Brachot on Food One Eats Before a Meal: Difference between revisions

# According to Ashkenazim, if a person ate [[Pat Haba Bekisnin]] such as cake before the meal since birkat hamazon might cover the [[Pat Haba Bekisnin]] no bracha achrona is recited on the cake before the meal.<ref>Mishna Brurah 176:2. Biur Halacha s.v. berach explains that since every definition of Pat Haba Bekisnin is questionable whether it is bread and if it is bread then certainly birkat hamazon covers it, one should not recite a bracha achrona on it before the meal. Furthermore, Rabbi Akiva Eiger on OC 208:17 holds that birkat hamazon exempts pat haba bkisnin.</ref> Some Ashkenazim argue to make a bracha.<ref>Rav Moshe Feinstein in Igrot Moshe OC 3:33 writes that cakes nowadays are so filled with a majority of sugar, oil, and sweeteners in comparison to the flour that they are certainly [[Pat Haba Bekisnin]]. If so, there is no question that they aren't bread and birkat hamazon doesn't exempt them. Therefore, they deserve their own bracha before the meal.</ref> According to some Sephardim, a bracha achrona is made on [[Pat Haba Bekisnin]] before a meal. If one forgot until after hamotzei he shouldn't recite it anymore.<ref>Kaf HaChayim on Shulchan Arukh, Orach Chayim 174:35:1, Vezot Habracha (p. 83) quoting Rav Mordechai Eliyahu</ref>

# On non-[[Pat Haba Bekisnin]] mezonot such as cooked mezonot one should recite a bracha achrona on that food before the meal<ref>Mishna Brurah 176:2 citing the Graz explains that the mezonot before a meal needs a bracha achrona since it isn't connected to the meal. In the Shaar Hatziyun he explains further that even though the achronim (Pri Chadash, Gra, and Even Haozer on 208:17) hold that birkat hamazon exempts mezonot, that is only after the fact. Therefore, it is better to recite the bracha achrona on the mezonot before the meal.</ref> unless one is going to eat that same food in the meal.<ref>Mishna Brurah 176:2 as we find in Shulchan Aruch O.C. 176:1 and 174:6 that having a food exempt foods in the meal exempts it from a bracha achrona before the meal. This is evident in Mishna Brachot 42a.</ref>