Kosher: what Saucepan can check, and what it cannot

Saucepan flags the ingredients that are plainly not kosher. It cannot see certification, slaughter, or how a kitchen is run.

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Saucepan is a cooking app. A flag is a guide, not a guarantee, and it is not medical or religious advice. Always check labels, and ask your doctor, dietitian or religious authority when it matters.

What the kosher filter does

Set it once, for everyone you cook for. Explore and your own recipes then show what fits, flag the ingredient that does not, and suggest a swap.

What Saucepan flags

Pork, including bacon, ham, lard and pork sausage.
Shellfish and molluscs: shrimp, crab, lobster, oysters, mussels, squid.
Fish without fins and scales, such as catfish, eel, shark and swordfish.
Insect-derived colour such as carmine.
Gelatin is marked “check”, because its source decides.

Where it cannot know

Certification. Kosher status depends on a hechsher (a supervision mark) on the product, and on the authority you follow. Saucepan cannot read that from a recipe.
Kosher slaughter. Saucepan does not know whether beef or chicken was slaughtered according to kosher law.
Mixing meat and dairy. A recipe with beef and cheese looks fine ingredient by ingredient, but combining them is not kosher. Saucepan does not yet judge a whole dish this way, so read the recipe yourself.
Wine and grape products, which need kosher supervision, and Passover rules.
Kitchen practice: separate utensils, and checking produce for insects.

In short. Kosher in Saucepan is a first pass. It removes what is clearly not kosher. It does not make a recipe kosher. Ask your rabbi or follow your community’s guidance.

Common kosher swaps

What to use instead, and how to use it.

Instead of Bacon
Beef bacon, smoked salmon or smoked mushrooms
Beef bacon is sold with kosher certification. Check the mark.
Instead of Shrimp
Salmon, or firm white fish with fins and scales
Cut the fish into chunks for skewers, tacos or pasta.
Instead of Cream or cheese in a meat dish
Oat or coconut cream, or olive oil
Meat and dairy are not combined in a kosher meal. Plant-based cream keeps the sauce rich.
Instead of Butter in a meat dish
Olive oil or margarine certified pareve
Pareve means neither meat nor dairy. Look for the “pareve” mark on the label.
Instead of Gelatin
Agar-agar or kosher-certified gelatin
Agar is plant-based and stays neutral. Kosher gelatin is labelled.
Instead of Swordfish or catfish
Salmon, cod or tuna steaks
Use the same cooking method. Tuna and salmon are both fish with fins and scales.

Does this ingredient fit?

Type an ingredient and pick a diet. This is a quick guide built from Saucepan’s own ingredient table. It runs on your device.

Check against

Ingredient

Pick a starting point or type your own. Sauces and packaged foods vary, so the answer is a guide.

Questions

Does Saucepan tell me whether a recipe is kosher?

Not definitively. It flags ingredients that are plainly not kosher and marks some as “check”. Kosher depends on certification, slaughter and kitchen practice that a recipe cannot show.

Does it flag meat and dairy together?

Not as a rule across the whole dish yet. Read recipes that include both, and use the swaps for pareve alternatives.

Why is swordfish flagged?

Authorities differ. Saucepan follows the cautious reading, so it flags swordfish with other fish that may not have both fins and scales. Ask your rabbi if this matters to you.

Why does the checker mark wine and cheese “check”?

Both can need kosher supervision. A recipe cannot show that, so check the label.