by Rabbi Yair Hoffman for the Five Towns Jewish Times

EVERY SO OFTEN A FOOD comes along that literally takes over the market.

Such has happened with a new food that is perhaps only 18 months old (at least in our community).Who would have imagined that Pretzel Chicken would have entered the Jewish community with such a storm?

Avi Krasnow, of Chap-A-Nosh in the Gourmet Glatt Emporium in the Five Towns remarks, “Pretzel Chicken is definitely one of the fastest growing chicken products in the past few years – no question or doubt about it.”

High school students, believe it or not, are now take it along to their school Shabbatonim, eschewing the chicken that is prepared by the camps or hotels that house the school Shabbatonim. Mothers and wives are scrambling for recipes so that they do not have to dish out some $15 per pound for it. Some of their children (and husbands) are no longer eating the time-tested chicken recipes that they have been using for years.

When attempting to make it in the kitchen at home, the biggest dilemma these mothers and wives face is how does one get the pretzels to stick to the chicken?[I am told that the trick is to use a flour coating first and refrigerate – then after refrigerating for a few hours to use eggs andsecond flour coating].

THE DILEMMA

But there is another dilemma that has been created by the sudden arrival of pretzel coated chicken.What bracha is to be recited upon it when not eaten during the Shabbos meal?And all of them do snack on it on Thursday night or on Friday. Do we say, as it seems to be with mezonos coated chicken (schnitzel), that the coating is batel to the chicken?

Or do we say, because the pretzels are so visible and so thick, that this new food is entirely Mezonos?Or perhaps, the third option, should we be making two brachos?
There are some people who, by virtue of the brachos question, will stop eating the pretzel chicken entirely – unless they have previously washed on it.Why?They do not wish to enter into a safek bracha situation.

It is not that this is the most earth-shattering question that faces us right now, but the analysis of the issue may give us new insight into how we read and understand certain Gemorahs and Torah concepts.

MEZONOS UBER ALLES – MEZONOS ABOVE ALL

The Gemorah in Brachos (36b) quotes both Rav and Shmuel that whenever an item has one of the five grains, the blessing is Mezonos. The Gemorah uses this to resolve a debate between Rav Yehudah and Rav Cahana regarding a certain food combination.

The Rosh (Siman 6) and the Rashba explain that the food under discussion contains more of other product than of Mezonos (grain) product.From here, the concept of “Mezonos above all” is derived.That is, whenever there is any part of the food that is mezonos, it is the determining factor.

TWO ISSUES

There are actually two issues here.The first issue is whether the minority food has become a tafel – insignificant in light of the majority element, and therefore loses its blessing.The second issue is whether the food under discussion is actually considered to be one food item or is it two food items.If it is one food item, it would seem to require just one blessing.If it is two food items, it seems that it would require two blessings, unless one of the items is deemed insignificant.

The Gemorah further on (39a) cites Rav Ashi as saying that when the Mezonos is added merely as a sticking agent, the food item retains the original blessing.The grain only being a sticking agent would make it insignificant from a halachic point of view.The Baalei Tosfos, Rashba,Rosh and the Rambam (Hilchos Brachos 3:5) all rule in accordance with this view.

This author would like to suggest that there may be a dispute as to how exactly to understand the Gemorah’s further quote of Rav Ashi on 39a.Is this the only exception to the rule of “Mezonos above all?”We will call this “Approach A” to the citation of Rav Ashi. Or does this citation demonstrate that the rule of “Mezonos above all” is not necessarily a hard and fast rule.We will call this “Approach B.”We will see that this question may be a debate between the Rashba and the aforementioned Rosh.

WHY IS SCHNITZEL SHEHAKOL?

The truth is that it is not so clear as to why people do not recite a mezonos on schnitzel.Schnitzel , of course, is mezonos coated chicken (to exclude corn flake or Rice Krispies coated chicken – the latter being not a true Mezonos).The Mezonos coating on schnitzel is not there for binding, but rather for taste- and it is in every bite.Yet for some reason, the custom is that we recite only a shehakol. Indeed, Rav Elyashiv zatzal is cited in numerous seforim (see for example Rav Pinchas Bodner’s book on Brachos) as holding that the bracha on schnitzel is mezonos.Rav Moshe Feinstein zt”l is cited as holding that the bracha is shehakol.We also find a similar debate in regard to Cookies n Cream ice cream.Rav Yisroel Belsky once told me that the blessing is shehakol and one should recite a mezonos on the big pieces.Another prominent Posek who has authored several authoritative seforim in halachah informed me that the ice cream is mezonos only.

Rav Yoseph Teomim, the author of the Pri MaGadim in his Aishel Avrohom (OC 168:30) discusses a case that could perhaps shed much light on our case.He discusses a case where someone is adding bread crumbs into beer.He differentiates between larger pieces and smaller pieces.He writes that the smaller pieces would be batel to the drink but not the larger pieces.The size of the crumbs is apparently the determining factor as to whether his intent is on them as well.The Pri Magadim is explaining the position of the Mogain Avrohom who seems to be differentiating between taste and substance versus mere taste alone.He writes that if it is added for taste but there is no significant substance we do not say “Mezonos wins all.”The Mogain Avrohom bases his reasoning on his reading of the Rambam.

There is a debate as to the actual text of the Mogain Avrohom, but it would seem that the Pri Magadim’s understanding of him is the authoritative one.I would like to suggest that this Pri Magadim is the reason why many Poskim differentiate between a thick coating of schnitzel where the bracha is mezonos and a thin layer where they consider the bracha to still be shehakol.

The Pri Magadim is thought to be one of the most authoritative achronim in halachah.This Pri Magadim would explain why the custom has evolved to only recite a shehakol on chicken schnitzel.

THE ROSH’S VIEW

Where did the Pri Magadim and Mogain Avrohom derive this position?It could very well be that he derived this from the language of the aforementioned Rosh, even though it is not clearly mentioned.The Rosh uses the following wording to explain the principle “Kole sh’ikro m’chameshes haminimafilu rovo mimin acher – anything whose essence is from the five grains even if most of it is from another type.”Rav Asher Weiss (Responsa p. 44) reads this Rosh as fundamentally disagreeing with the idea that Mezonos wins always.He writes that from a qualitative sense it is not a five grain product – then the blessing remains what the food item’s essence is.

THE RASHBA

The Rashba (Brachos 37a) explains a certain honey, grain mix as still being a Mezonos – even though he explains that the essence of the food is the honey.This view lies in stark contrast to the explanation given in how we read the Rosh.

The Shulchan Aruch (208:2-3,9), however, does not adopt the language of the Rosh.He seems to be learning like the Rashba that Mezonos is always the criterion with the exception of what was mentioned alone.There is no concept of “essence of the food.”

So what about the pretzel chicken?It would seem that if the pretzels are there in their entirety, this would at the very least fit the Pri Magadim’s criterion.The view of the PMGwould explain why most Poskim have in the past stated that when schnitzel has a thick coating it is mezonos and if it is a thin coating it remains a shehakol.

WHAT OF THE CHICKEN, THOUGH?

So let us grant that the pretzels need a bracha, but what about the chicken?Do we consider this one item and then the bracha would be mezonos only?Or are there really two items here that are not a mixture – chicken and pretzels?

Rav Asher Weiss (Minchas Asher #16) would require two brachos just as he rules on the Cookies n Cream ice cream.The Poskim who do not invoke the aforementioned Rosh (or do not attribute significance to the nuanced reading of it) would just require one bracha.

The Mishna Brurah (168:45) in a somewhat shocking position seems to indicate that the foods need to be cooked together in order to be considered one mixture and not simply placed together.If so, the question would arise that these pretzels are already pre-baked.Perhaps then they would not be considered pre-cooked.It would seem, however, that the Mishna Brurah only wrote this to require some sort of action happening within the food to demonstrate that it is one unit.Thus, the process of putting it in the oven so that it would attach together would probably fulfill this requirement.The pretzel chicken would be one bracha then.

BRACHA ACHRONA

And what about the Bracha Achrona?It would seem that most people do not eat the pretzel chicken fast enough where the pretzels themselves would form a kezayis and be eaten within the time frame of Bichdei Achilas Pras (three to four minutes).Thus the after-blessing is certainly a Borei Nefashos.

Of course, everyone should ask their own Rav or Posaik as to how to proceed with Pretzel Chicken and with the Cookies n Cream Ice Cream, but it is important to understand the dynamics of how our Poskim come to determine the deep complexities of halachah.

The author can be reached at [email protected]