If a person vows that s/he will not eat meat, s/he can't eat gravy, spices, or other foods that flavour the meat, either. There is a difference between vowing that one will not drink wine and that one will not taste wine. We have to be specific about our vows.
The rabbis continue to speak about vows about one food that might imply the use of another food. Are both foods prohibited? We learn about ashishim, a dish made from lentils, though it is referred to as 'cakes' in the Song of Songs (says Rashi) and as 'cups' in Hosea. It is significant whether or not people believe that a forbidden ingredient is included in a dish such as lentils in ashishim, or milk in whey.
Another Mishna teaches that wine is permitted to one who vows not to taste grapes. Oil is permitted to a person who vows not to eat olives. However, if a person says that olives and grapes are konam for him/her and thus it is forbidden to taste those items, they are also forbidden from tasting what emerges from the olives or grapes (oil and wine). The Gemara questions how different factors might affect how one acts out his/her vow: intention, taste, actual words of the spoken vow, size, and others.
These conversations are very familiar; they remind me of conversations regarding kashrut. If there is a trace of something non-kosher in a kosher dish, is that dish still kosher? How do we determine when the status of one thing is 'contaminated' by another?
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