If a person cooks a Parve food in a meat or dairy pot, does it obtain the same status as the pot, or does it remain Parve? For example, if a person boils string beans in a meat pot, do they retain their status as Parve, such that they may be eaten together with meat or dairy foods, or do the string beans obtain the status of meat, such that they may not be eaten with dairy foods? And if the string beans indeed remain Parve, is it permissible "Le’khatehila" (optimally, from the outset) to prepare them in a meat pot, with the intention of then using them with dairy food?

The Shulhan Aruch discusses a Halachic principle called "Noten Bar Ta’am Bar Noten Ta’am." When meat, for example, is cooked in a pot, the meat is "Noten Ta’am" – meaning, it imparts flavor – into the walls of the pot. Then, when string beans are cooked in that pot, the meat flavor in the walls of the pot is imparted in the string beans. This "second degree" flavor is called "Noten Ta’am Bar Ta’am." Since the meat flavor in the string beans did not come directly from the meat, the string beans do not have the status of meat, and may be eaten with dairy products. This applies in the converse situation, as well. If Parve food was cooked in a dairy pot, it may nevertheless be eaten together with meat.

One common example of this Halacha is mejedra (rice with lentils), which many people eat with yoghurt. If one prepared mejedra in a meat pot, he may nevertheless eat it with yoghurt, since the mejedra did not absorb meat flavor directly from meat.

The question remains as to whether one may knowingly bring himself into this situation. Meaning, is it permissible to intentionally prepare mejedra in a meat pot knowing that he will want to eat with yoghurt?

This issue is subject to debate among the authorities. Several Poskim, including the Kaf Ha’haim and Zibheh Sedek, ruled that the Halacha stated above applies only Bedi’abad – after the fact, once a person finds himself in this situation. Hacham Ovadia Yosef, however, based upon the ruling of Maran in Bedek Ha’bayit, ruled that this Halacha applies even "Le’chatehila." Thus, it is permissible to cook a Parve food in a meat pot with the intention of eating it with a dairy food (and vice versa), in light of the ruling of Hacham Ovadia, though some have the custom to act stringently, in deference to the stringent position.

It should be noted that this entire discussion relates to Parve food that was cooked in a pot that had been used for either meat or dairy within the previous twenty-four hours. If the pot had not been used in the previous twenty-four hours (as is very often the case), then according to all views one may cook the Parve food in the pot with the intention of eating it with either meat or dairy. The different opinions were stated only with regard to cooking Parve food in a pot that had been used for meat or dairy within the previous twenty-four hours.

Summary: If a Parve food was cooked in a meat pot, it may nevertheless be eaten with dairy foods (and vice versa). Moreover, one may cook Parve food in a meat pot with the intention of eating it with dairy foods, though some have the custom not to cook a Parve food in a pot that had been used for meat within the previous twenty-four hours to eat it with dairy food.