If you're making a turkey (or brisket), the rest of the menu must be free of dairy products. No cheese with the hors d'oeuvres, no cream with the after-dinner coffee.
Got that? Now you have a glimpse of what home cooks go through to keep kosher at Passover, the 10-day holiday marking the exodus of the Jewish people from slavery in ancient Egypt.
The holiday is commemorated primarily with a service, or seder, in the home, using certain foods as symbols through which the story is retold. A feast, roughly on a par with Thanksgiving dinner, is served in the middle of the seder. So food is really at center stage on Passover.
And making sure that food is kosher for Passover is the biggest challenge.
About 15 percent of American Jews keep kosher year-round, and they have to eat from paper plates in the homes of nonkosher friends or relatives.
But on Passover, many more Jewish families keep kosher. It's a daunting task, says Arlene Lewis of Mount Laurel.
When she was growing up in East Flatbush in Brooklyn, Lewis says, 98 percent of the neighbors were Orthodox Jews and everybody kept kosher.
"There was a kosher butcher on practically every corner, so it was simple. When we moved down here, we found just the opposite. There are just a handful of Jewish people in my neighborhood and we are probably the most observant family."
Now Lewis' kitchen is kosher only on Passover - especially for the sake of her 77-year-old father, who lives in Cranbury, N.J. and visits on the holiday.
"It's important to me that people who do keep kosher can feel comfortable in my house," Lewis says. "Plus, Passover is my favorite holiday. I love the story of freedom and the idea of passing the traditions from one generation to the next."
