Cooking, Food, and Salted Fish on Shabbat

A person who melts even the slightest amount of metal or who heats a piece of metal until it glows like a coal performs a type of the forbidden labor of cooking. Similarly, a person who melts wax, tallow, tar, brown tar, or pitch, and the like performs a type of the forbidden labor of cooking and is liable.

Similarly, a person who heats an earthenware utensil until it becomes hard clay is liable for cooking. The general principle is: Whether one softens a firm entity with fire or hardens a soft entity, one is liable for cooking.

A pot of food may be placed on a double stove which holds two pots, shortly before Shabbat... Beit Shammai say: One may place hot water on such a stove but not cooked food; but Beit Hillel say: One may place both hot water and cooked food there. Beit Shammai: One may remove a pot from the stove, but may not return it; but Beit Hillel say: One may even return it.

If a gentile comes to extinguish the fire, one may not say to him: "Extinguish" or "do not extinguish," because it is not their our responsibility to ensure his Shabbat rest. But if a Jewish child comes to extinguish it they do not allow him because it is our responsibility to ensure his Shabbat rest.

One may take a hammer to crack nuts, or a hatchet to chop a cake of dried figs, or a saw to cut cheese, or a spade to sweep up dried figs, or a winnowing shovel or a pitchfork to serve food to a child.

Rabbi Abba said: And on Shabbat one is obligated to say hamotzi for the meal over two loaves. What is the reason? Because in the Torah portion that discusses gathering manna on Friday for Shabbat, the phrase: “Twice as much bread” (Exodus 16:22) is written. To commemorate this, Shabbat meals are based on two loaves of bread.

There is always room for sweets. It is generally accepted that one dining on delicacies eats more, and therefore, the amount of food in Shabbat meals is greater than that of weekdays, as they include more sweet foods.

The Gemara asks: With what does one delight in the day of Shabbat? Rav Yehuda, son of Rav Shmuel bar Sheilat, said in the name of Rav: With a dish of beets, and large fish, and heads of garlic. Rav Ḥiyya bar Ashi said that Rav said: Even with regard to a small item and one prepared it in deference to Shabbat, it is a delight. The Gemara asks: What is the small item mentioned? Rav Pappa said: Small fried fish.

(4) To honor the Sabbath a person should not eat a meal from the afternoon, so that he will enter the Sabbath with an appetite.

What is "enjoyment"? This is what the Sages said that one should prepare a fatty cooked dish and spiced drinks for the Shabbat, according to ones financial ability. Anyone who increases in his Shabbat expenditures and in preparing many good foods is worthy of praise. If one is unable to afford (these expenditures), even if one only makes fried vegetables or something similar in honor of the Shabbat, this is considered fulfillment of enjoyment of the Shabbat. One is not obligated to pain himself or to ask from others in order to increase his Shabbat meal. The early Sages said "make your Shabbat like a weekday and do not come to rely on people".

Rav Safra would roast the head of an animal to prepare it for Shabbat. Rava salted a shibuta fish in deference to Shabbat.

Rabbi Elazar said: A person should always set his table on Shabbat eve with all the preparations for an important feast, even if he only needs the table set for a single bite of food.