11) TA’AM KE’IKAR - TASTE IS EQUIVALENT TO THE PRINCIPAL

Not only is it prohibited to cook meat and milk together in their IKAR or primary states, but even cooking their TA’AM or ‘tastes’ together, is similarly forbidden. For example, we may not cook meat in a milk pot, even if the pot is visibly clean. This is because the milk pot is said to have absorbed a TA’AM (taste) of milk from its previous usage. And by subjecting the pot to a further cooking process, the heat causes the TA’AM of milk to get expelled from the walls of the pot, and become absorbed within the meat.

MIDEORAITA, under Torah law, we apply the rule known as TA’AM KE’IKAR; whereby the TA’AM (taste) of a substance is just as severely forbidden as the IKAR (primary substance) itself.

Thus, meat cooked in a milk pot is just as prohibited as meat cooked with actual milk. The cooked entity is also ASUR BEHANA’AH (one may not derive benefit from it). It will have to be buried and furthermore, the pot will have to be Kashered by HAGALAH (boiling).