Maran (Rabbi Joseph ben Ephraim Caro 1488-1575) writes on Halachot Pesach the custom that some people have not to eat Roasted food on the night of Pesach. There are some places that have a custom not to eat it, and there are some places that have a custom to eat roasted foods. Maran says each place follows their Minhag. The Minhag of our community is NOT to have roasted food on the night of Pesach. Therefore, our custom is when we have the Zeroa, which is the shank bone, which we put on the Kearah, the custom is that it is cooked. It’s cooked in order to get around that problem. Since it is cooked, it would be permissible from the custom, and from the law to technically after the Seder officially is over, after we go through all the rituals during the meals, to have a little piece of the Zeroa. However, the Kaf Hachayim (Rav Yaakov Chaim Sofer 1870-1939), and Mishna Berura warn better not to eat from the actual Zeroa that is on the Kearah lest people think that it’s Korban Pesach and run into problems. So if someone wants to have some Zeroa meat, then you should have another Zeroa in the kitchen where they cut it and bring it to the table. But the one that’s on the Kearah, even though it’s boiled and its not roasted, but still, since its designated Zecher LeKorbon Pesach, it would be preferable not to eat from that actual Zeroa itself.
But one Halacha that comes out, is that you have to check how Roast is done. Roast, you put it in a pot, then you put in the oven, and it cooks. Roast that’s cooking in its own juices is not considered cooking, that’s considered Tseli Kedar, that pot-roasting, and that’s a problem according to our Minhag. So therefore, one should be careful on the night of Pesach, to see exactly what the menu is, that we don’t break our Minhag of having roasted food. Of course if there was liquid, or if it was cooked in soup or gravy in the beginning, and that’s the way they made it, then that’s fine. But to have a dry roasted item that was cooked in its own juices and its own gravy that comes from within the piece of meat, then that would be against the Minhag. Maran holds that the same thing would apply to chicken. The whole reason we are doing this, is because we do not want to make a mistake in order to come to think that we are eating Korban Pesach and things like this. So therefore, the Halacha, the Minhag again, is not to eat roasted things on the night of Pesach. If you cook it then its OK, and therefore one should be careful not to eat from the Zeroa that’s on the Kearah, but he can have from the Zeroa that’s inside that was cooked, not roasted. They roast and then they cook it, that’s also OK. One should be careful from making roasted chicken or roasted meat on the night of the holiday without having it cooked.
