dogs would mean that you are benefiting from it. You cannot benefit from the Challa that you separate. It is, however, the solution for non-kosher meat. If for some reason you got some non-kosher meat in the house, you can feed it to your dogs. But not meat and milk together, because that you cannot benefit from.

The Minhag is in fact to burn it, but like Zephyr, I wrap it up well and get rid of it.

Mag, about keeping 2 sets of dishes - you don't need to give up on this just because your family gets mixed up. That happens to everyone. Even in households where everyone was brought up with it, there are children, there are guests, there is household help. Stuff happens. It can be dealt with, it's not a big deal.

So when you're ready, try it again.

I will definitely, the goal is "eventually" but part of me says "why bother' when we're Reform, and no Orthodox folks will ever eat here anyways. :-/ But another part of me wants to do it regardless.

My mother basically thinks i'm doing it to "be difficult" and I swear screws up "accidentally on purpose"- like when I was a vegetarian in college and she'd "forget" that something had meat in it, and tell me "oh just pick it out" kind of situation. My mother in law.... she's not doing it on purpose, she's just not "with it" a lot of the time- she's had several brain tumors and memory issues aside from that so its not like I can get mad at her. There have been no end of fights between my mother and I about not eating poultry and dairy together. (yes i get you can't milk a chicken, ok ok ok , but still). I think my conversion really upsets her still and she's ok with me being a Jew as long as i'm "wishy washy" about it because in her mind, that means it would be easier for me to return to the Catholic Church.