Making chemicals kosher
In the world of processed foods, keeping kosher is a complicated process that can involve individually certifying as many as 100 chemical compounds just to make a single flavoring agent that meets kosher standards.
The problem is where the compounds come from. In the 1930s, Atlanta-area Rabbi Tobias Geffen was asked to help make Coca-Cola kosher. In the process, he realized that glycerin, a chemical additive used to disperse flavors evenly through the soda, was made from rendered animal fat—and there was no clear way to tell whether the fat came from a kosher animal. Geffen decided that even the molecules mattered. Coca-Cola made their kosher brew with cotton-seed oil glycerin instead, and other rabbis have followed Geffen's lead.
Today, you can spot kosher-for-Passover soda by the distinctive yellow cap. In this case, sucrose subs in as the sweetener, in place of corn syrup, as corn is a banned grain during the Passover holiday.
Chemical and Engineering News: Favored Flavors
(Thanks, Aaron Rowe!)
- Idelsohn Society's Passover music compilation
- DIY Passover remixes
- Video of robot Passover seder
- Marijuana isn't kosher for Passover
- Massive Passover infographic
- Which imaginary animals are kosher?
- Christian salt, a wingnut alternative to Kosher salt
- Kosher easter-eggs
- Unforseen health-benefits of Kosher salami
Image courtesy Flickr user williambrawley, via CC.
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Maggie Koerth-Baker
I do the Twitter, the Google+, and (to a much lesser extent) the Facebook.
Books
• Before the Lights Go Out: Conquering the Energy Crisis Before It Conquers Us
Upcoming Appearances
• April 2 at Skeptics in the Pub, Boston, Mass.— 7:00 pm at Tommy Doyle's in Harvard Square. Please RSVP.
•April 4 at MIT: "Shedding Light, Online", a discussion about how blogging and a dynamic audience helped shape my book, Before the Lights Go Out—4:00 pm in Maseeh Hall. Please RSVP.
• April 6 at Carnegie Mellon University: More details to come
• April 9-13 at University of Colorado, Boulder: 64th Annual Conference on World Affairs
• April 10 at Colorado State University, Fort Collins: "Putting the Fun Back in Infrastructure"—3:30 pm in the Rocky Mountain Innosphere.
• April 19 at The Bakken Museum in Minneapolis: Book Launch Party! Come enjoy snacks, a presentation by me, and some fun with the Bakken's Leyden jar.
• April 21 at Science Museum of Minnesota, St. Paul: Earth Day Tweetup event with Will Steger and Sean Otto—events run 10:00 am to 2:00 pm.
• May 2 at University of California, Berkeley: "Putting the Fun Back in Infrastructure"—6:00 pm, location TBA.
• May 3 at the American Institute of Architects, San Francisco Chapter—Lunchtime lecture, time and location TBA.
• May 3 at Barnes and Noble, El Cerrito, Cali.—7:00 pm.
• May 30 in New York City—Panel on local and DIY energy with the New America Foundation
• June 22-25 in Aspen, Colorado: Aspen Environment Forum
• July 5-8 at CONvergence in Minneapolis, Minn.—exact times and dates TBA
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