Kosher-style recipes from whatever's in your fridge

What this page promises, and what it doesn't

Kosher is the dietary rule where over-claiming would be worst, so here is the boundary first.

Checked in every recipe: no pork (pork, pig, bacon, ham, gammon, prosciutto, pancetta, guanciale, chorizo, pepperoni, salami, lardons, lard) and no shellfish (prawns, shrimp, crab, lobster, mussels, oysters, clams, scallops, scampi, langoustine, crayfish, surimi, squid, calamari, octopus). If any of those appear in a finished recipe, it is rewritten before you see it.

Stated as a requirement but not re-checked: the model is told the recipe must be kosher, and in practice it avoids obvious meat-and-dairy combinations and non-kosher fish. But Grublin's own code does not verify separation of meat and dairy, does not know which fish have fins and scales, and cannot know how your meat was slaughtered or whether a product is certified.

In short: Grublin keeps the treif out of the ingredient list and writes with kosher in mind. It is a cooking aid for a kosher kitchen, not a hechsher.

Why it still helps

The daily problem in a kosher kitchen is not the rules, which you know, but the search: finding a dinner from what's in the fridge that doesn't need rewriting from the first line. Most recipe sites hand you a prawn linguine or a bacon-wrapped anything and leave the editing to you.

Grublin starts from your shelf. Tell Grub what's in, or what you fancy, and the pork and shellfish never enter the recipe. Combine kosher with the dairy rule for a meat meal, or with vegetarian for a dairy meal, and the separation is handled by the rule you chose rather than by hoping.

The two-rule trick for meat and dairy

Grublin has no "meat meal" or "dairy meal" switch, but two existing rules do the job.

• For a meat meal: set kosher and set dairy as an allergen. Every recipe is then free of pork, shellfish and all dairy, and both are re-checked.
• For a dairy or pareve meal: set kosher and set vegetarian. Every recipe is then free of all meat, fish and shellfish, and both are re-checked. Allow fish by leaving vegetarian off and reading the fish list yourself.

You can change these in Preferences between meals. It takes two taps.

What the check does not catch

• Fish without fins and scales. The check knows shellfish, not the full list of non-kosher fish. Eel, for instance, is on Grublin's fish allergen list but is not flagged by the kosher rule.
• Meat and dairy together. Not checked by code. Use the two-rule trick above.
• Slaughter, certification, kitchen separation, Passover. Outside what any recipe app can know.
• Gelatine and rennet. Not flagged by the kosher rule. Add "gelatine" under dislikes if you want it excluded.

What you'll actually cook

With kosher plus dairy set, expect roast chicken and the dishes around it, brisket-style braises, meatballs in tomato sauce, chicken soup, schnitzel, grilled lamb, rice and grain dishes, salads and roasted vegetables. With kosher plus vegetarian, expect shakshuka, cheese-based pasta and bakes, frittatas, soups, latkes, blintzes, salads and vegetable tagines. Say "I fancy something like a Friday night dinner" and Grub writes towards it.

Set your kit too, so a braise for a slow cooker is written for the slow cooker.