FAQs

Q: There’s a park near my house that has a few built-in barbecues available for the public to use. Of course, the barbecues are used for non-kosher all the time and I’m wondering if there is any way I can possibly use them for a party for my daughter’s class? [I thought of bringing my own portable barbecue to the park, but we’ve been told that the management of this park does not allow this due to safety concerns.]

A: There is a way to kasher a barbecue, but it is probably too difficult and time consuming for you to do in this situation. Here are the directions in case you choose to go through with it.

Before you begin kashering, the barbecue pit and grates would have to be perfectly clean, which is likely not going to be easy to accomplish. Next, you’d have to put enough coals to cover (a) the entire floor/pit, (b) the underside of the grate, (c) the top of the grate, and (d) any contact points between the grate and pit. Lastly, you would light the coals and let them burn for about an hour, after which you could use the barbecue for kosher food.