post-baitcon feedback

[quietann.livejournal.com]

My personal issues with baitcon are in my personal journal; however, there are a few things that IMHO need to change:

• Separate dishes/mixing equipment/etc. for any ice cream product containing meat. There are a lot of people involved who nominally keep kosher, and it's discomfiting to know that one's ice cream might have been prepared using the same equipment as, say, the chicken liver ice cream. (for that matter, I'd just ban meat-containing flavors entirely, but that's not my decision to make.)
  
• More whole wheat (not just wheat, whole wheat) bread, less white bread. We ran out of whole wheat by lunch on Saturday. (this suggestion passed on from Gregorian, who was amazingly polite about it, but still really would have preferred whole wheat bread for his peanut butter sandwich...)
  
• More tarpage for shade protection (may not be an issue if baitcon isn't at Mink Hollow anymore, but...)
  
• Re-reinforcement of the "modest dress" (ahem) requirement in and around the main area. There was one person in particular who seriously violated this. (insert serious snarkage here; I am trying to be polite.) Dancing naked in the rain, as usual, should be granted leniency.
  

Comments

[dr-memory.livejournal.com]

Er, no offense, but no, he doesn't. I asked a question: "How is this different from knowing that your ice cream may have been prepared with the same equipment that made the breakfast sausages or the ground beef?" Ben puts in another datapoint (that a friend of his can't attend because of the meat ice creams), but that doesn't answer the question.

All of the BC ice creams are prepared with equipment that probably fail even the most casual of kosher standards. The meat ice creams only highlight the issue. If there's a need for guaranteed-kosher food at baitcon, maybe someone should volunteer to coordinate a kosher kitchen or freezing station?

[dr-memory.livejournal.com]

(er, for "can't", substitute "won't", above.)

[frobzwiththingz.livejournal.com]

All of the BC ice creams are prepared with equipment that probably fail even the most casual of kosher standards.

It wouldn't make a difference even if we *had* a certified Glatt Kosher to work with. We freeze almost all of the ice cream between friday night and saturday night. Game Over. It's all treif.

[vvalkyri.livejournal.com]

Argh.
I think we've really gone donwn a rabbit hole, here.

Kosher/nonkosher is a red herring, as dr_memory has pointed out. It started as a nice thing to hang a concept of cross contamination on, but has stopped serving its purpose.

Even at Baitcon, icecreams very rarely have meat.

Unlike those who do not do spice or those who are allergic to [foo] there is a not insignificantly sized group of people who either 1) do not do meat or 2) do not do meat with milk.

A subset of those people would consider inedible any icecream that had had some of the meat ice cream get on it.

Given that the making equipment gets well cleaned between batches the only remaining problem becomes how to not get ingredient A onto icecreams that are not-A.

I don't think that separating out the few meat ice creams onto a subtable and giving them their own scoop is really such a big deal.


A side issue is labeling, and another side issue is potentially moving non-dairy concoctions such that they can remain milk-free.

But it's really a question of ingredient transfer rather than kashrut.

[vvalkyri.livejournal.com]

Yes, my bias is/was re discussion of the thing that was NEW THIS YEAR and re the concept that was FIRST BROUGHT UP.

That was the question of meat ice creams.

Oh, and also meat ice creams were the easiest to brainstorm about - this year there were only two.

Yeesh.

At this point the only people seeing this bit of conversation are you, me, and maybe quietann. If it bothers you this much then make a toplevel post. This is taking way too much of my time, given that I don't even freaking particularly care.