Israel's Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger announces a plan to import special goose liver which tastes just like pork.
Rabbinate presents: Pork-flavored foie gras
Chief Rabbi Metzger announces plan to import special goose liver which tastes just like forbidden meat
Meir Turgeman • Ynet
Israel's Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi Yona Metzger on Tuesday announced the discovery of a special goose species, which tastes exactly like pork.
"We are looking into the possibility of industrial imports of goose," the rabbi said during a culinary conference at the Kaplan Medical Center in Rehovot, tantalizing the taste buds of every kashrut observer in Israel.
The move presents a real culinary and halachic revolution, as it offers a solution allowing religious and traditional Jews to discover the taste of pork, which is forbidden according to Jewish dietary laws.
It turns out that farmers in Spain recently decided to breed geese in non-industrialized pasture lands. As opposed to the modern methods, they didn't fatten the geese, but gave them natural food.
When the farmers tasted the first chunk of goose liver, they were amazed. "It tastes like pork," they cried out.
They decided to share the sensational discovery with the chosen people, and sent a halachic query to Chief Rabbi Metzger. The latter demanded a second opinion, and asked that the goose liver be sent to three non-Jewish professional chefs in Europe, who are very familiar with the taste of Pork. The three chefs confirmed the discovery of a "rare culinary duplicate".
Rabbi Metzger struggled with the problem and finally gave his answer: The meat is completely kosher. His ruling was based on a citation from the Talmud, which states that for every prohibition God imposed on the people of Israel – he created a kosher substitute with the exact same taste.
So how close are we to a pork-flavored Shabbat meal? Metzger tried to lower expectations on Tuesday, saying that the geese were still young and that the import of the mean is still being examined.
"We plan to approve the move and help it happen," the rabbi told Yedioth Ahronoth. "It could serve as an original Jewish solution for consumers of non-kosher meat, who will be receiving a proper substitute. As for religious Jews, I believe they will be disgusted at first, but will eventually get used to it."
Rabbi Metzger made the remarks in a conference presenting future hospital food. The conference was also attended by Deputy Health Minister Yakov Litzman and the winner of the first season of "Master Chef", Ina Kravasky.
Akiva Novick contributed to this report.
Geese are kosher birds no matter if they taste like gamey chicken or pork.
There is no halakhic issue here unless these geese are a wholly new type of goose we were previously unaware of or the product of breeding a non-kosher species of some kind with kosher geese or breeding a previously unknown species or type of goose with kosher geese. And while it's hard to tell from Ynet's report, it doesn't seem any of these issues apply here.
Another non-applicable halakhic issue is whether or not force feeding geese to fatten them makes the geese unkosher. Some rabbis have ruled that it does, others ruled that it does not. But, in spite of Ynet's misleading headline, these geese are not force fed, so this issue also doesn't apply.
So it seems we can all look forward to the opportunity to get a kosher taste of pork if we so desire.