What is the status of a parve food, such as rice, which was cooked in a pot which one uses with meat? May that rice now be eaten together with dairy products, such as yoghurt?
The Shulhan Aruch (Yoreh De’a 95), based on the Gemara (Hullin 112), addresses the case of "Dagim She’alu Bi’k’ara Shel Basar" – fish which were cooked in a meat pot, and he rules that this fish may be eaten with "Kutah" – a dairy food. Although the taste of meat is absorbed in the pot, and this taste is imparted into the fish, the fish may nevertheless be eaten with dairy product. The reason is that the taste of meat imparted into the fish is "Noten Ta’am Bar Noten Ta’am" (an expression known by the acrostic, "Nat Bar Nat") – a "second degree" taste. This taste was first absorbed by the walls of the pot, and then imparted into the fish. By this point, the taste is not strong enough to qualify as "meat" with respect to the prohibition against eating meat with milk, and so the fish may be eaten with dairy foods. This would apply to any parve food, and thus rice cooked in a meat pot may be eaten with yoghurt.
There is considerable discussion, however, regarding the scope of this lenient ruling. The Shulhan Aruch addresses the case of fish which already had been cooked in a meat pot, and one now wishes to eat the fish with dairy products. Accordingly, the Shach (Rav Shabtai Ha’kohen, 1621-1662), in his commentary to Yoreh De’a, asserts that this Halacha applies only after the fact, once the fish had been cooked in a meat pot. Le’chatehila (from the outset), however, one may not cook parve food in a meat pot with the intention of eating it with milk or dairy products. Although this food may be eaten with dairy products if it were cooked in a meat pot, one may not cook it in a meat pot with this intention from the outset. This ruling of the Shach is accepted by numerous leading Sephardic Poskim, including the Ben Ish Hai (Rav Yosef Haim of Baghdad, 1833-1909), the Kaf Ha’haim (Rav Yaakob Haim Sofer, Baghdad-Jerusalem, 1870-1939), Hacham Bension Abba Shaul (Jerusalem, 1924-1998), and Hacham Mordechai Eliyahu (1929-2010).
According to this position, if one wants to eat parve food with a dairy product – such as rice with yoghurt – he must cook it in a parve pot (or, of course, in a dairy pot). If, however, the rice was cooked in a meat pot, it may nevertheless then be eaten with yoghurt after the fact.
Hacham Ovadia Yosef understood the Shulhan Aruch’s ruling differently. Citing proofs from the Bet Yosef, Hacham Ovadia writes that the Shulhan Aruch did not intend to limit his ruling to a situation of Be’di’abad (after the fact), once the parve food had been cooked in a meat pot. Rather, he meant that this may be done even from the outset. Meaning, in the case of rice, one may from the outset decide to cook rice in a meat pot with the intention of then eating it with yoghurt.
It emerges, then, that according to Hacham Ovadia, one does not need parve pots in his home, because he may cook parve food in either a meat or dairy pot, and then eat it with either meat or dairy products.
Significantly, even the stringent opinion permits cooking parve food in a meat pot with the intention of eating it with dairy foods if the meat pot is "Eno Ben Yomo" – meaning, it has not been used with meat in the past 24 hours. In such a case, the taste of meat in the walls of the pot is considered "Noten Ta’am Li’fgam" – detrimental to the taste of the food now being cooked in the pot, and may therefore be disregarded entirely. Hence, such a pot may, according to all opinions, be used to cook parve food even with the clear intention to then eat that food with dairy products. According to Hacham Ovadia, it makes no difference whether or not the pot had been used with meat in the previous 24 hours, as either way, one may cook parve food in the pot with the intention of eating it with dairy products.
It should be noted that Ashkenazim follow a far more stringent view, forbidding eating a parve food with dairy products even after it had been cooked in a meat pot which is "Ben Yomo." If dairy food happened to mix with this parve food, then Ashkenazim permit eating the food, but they do not permit adding dairy products to this food if it had been cooked in a "Ben Yomo" meat pot.
Incidentally, it is worth mentioning that the Shulhan Aruch’s ruling clearly shows that fish may be cooked in a meat pot. Although it is forbidden to eat fish with meat, the Shulhan Aruch explicitly writes that fish that had been cooked in a meat pot is permissible. The explanation is that the Sages forbade eating fish with actual meat, but not fish into which the taste of meat had been imparted. Therefore, if one wishes to grill fish on a barbeque that had been used with meat (as many people do during the Nine Days, when meat is forbidden), this is allowed, as long as the barbeque is thoroughly cleaned to ensure that it does not contain any actual pieces of meat.
Summary: According to Sephardic practice, it is permissible to cook a parve food in a meat pot with the intention of then eating the parve food with dairy foods, such as cooking rice in a meat pot to eat it with yoghurt. (And, vice-versa, one may cook a parve food in a dairy pot with the intention of eating it with meat.) However, many Sephardic Poskim maintain that this may be done only if the meat pot had not been used with meat in the previous 24 hours, but if it had, then although parve food cooked in the pot may then be eaten with dairy products, one should not cook the food in this pot with this intention. According to Hacham Ovadia Yosef, even if the pot had been used with meat during the previous 24 hours, one may use it to cook parve food with the intention of then eating that food with dairy products.
