A question about What constitutes halal (muslim meat)

Gaddez

So I'm looking to make something for work, but my two bosses are a pair of pakistani brothers and both are pretty devout muslims and I just wanted to ask a quick question about what constitutes halal food.

I know that certain meats (like pork) are out, but I seem to recall it had to be prepared in a certain way; does anyone know what exactly that might entail so that I can avoid getting into the shits with my two bosses?

briguy

Halal meat also refers to the process in which the animal is killed. You can find meat products labeled as halal at some grocery stores or butchers.

Edit: as for what it entails. Well, unless you've raised and slaughtered the animal itself, it's not something you can do. It's saying a prayer, humanely killing the animal, and completely draining the blood as blood is not halal. I may be missing some, but that's how a Muslim gentleman I knew explained it. I think it's pretty similar to kosher meat.

SanderJK

Halal is mostly about meat. Can't be pork mainly, and has to be slaughtered in the way described by the Koran.
So if you buy Halal meat or make a vegetarian meal you are pretty much set.

There is one food coloring agent called Carmine (which is red) made from insects that you may want to avoid. I know it's often in M&Ms for instance.

mRahmani

Shia Muslim here, though Sunni rules are identical as far as I know. @briguy basically has it right, there's a couple ritualistic things involved (must offer the animal water first as a show of mercy, must say a small prayer, etc). It's similar to Kosher, though not identical, so sadly you can't just buy Kosher meat and say "Eh, good enough."

Zabihah.com is a pretty excellent resource for finding halal meat markets and restaurants around. Depending on where you live, you may even be able to find Halal packaged meats in your regular grocery stores - the Costco up the street from me has pretty good turkey breast and beef pastrami slices. If there's nothing nearby, anything vegetarian or fish is great too. (The only exceptions I know of for fish are catfish and sharks, because the fish in question needs to have scales.)

Thanks for going to the effort - they will probably hugely appreciate it!

Gaddez

Yeah, the main reason I asked was because we have a tradition of ordering in pizza (which comes from Pizza hut; not sure how ardently it follows halal) on saturday nights which invariably fits the bill for Halal, and I routinely have issues since I frankly can't stand vegetables on a pizza.

To this end, I was planning on bringing in a pizza done in the chicago style (very much like a pie) and using a combination of Montreal smoked meat and ground beef as ingredients/toppings combined with a tomato sauce as a filling and shredded nacho cheese as both an interior lining (as a nod to the chicago style) and a topping (to complete the pie appearance).

As an aside I'm dubbing this thing a montago.

ceres

I don't think halal has meat/dairy restrictions? I know kashrut does but no idea about halal.

mRahmani

Nah we're down with cheeseburgers. Meat and dairy together is cool.

The pizza idea is cool, ground beef is great and a lot of halal butcher shops have spiced turkey/beef that might be close-ish to what you had in mind. As far as chain restaurants go (or any restaurant really), it's a pretty safe bet that anything that doesn't have a giant HALAL MEAT HERE sign in the window doesn't serve it.

Gaddez

Awesome