Hello, My room mate who is a Baal Tshuva left 2 pots 1 frying pan and 3 knifes in my apartment when she moved out, she told me i can keep them, but that i should kasher them (the pots and pan) How would i go about kashering them? I dont have a pot bigger than the pots i want to kasher? Can i kasher the knifes at the same time as the pots? Also once ive kashered the pots and pan can i choose to make one meat and one milk? i dont know what they were used for! Thanks

Shalom, You have three things to kosher - a pot, a frying pan and knifes:- There are three ways to kosher pots, after cleaning them well: 1) Fill a larger kosher pot with water and bring it to a boil. Immerse the pot requiring koshering whilst maintaining a strong boil. The pot need not be completely submerged all at once; it can be immersed piece by piece, lowering each part into the water. After koshering, rinse the koshered pot in cold water. Don't forget to kosher the lid in the same way. 2) If the pot to be koshered is too big to submerge in another pot, as in your case, fill it with water to the very top. Boil the water. Heat a large stone or other piece of metal. Using a pair of tongs, throw the heated stone or metal into the pot causing the water to overflow the top of the pot. This will kosher the top rim of the pot - the outside walls of the pot do not need to be koshered. Please take care not to burn yourself. Pour out the water and rinse the pot with cold water. 3) One can also kosher the pot with "dry" heat, by bringing all parts of it to a heat where a piece of tissue paper will be singed when coming into contact with it. If it is a big pot you might use a blow torch for this purpose. Again - please take good care of yourself when doing this. Frying Pans- If non-kosher food was fried in oil in a frying pan, one can kosher the pan by heating it (empty) to the point that paper will become singed when in contact with the other side of the heated metal. If it was used without oil, it is not feasible to kosher it since it must be heated until it glows red-hot which almost always will ruin the pan. Teflon frying pans which are usually used without oil cannot be koshered. Knifes - These are koshered in boiling water - and yes, you can put them into the pot you are koshering at the same time. After koshering, all utensils return to a "parve" status and you may choose to designate them for either milk or meat use. Blessings