Onion cut with a meat knife in a dairy frying pan
Question
Answer
Shalom u’vracha
In principle, an onion that was cut with a meat knife becomes "meaty", and when it is fried in a dairy frying pan, both the pan and the onion become forbidden; the onion should be discarded and the pan should be kashered through boiling (hagala). One must check whether the pan is made of regular metal, which can be kashered, or of other materials that cannot be kashered. Likewise, if it is coated with Teflon or similar, it cannot be kashered.
However, in practice, in most cases the onion is more than 60 times the volume of the knife blade, and therefore, through the cooking, the meat taste absorbed in the onion is nullified, and everything is permitted.
Therefore, in a case where a regular vegetable-cutting knife was used [– such as Solingen and the like], and the onion was not particularly small [– it does not fit into the palm of the hand], everything is permitted.
