Adding Hot Water to a Cholent

  1. Adding Hot Water to a Cholent Pot on Shabbos

If upon awakening on Shabbos morning, or any other time on Shabbos, a person discovers that the cholent is about to burn and wants to add water from a pareve urn, one has to make sure of the following: 1) It is done in accordance with the halochos of Shabbos. 2) There is no possible mixing of milchig and felishig resulting in the urn becoming treife. 3) One must ensure that everything is done in the safest way possible. While the following approach is not absolutely necessary, it is the preferred method to achieve all the above goals which sometimes conflict with each other: Before adding the hot water to the cholent pot, it should be removed from the blech or the crockpot and held in mid-air or supported partially on a surface.  The person must continually hold it throughout this process, and the cholent pot (or crockpot insert) should not be totally resting on the surface. The water from the urn should be poured into the cholent pot directly, not poured first into a cup, etc., but ideally there should not be a nitzuk, a continuous flow. In order not to create a nitzuk, the water should be poured very slowly and be interrupted by repeatedly starting and stopping the flow. When all the required water has been added to the cholent, the cholent pot should first be covered and only then put back on the flame. Of course, all this should be done in the safest possible manner.

https://halacha2go.com?number=113

Practical Halacha: One minute a day. By Horav Yosef Yeshaya Braun, shlita, Mara D'asra and member of the Badatz of Crown Heights.