Chullin 109

The Talmud’s exploration of the prohibition on mixing milk and meat lands in an interesting spot on today’s daf: the udder. Given that the udder holds an animal’s milk before it is expressed, cooking one for consumption may be problematic.

One who wants to eat the udder of a slaughtered animal tears it and removes its milk. If one did not tear the udder before cooking it, one does not violate the prohibition against cooking and eating meat and milk and does not receive lashes for it.

Ideally, one cuts open an udder to drain its milk before cooking it. Doing so prevents one from cooking milk and meat together. However, if one cooked an udder without first draining the milk found within and then ate it, one is not liable to be punished. This suggests that while the rabbis would prefer that we not do so, it is permissible to cook an udder with its milk.

The Gemara could have chosen to say that the mishnah represents the biblical view and the rabbis issued a decree prohibiting the consumption of udders, or at least udders that have not been drained of their milk. In this case, however, the Gemara cites a beraita that suggests that the more permissive voice in the mishnah carries the day:

An udder that one cooked in its milk is permitted. A stomach that one cooked with the milk it contains is prohibited for consumption.

If at the time of its slaughter, says the beraita, a young animal’s stomach contains milk that it drank from its mother, one cannot cook and eat the stomach; it is considered to be a forbidden mixture of milk and meat. Not so an udder that contains milk; its consumption is permitted. The logical conclusion is that milk that has not yet been expressed from the udder is not really milk (at least for the purposes of this prohibition), and therefore an udder can be cooked and consumed while full of milk.
 
To bolster its argument, the Gemara tells the following story:

Yalta said to her husband Rav Nahman: Now as a rule, for any item that the Merciful One prohibited to us, God permitted to us a similar item. For example, God prohibited to us the consumption of blood, yet God permitted to us the consumption of liver, which is filled with blood and retains the taste of blood. God prohibits pork, but allows the brain of a shibuta fish, which has a similar taste.

Her list goes on, including not only culinary pleasures but sexual ones as well, perhaps to titillate her husband and influence his response to her ultimate request:

The Torah prohibits the consumption of meat cooked in milk; I wish to eat a dish that tastes like meat cooked in milk.
Upon hearing this, Rav Nahman said to his cooks: Roast udders on a spit for her.
 
If mixing milk and meat is prohibited, Yalta reasons, there must be a law somewhere that gives us a taste of this forbidden fruit. It is unclear if she is asking because she is sure that such a rule exists or if she wants her husband to find or create it for her. Whichever the case, Rav Nahman does not disappoint: He orders up roasted udder.

Both the Mishneh Torah (Forbidden Foods 9:12) and the Shulchan Aruch (Yoreh De’ah 90:1) are clear that eating an udder is prohibited by rabbinic decree. Should one desire to eat one nonetheless, he should rid the udder of its milk before cooking, as stipulated by the mishnah. Like Rav Nahman, who cannot ignore his wife, they cannot set aside the more permissive voices in the Gemara and are forced to rule that if one failed to drain the udder before cooking, one is still permitted to partake of it.

Read all of Chullin 109 on Sefaria.

This piece originally appeared in a My Jewish Learning Daf Yomi email newsletter sent on August 17, 2026. If you are interested in receiving the newsletter, sign up here.