LETTERS, WE GET LETTERS

From JS in Seattle: What should I do when I find a dairy spoon in the meat drawer or vice versa?

Take the offending piece out of the drawer and put it in the correct drawer. It is ok to use the piece as soon as it is transferred. (Rem”a on YD 95:3)

From FP in Armonk: My best friend insists that it is wrong to put both meat and dairy on the same shelf in the refrigerator. Is that so?

Actually, it is quite permissible to do that. Care should be taken, however, with what is under each item. It could create all sorts of problems were your milk on the top shelf to leak onto the meat dish on the next shelf. So, bottom line? Be careful! (Beit Yosef, YD 88:1)

From HHT in Brooklyn: I like to taste as I cook. The problem is that I like to cook very early in the morning, and I do not want to be “fleishiq” so early in the day. Is is true that if I do not swallow the food I am tasting, I won’t, for example, become fleishiq?

No! Not true at all! Once the food enters your mouth, if it is meat, you now have to wait before you can have dairy (according to your communal custom). How about if you just sniff the food instead of tasting it? Better still- cook after dinner and then taste it!
(Beit Yosef on YD 89:1)