Do the first two first (Products and Style), then the third (Utensils)

I. Products - Before doing anything with your dishes or utensils, start by ridding your house of all non-kosher products: meat, processed items, baked goods, etc. Check your cupboards, freezer, refrigerator and storage areas. Gradually use up everything you have in the house that is not certified kosher (including spices, mixes, etc) and replace them with certified kosher items. During this step, you will want to make a relationship with a kosher butcher, familiarize yourself with kosher certification symbols, and acclimate yourself to kosher shopping. The following material can be of help.

• Kosher Korner Questions about products
• Shopping for kosher food
• Buying and preparing kosher meat
• Common kosher symbols

Outside questions and answers:

Yoreh De'ah

Kosher Slaughter

• Kassel Abelson, "Is a 'K' Kosher?" YD 1:1.1993

• Elliot Dorff and Joel Roth, "Shackling and Hoisting" YD 6.2000
• Mayer E. Rabinowitz, "A Stunning Matter: Stunning and Bolting After Shehitah" YD 27:1.2001a
• Avram Israel Reisner, "On the Matter of Stunning (and Bolting)" YD 27:1.2001b

Kosher and Non-Kosher Wine

• Elliot Dorff, "On the Use of All Wines" YD 123:1.1985

II. Process/Style - As you use up your non-kosher items and replenish with certified kosher products, begin simultaneously to get used to kosher preparation and presentation. Learn the meat cuts and how to use them. Begin separating milk and meat (not serving a milchig dessert after a fleishig meal; not using milk in coffee or a dairy margarine at a fleishig meal; watching your sauces; etc). Learn how to inspect eggs for blood spots and leafy vegetables for vermin, etc. The following material can be of help.

• Kosher Korner Questions about process
• Eating out in Toronto by Neighbourhoods

  Outside questions and answers:

  • 
    Meat and Milk

    • Kassel Abelson, "The Kashrut of Mono- and Di-Glycerides " YD 87:10.1982
    • Kassel Abelson, Mayer Rabinowitz, "Definition of a Davar Hadash" YD 87:10.1984
    • Kassel Abelson, "The Kashrut of Microbial Enzymes" YD 87:10.1994
    • Avram Israel Reisner, "Curiouser and Curiouser" YD 87:10.1997

 

• 
  Foreign Foods
  • Paul Plotkin, "On Mixing Fish and Meat" YD 116.2:1998
  • George Pollak, "Synagogue Policy Concerning Bringing Foods Prepared in the Home into the Synagogue" YD 119:7.1988

III. Utensils - After everything in the house is kosher and you are comfortable with kosher style, you are ready to kasher your utensils. The last thing you want is to kasher your kitchen and then inadvertantly treif everything with something that is not kosher. The following material should be useful.

• Kosher Korner Questions about utensils
• How to make your home kosher with Interactive Kosher Kitchen 
• Locations in Toronto to toval dishes

 

Addendum - Shabbat and Holidays

Outside questions and answers:

• 
  Pesah

  • Kassel Abelson, "When Pesah Begins on Saturday Night" OH 444.1993 
  • Mayer E. Rabinowitz, "Canned Tuna Fish on Pesah" OH 447:5.1995
  • Kassel Abelson, "Kashering a Microwave Oven for Pesah " OH 451:5.1983
  • Morris Feldman, "Does Milk Need a Kasher L'Pesah Label?" OH 448:7.1985
  • Mayer Rabinowitz, "A Pesah Guide " OH 453.1984 
  • Kassel Abelson, "May Baking Soda Be Used During Pesah? " OH 462:1.1982
  • Mayer Rabinowitz, "The Question of Yom Tov Sheini for Visitors to Israel " OH 496:3.1981

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