Pronounced PAH-riv or pahr-veh, “parve” (פרווה) is a Yiddish (and by
extension, Hebrew) term for something that is neither meat nor dairy.
This is significant because Jewish law does not allow one to cook or consume meat together with milk products. Parve food, however, may be
eaten together with both meat and milk. Examples would be water, eggs, fish,
and anything that is plant-derived, such as fruit, nuts and veggies.
Thus, a cookie labeled as “parve” can be eaten together with
cream-laden coffee, or after a steak dinner.
Since meat and dairy utensils are also kept separate, dishes
that are used for neither meat nor dairy are also known as “parve.”
Learn more about meat, dairy and parve.
Some Important Parve
Information
Eggs: Although
eggs come from an animal, eggs are still parve.1
Why? Think about it. Milk comes from an animal too, and it sure isn’t
considered meat. Read more about that here.
Fish: Fish is
parve. However, because of health concerns, the sages of the Talmud prohibited
eating it with meat. (There are varying customs about eating fish with milk.
However, fish may be prepared on either meat or dairy utensils2
and eaten right before or after meat or milk with no concern, as long as one
washes one’s mouth out.3)
There is a custom not to eat fish with milk, which you can learn more about
here.
Bread: Almost all
bread is parve. Recognizing that dairy bread could easily be taken for parve
and eaten with meat and vice versa, the sages forbade the production of bread
with milk or rendered fat unless it is clearly marked, or if such a small
amount is produced that it will be served only to people in the know.4
Faux Meat or Dairy: Soy
burgers and almond milk are often parve. But onlookers may be misled if they
see you sipping milky coffee with meat or topping your burger with cheese, not realizing that the milk or meat they are seeing is not real. Thus, the sages
decreed that these products must be specially marked if they are to be consumed
with something that appears incompatible. For example, an almond floating in
your almond milk would allow you to serve it with a beef dinner.5
A more contemporary application would be to leave the almond milk container on
the table so that everyone knows what it is.
Other Uses
In common parlance, “parve” has come to denote neutrality in
other contexts as well. Here are some examples:
“I find both politicians equally boring, so my feelings
about this election are pretty parve.”
“I’ve learned to get along with my mother-in-law, but our
relationship is still far from warm. You can say it is parve.”
