Waiting between Meat and Milk

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Explanations for Waiting between Meat and Milk



Accepted Minhagim

  1. There are basically four different possible minhagim:
    1. waiting 6 hours[1]
    2. waiting less than 6 hours[2]
    3. waiting 3 hours[3]
    4. waiting 1 hour[4]




Meat Dish

  1. If one ate a a meat dish, parve food cooked with meat, one can eat a dairy dish.[11] The minhag is to wash one's hands and mouth with a liquid and wash one's mouth with a food.[12] However, some say that the minhag is also to wait six hours.[13]

Sharp Foods

  1. This applies even to a dvar charif such as leeks.[15]

French Fries

  1. Some say that one doesn't have to wait 6 hours after eating french fries fried in oil used for chicken or meat as long as the intention wasn't to have taste of the chicken or meat get into the fries.[16] Others disagree.[17]

Chewed but Didn't Swallow

  1. If one chewed meat but didn’t swallow one should wait 6 hours. [18]
  3. If one tasted meat without chewing and immediately spit it out whole then one doesn’t have to wait until eating dairy [20] however, one should first wash out one’s mouth. [21]

How Are Six Hours Calculated?

  1. 6 hours is calculated with 60 minute hours and not Shaot Zmaniot. [22]

Meat Stuck in One's Teeth


In the Same Meal

  1. If one ate a meat meal and continued the meal with parve foods for 6 hours one may not have dairy as part of the same meal rather one must make Birkat HaMazon and then have dairy. [26]
  2. Even according to the opinion that one only need to end the meal of meat in order eat dairy one shouldn't intentionally say Birkat Hamazon to complete the meal and then be permitted to eat dairy.[27]

Unsure if Six Hours Passed

  1. If one is unsure whether 6 hours passed, some say that one should wait until 6 hours surely passed and some say that one may be lenient and certainly in a case where one only ate chicken and not meat. [28] Sephardim are lenient.[29]


  1. Someone sick who needs to eat milk within 6 hours may eat as long as he waited one hour[30] said a bracha achrona on the meat, washed out one's mouth with a food and a drink, brushes one's teeth, and washes one's hands.[31]

If One Already Made a Bracha


Meat Stuck in Your Teeth

  2. If a person swallows a piece of meat that was in one's mouth after one finished eating some poskim hold that one needs to restart the 6 hours.[35] However, some poskim argue that one doesn't need to restart waiting.[36]

Waiting Between Milk and Meat

  2. If used silverware one doesn't have to wash one's hands but it is proper to do so since it is easy.[38]
  3. The halacha is that one doesn't need to separate between a meal of dairy and meat with a bracha achrona.[39]

Dairy Dish

  1. If one ate a tavshil of dairy one can eat meat afterwards as long as one washes out one's mouth.[40] Some say that it is also necessary to wash out one's mouth with a liquid and a solid food.[41]
  2. A tavshil of meat is a food that was cooked with meat but one isn't eating the actual meat such as a potato in a chullent. A tavshil of milk is a food that was cooked with cheese or milk but one isn't eating the actual cheese or milk.[42]

Dvar Charif

  1. If one made a food with a sharp food in a dairy pot some say that one cannot eat it while one is waiting 6 hours. Others are lenient.[43]

Stuck in One's Teeth

  1. If one finds cheese between one's teeth after some time some say that it isn't called cheese and one doesn't need to remove it if one wants to eat meat. However, most argue and hold that one must remove it.[44]

Hard cheese

  1. Ashkenazim hold that one should wait six hours after eating hard cheese before eating meat. [45]
    1. American cheese is not included in this custom. [46]
  2. Many poskim define hard cheese as anything that was hardened for six months.[47]
  3. Accordingly, many poskim hold that mild cheddar, feta, mozzarella, and muenster cheeses are considered soft cheeses, however, medium, sharp and aged cheddar, and Parmesan cheeses are considered hard cheeses. [48] However, some hold that any cheese that appears hard requires waiting six hours.[49]
  4. Some poskim are lenient that one doesn't need to wait after eating hard cheese which was melted.[50]

Clearing off the Table

  3. There is a machlokes if we are still required to remove the table clothe since we eat on plates and not on the table itself [53] but our minhag is to still require a place setting [54]


  5. S”A YD 89:1, Kaf Hachaim 89:20, Yabia Omer YD 1:4
  9. Yalkut Yosef Dinei Chinuch Katan pg. 267
  10. Shulchan Aurch YD 89:1
  11. Shulchan Aruch YD 89:3
  12. Rabbi Akiva Eiger 89:3 quoting Torat Chatat
  13. Yam Shel Shlomo (Chullin 8:5) says that some have the minhag to wait 6 hours between meat dish and a milk dish. Badai Hashulchan 89:82 says one should be strict and that's the minhag.
  14. Rama YD 89:3. See Orchot Rabbenu p. 205 n. 11 who was strict upon himself not to even have nat bar nat within 6 hours. The case was that his wife served him tea in a dairy eino ben yomo cup after four or five hours after he ate meat and he didn't drink the tea even though it is permitted. Sefer Dvar Charif p. 11 fnt. 43 writes that no one is concerned for this stringency even though the Rivan holds that nat bar nat is treated like actual dairy if it was cooked.
  15. Rabbi Akiva Eiger 89:4 on Shach 89:19, Bet Meir 89 on Shach 89:19, and Sefer Dvar Charif p. 12 are lenient. See Sefer Dvar Charif p. 11 fnt. 44 quoting Rav Elyashiv is lenient against Pri Megadim that one can eat sharp food cooked in dairy pot within the 6 hours.
  17. Horah Brurah 89:43 writes that the pot needs to be clean in order for the food to be considered parve and not meat. In the biurim he explains that for Sephardim the idea of the Shach doesn't follow from the Bet Yosef 173:1. Additionally, the Bet Meir 89 argues on the Shach since if the remnant foods are more than sixty certainly that's called a meat dish.
    • See Voice of Lakewood (Feb 25 2011) which quotes a dispute between Rabbi Felder and Divrei Moshe whether the deep fried food which was fried in the same oil as meat or chicken was fried in requires the one eating the food to wait six hours. Rav Felder is strict since the Shach was only talking about a pot which was clean but there was a bit of meat remaining unintentionally. Also, teimat yisrael doesn't help since the taste of chicken or meat fat and vegetable oil is very similar.
  18. Shulchan Aruch YD 89:1
  21. Darkei Teshuva 89:12, 13, 22
  22. Kaf HaChaim 89:5
  24. S”A YD 89:1
  25. Kaf HaChaim 89:15
  26. Shach 89:5 citing Maharshal Yam Shel Shlomo Chullin 8:9, Taz 89:2, Kaf HaChaim 89:17
  27. The Rama 89:2 writes that it isn't right to intentionally complete a meat meal with intention of eating dairy immediately afterwards. But he notes that some aren't careful about that. Taz 89:3 strongly attacks such a minhag and says that it doesn't follow any opinion. Yet, the Pitchei Teshuva 89:2 cites the Bechor Shor who defends the minhag.
  32. Yachava Daat 4:41
  33. Bamidbar 11:33
  35. Badei Hashulchan 88:13 cites the Haflah 89:1 who writes that if one swallows the piece of meat found in one's mouth after a few hours that would require restarting waiting 6 hours. However, he notes that the minhag isn't like that. Yalkut Yosef Isur Vheter v. 3 p. 373 implies that one can't eat that piece of meat.
  36. Rav Belsky in Shulchan Halevi 22:2 p. 208 writes that a small piece of food stuck in one's mouth after some time doesn't have any taste and doesn't require restarting. He didn't want to establish at what point this would be the case. Or Hahalacha by Rav Makis (Halacha Bahira 88:1) is lenient since there's no taste in a small piece stuck in one's mouth and chazal said to wait after finishing eating and were not concerned with small crumbs which commonly are left in one's mouth. Hari Yehuda YD 1:10 at great length shows that one doesn't need to restart the clock. One reason is that according to Rashi that we're concerned about taste it should be permitted in this case since the food in one's mouth begins to break down and that combines with the digestion of the stomach. Horah Brurah 88:9 is lenient. Horah Brurah cites Rav Elyashiv (Agadalcha Bshulchan p. 29) and Rav Nevinsal (Gam Ani Odecha 2:138) who are also lenient.
  37. Shulchan Aruch YD 89:2
  38. The Pri Chadash 89:6 (cited by Bear Heitiv 89:5) holds that one doesn't have to wash one's hands if one ate with a fork. Pri Megadim Siftei Daat 89:20 adds that it is proper to be strict since it is easy to do so.
  39. Even though the Shlah and Zohar are strict, the Rama OC 494:3 and Mishna Brurah 494:16 don't require a bracha achrona after dairy before eating meat. Pri Megadim M"Z 89:3 writes that it is a chumra and even if one is strict it is sufficient to make a bracha achrona even if one's intention is to eat meat afterwards.
  40. Shulchan Aruch YD 89:3
  41. Badei Hashulchan 89:83 writes that one needs to be strict to require cleaning out one's mouth with a liquid and a solid just like between eating cheese and meat. However, he cites the Chagurat Shmuel and Aruch Hashulchan who hold that it isn't necessary.
  42. Shulchan Aruch YD 89:3
  43. Pri Megadim E"A 494:6 writes that since a sharp food is treated like the actual food itself if it is cooked in a dairy pot one shouldn't eat it within 6 hours. However, see Rabbi Akiva Eiger YD 89:4 who is lenient to allow not waiting 6 hours after eating a sharp food cooked in a meat pot. Sefer Dvar Charif p. 11 fnt. 45 quotes from the Sefer Knesset Chachmei Yisrael who says that in theory it is possible to distinguish between the Pri Megadim and Rabbi Akiva Eiger. Only to initiate the process of waiting 6 hours do we say that a sharp food isn't considered like the dairy itself but once one has to wait from eating real meat perhaps everyone would agree to disallow eating a sharp food cooked in a diary pot. He quotes Rav Elyashiv was being lenient against the Pri Megadim.
  44. Isur Veheter 40:10 holds that only meat stuck in one's teeth is considered meat but not cheese. Taz 89:4 cites this. However, the Yad Yehuda Pirush Haaruch 89:4 points out that the Rashba Torat Habayit 3:4 86a disagrees. Aruch Hashulchan 89:11 also holds that cheese in one's teeth is like cheese.
  45. Teshuvat Maharam Rotenburg cited by Bet Yosef OC 173, Rama YD 89:2. Taz 89:4 explains that the two reasons for waiting between meat and milk is because of meat getting stuck in your teeth and the taste remaining in your mouth. The only reason that applies to waiting after having hard cheese is because of the lingering taste. Pri Chadash 89:16 argues on the Taz that reason of the food getting stuck in your teeth also applies to cheese. Aruch Hashulchan 89:11 agrees.
  47. Isur Veheter 40:10, Shach 89:15, Taz 89:4, Pri Chadash 89:16, Aruch Hashulchan 89:11, and Kitzur Shulchan Aruch 46:11 write that hard cheese is cheese that was aged for 6 months.
  48. Rabbi Avrohom Gordimer in OU's Daf HaKashrus Tamuz 5771 p. 55.
  49. Shevet Halevi 2:35 writes that one should be strict about any hard cheese even if it is aged for less than 6 months. Rav Elyashiv in Kovetz Teshuvot 1:58:2 writes that one should wait six hours after eating melted yellow cheese on pizza since the reason to wait for cheese is the sharp taste and that's true even if it melted.
  50. Yad Yehuda Pirush Hakatzar 89:30 writes that if the cheese was softened by being melted one doesn't have to be strict to consider the food a tavshil of cheese. See OU Article fnt. 6 which says that the OU holds that the Yad Yehuda can only be applied to a case of a tavshil of cheese in that the cheese isn't noticeable. However, some apply the Yad Yehuda to any melted cheese. Badei Hashulchan 89:2 s.v. vechen seems to apply the Yad Yehuda to all cases but questions it since the softening only helps that it doesn't get stuck in one's teeth but not for the sharp taste.
  51. Shulchan Aruch 89:4, Kitzur Shulchan Aruch 46:12
  52. Badei HaShulchan 89:99
  53. Pischei Teshuva ad loc.
  54. Badei HaShulchan 89:102