What Does Kosher Mean To You
Whether you eat Kosher because you feel that eating Kosher is a Divine command, or whether you think it’s a nice custom, or whether you think that it’s healthier, everyone has his trials when it comes to difficulties in keeping Kosher in all kinds of situations. For then you have to answer the question to yourself, what does kosher mean to you. Like for example when you are invited out by those who don’t keep kosher, be it a business meal or for social or for family. Obviously the more you relate to it as a religious issue the easier it will be to overcome. This happens to everyone. Just yesterday (in the middle of August) a Rabbi friend of mine told me that he has non-religious relatives from Tel Aviv who asked him to come to their wedding, adding that they arranged special food for him, and they made sure that everything is Kosher for Passover lol. I understood that he understood that they meant it seriously — the most Kosher you can get — Kosher for Passover!
Or another example, let's say that you cook a piece of meat in a milky pot. Now, in Jewish law, the piece of meat (and the pot) can be rendered not-Kosher in such a scenario. This is because when the Torah, the Jewish Bible, forbade forbidden foods, it also forbade the taste of the foods even though the original food is no longer there. For example, if you are cooking a stew, and a piece of horse meat falls in, even though you take it out right away it can still render the stew not Kosher, since the heat of the pot draws forth the taste from the piece of horse meat, which depending on different factors could make the stew not Kosher.
So now -- what does Kosher mean to you? If you are in the camp that believes that keeping Kosher is a Divine decree, well, then it's easy, the same G-d that said Thou shalt not steal, said Don't eat horse meat including its taste, or Don't cook your meat in a milky pot. He'll call up a competent Rabbi who will ask him pertinent details of what happened in order to rule whether the stew is still Kosher, or is already not Kosher.
But if for you it is only a nice custom, then you'll have to relate to the issue whether "taste" is also included in your custom. Or if for you it is only a question of eating generally more healthy then it depends how much a purist you are. Would a vegetarian eat such a vegetable stew where a piece of horse meat fell in but was immediately taken out? I imagine that there are all kinds.