Question about Seitan
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Jacob Labendz
Sep 1, 2021, 4:02:01 PM9/1/21
to Shamayim V'Aretz Institute
Hi all,
My partner, Meg, read this question on a vegan FB group. She thought I could help. I can't, but maybe one of you can.
Jacob Labendz
A bit of a technical question for the Jewish members:
Even though eating Seitan requires the beracha of 'Shehakol', before it is eaten or even cooked it starts off as a 'legitimate' ball of dough. This raises two questions I haven't been able to get answered so far:
(1) Does a sufficient weight of Seitan dough require taking Challa?
(2) Does the Seitan dough then require a beracha for taking Challa?
Regarding (1) my guess is that any sufficient amount of dough would require challa. What is done with the dough ball has no bearing on challa-taking as far as I've understood it. This would than still leave open question (2). So far I've assumed that a beracha is probably not necessary when the seitan dough is cooked or simmered in broth, just like ordinary dough would become exempt. But then te question still remains whether a beracha for challa is required when the dough is fried or baked.
My first thought with the High Holidays coming was to make several batches of Seitan to circumvent the challa-problem. But this raised the new issue (3) of whether these separate portions become a similar situation to matza-making on Pesach. For Pesach the matza cannot be made from one big batch of dough because its size would lead to a non-kosher resting-time. However, the separate batches of matza-dough are treated as one large batch for the purpose of challa-taking and berachot.
Is there anybody in the community who has had these same questions and received an answer from a competent halachic source? The rabbis I've spoken to either did not have an answer or did not really understand what Seitan was.
Even though eating Seitan requires the beracha of 'Shehakol', before it is eaten or even cooked it starts off as a 'legitimate' ball of dough. This raises two questions I haven't been able to get answered so far:
(1) Does a sufficient weight of Seitan dough require taking Challa?
(2) Does the Seitan dough then require a beracha for taking Challa?
Regarding (1) my guess is that any sufficient amount of dough would require challa. What is done with the dough ball has no bearing on challa-taking as far as I've understood it. This would than still leave open question (2). So far I've assumed that a beracha is probably not necessary when the seitan dough is cooked or simmered in broth, just like ordinary dough would become exempt. But then te question still remains whether a beracha for challa is required when the dough is fried or baked.
My first thought with the High Holidays coming was to make several batches of Seitan to circumvent the challa-problem. But this raised the new issue (3) of whether these separate portions become a similar situation to matza-making on Pesach. For Pesach the matza cannot be made from one big batch of dough because its size would lead to a non-kosher resting-time. However, the separate batches of matza-dough are treated as one large batch for the purpose of challa-taking and berachot.
Is there anybody in the community who has had these same questions and received an answer from a competent halachic source? The rabbis I've spoken to either did not have an answer or did not really understand what Seitan was.
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