Flying Shnitzel Grease

Question: A large pareve pot was on the stove with pareve soup in it. Alongside it I was frying some schnitzel and when I dropped a piece in the frying pan some of the fleishig oil splashed out and hit the side of the pareve pot. There was a pareve ladle in the pareve pot with the food. I washed the pot with cold water, is it still pareve?

Answer:In this question we need to determine the status of 3 items; the pot, the food in the pot and the spoon. Are they still pareve or have some or all of them become fleishig? You will need to answer some questions first. What was the temperature of the pareve pot, less than yad soledes bo or more than yad soledes bo?

1. If the only thing that was hot was the oil that splattered onto the pot then everything remains pareve. The oil is similar to a kli sheni and therefore does not have the power to penetrate the pot. (Technically it is iruy kli rishon shenifsak hakiluach). So all you need to do is clean off the fleishig oil with soap and warm water. (Do not use very hot water which is yad soledes bo. That would cause more damage than what had happened already).
2. If the pareve pot was yad soledes bo then you need to estimate the ratio between the oil that splattered on the outside of the pot and the amount of liquid found in the pot. If there is 60 times of soup to the oil then the soup remains pareve but the pot remains fleishig and will need to be kashered in order to use as a pareve pot again.
3. If there isn't 60 times of food in the pot to the amount of oil that splattered, then the pot and the food in it, is fleishig. The food cannot be eaten with milchig and you cannot cook in that pot pareve food with the intention of eating the food with milchig. If the pot is kasherable then you could kasher it to make it pareve again.

[In this case in which we are dealing with fleishig and pareve it is my opinion that there is no need to determine if the oil splattered above or below the food line on the pot. When dealing with milk splattering on a fleishig pot there is a distinction. If milk splatters below the food line of meat the ratio is 60:1; and if the milk splattered above the food line the ratio would be 3600:1. However regarding not bar not in my opinion 60:1 will always be sufficient. The reason is that there are opinions that even by milk and meat there is no difference between above the food line or below (Aruch Hashulchan 92:43), and there are opinions that it is muttar lechatchila to use the food that is already not bar not to eat with the opposite type (mechaber 95:1). Using both opinions together, one does not need to be concerned of the chumra regarding the ratio of 3600:1]

The spoon in the soup in scenario 1 & 2 are pareve and in scenario 3 it is fleishig and cannot be used to prepare hot pareve food that will be eaten with milchigs. (See Rav Akiva Eiger in responsa in back of Drush Vechidush vol. 1, and Chavos Daas 95 and 97:5. According to Chavos Daas 95 the spoon would only be fleishig if the oil splattered below the food level, but according to Rav Akiva Eiger and Chavos Daas in 97:5 it doesn't matter where the oil landed. Even if it splattered above the food level, the spoon would become fleishig. See Chochmas Adam 50:1 and Aruch Hashulchan 95 that agree with Chavos Daas and Rav Akiva Eiger and reject the Beis Efraim #37 and Pri Megadim m.z. #7).

BookID: Chapter: