Halal rundown - muslim mumsnetters?

[Plinkyplonky2]

Hello folks

we have a new nanny starting who is quite devout muslim. She’s said she’s only comfortable handling halal food which I totally understand and respect. I’ve done some research and from our local sains i’ll just get chicken, mince etc from the halal section of the store.

But i seem to recall there’s more to it than just meat… what am i missing? If memory serves it’s also no shellfish (?) no fermented products (? Soy sauce? Vinegar?) had a muslim housemate at uni and we used to cook together sometimes but that was ages back.

What about dairy? I guess we need special stock cubes?

This lady is lovely and mary poppins with the kids so i want to make sure she feels comfortable in the house and that she has ingredients she can work with.

Anyone help with a crash course?

I can't help with food, but I wonder if it might be useful to have an expectations-setting conversation with her before she starts, e.g. we respect and enjoy learning about other people's religions and their practice of it in this house, but the children can't be expected to eg wear only what a devout muslim would consider modest dress for children or join in with prayer. Makes sure everyone is on the same page from day one and would apply to any very religious nanny.

Dh is Muslim. The issue is about meat. Halal means nothing with pork in it and the meat should be slaughtered in a certain way. Shellfish is fine - you are thinking of Kosher food. Sainsbury's has started to do
a good selection of halal food.

Ask Nanny about the rules.

She’s still in another role and super busy so i thought i’d take it on myself to educate myself. It’s interesting to learn new things x

She’s babysat for us loads. She’s amazing and we’re all on the same page. Just as her role is changing and she’ll start preparing food i want her to feel comfortable x

I don't think alcohol is acceptable in halal. So if, like me, you cook a lot of East Asian food which can typically uses shaoxing rice wine or mirin then be careful there. For example I think Wagamama have alcohol in all their curry sauces.

The only other thing I can think of that we do when there are Muslim staff on rota is clear away and wash up any wine glasses and bottles that contain alcohol (or used to!) so for instance if you and DH have a glass of wine in the evening, clear the glasses and wine bottle away before she starts in the morning (even if you would usually leave them for the morning to put in the dishwasher, for instance).

Also no pork gelatin! So keep an eye on haribo, for instance.

What about seasonings? I was helping another mate meal plan for ramadan at one point and she said something about vinegar not being ok?

Wow.

Hi OP, I'm Muslim, you can have sauces and shellfish. I think it's Jews who can't have shellfish, not sure about the sauces.
Just look out for sweets or yogurts that have got gelatine (even beef gelatine, unless it specifically states it's halal) and pork obviously.
Muslims also don't handle alcohol (although some Muslims think cooking alcohol is fine but I believe that's a minority) or serve alcohol.

No alcohol (including some extracts like vanilla - flavoring is usually ok).
No pork.
Other meat slaughtered in the prescribed way.
I'd also discuss what happens at Ramadan. Will she still prepare food for them when fasting.

That's great. And what a find. A friend has an experience with a helper of another religion so I thought I'd flag it up just in case.

Hi OP, im muslim, the basics are no alcohol, no pork (in products too) so if sauces or pastries have alcohol in them, this is not considered halal albeit there is a difference between handling products wit alcohol and and drinking alcohol, what i mean by this is your nanny may be okay heating or preparing ready to roll pastry for the kids as long as she is not eating it herself but may not be okay with cooking or cleaning where wine is involved. Same with may be okay yo make some jelly using non halal gelatine but may choose not to eat it. If she is staying all day and will be eating lunch etc. then it reauires more thought.

in addition there is halal meat only (beef / lamb / chicken etc) and some muslims do not eat crab, prawns etc. so its quite personal and hard to know whats okay if its not something you follow. I sometimes buy things and later realise they have some colouring that is not permissible so i would have an open conversation with your nanny and say you are open to trying alternative things but can she help you with this. As a muslim i feel awkward when others have to adjust around me and im so thankful when they do, so giving her that permission will mean a lot to her

She’s starting after ramadan x

Thanks so much for your post.

And I don’t want her to feel awkward as I think she was a bit shy of seeming difficult when she said she wouldn’t be happy cooking non-halal (she is LOVELY) so I thought rather than putting it all on her to educate me I could educate myself a bit, get the basics in and then she can say anything else she needs x

Vinegar can have traces of alcohol.

Would she be more comfortable if you gave her a bidget, cupboard shelf and box in a fridge (no crosscontamination) so she can buy what she prefers and doesn't have to worry?
Or are you all moving onto halal diet?

Box is a really good idea.

i tend to batch cook a bit and then we all dig in so there for me if i work late or for nanny if kids late back from school etc, so figured for batch cooking i’d just switch to halal meat (all comes from sainsburys anyway so no difference to us) but then started thinking whether i need to think about seasonings, dairy etc. like bolognese i would just switch to halal mince (easy) but i also tend to add balsamic and stock for flavour and was thinking do i need to switch those too (fine can also do that) but THAT made me think what else do i not know.

We’ll still keep non halal stuff in the house for the family.

If you have any halal butchers nearby, they can be really good value and we prefer the quality as well usually. Plus they are usually part of a shop with really good value spives and pickles.
Afaik balsamic is generally halal. Some vinegars may be depending on person and each has bit different tolerance.
I don't think we encountered non halal spices really.
We never worried about stock cubes but irrc Knorr were halal.

My daughter is a strict Muslim and the thing I find the most challenging is avoiding nutmeg and mace - nutmeg seems to be in so many things. It also rules out mixed spice which almost always contains nutmeg. Some types of vinegar are not acceptable and obviously any trace of alcohol has to be avoided. You will also need to get halal stock cubes. When my daughter first converted to Islam I spent many many hours reading food labels and finding staples thst she could have. In my case, it's complicated because she will only eat organic food and finding organic halal meat was a bit of a challenge at first.

I assume that your new nanny will be living in, so One other thing you might consider is her room and any ornaments that might be in it. I've collected all sorts of trinkets over the years and have a couple of Egyptian statues, a couple of little Buddhas, and I had my late mother's crucifix hanging from a shelf in my daughters room. My husband also had a box of wine stored in the room. She removes all of these as soon as she arrives each time as she cannot pray in front of other deities. If your nanny doesn't have an en-suite bathroom, she will also need to be up to use the main bathroom to wash before prayer times, which always wakes me up when my daughter is here!

@Growlybear83 and @LethargicButAwesome are there any good online halal food suppliers?

Randomly my old boss I think had a very successful website selling all manner of halal goods but i cannot for the life of me remember what it was.

Sains has loads, and heaps of convenience foods, just thinking for anything else.

Nutmeg is personal preference. If you look at ME spice mixes many, many feature it. The discussion is because nutmeg is hallucinogen in larger quantity. See also poppy seeds

I'm sure there are some good online sites but I've always managed to get what I need from ocado, sainsburys, and a couple of local halal shops. It's easy to find alcohol free things But there's no way round the nutmeg/mace issue and it rules out so many cakes, biscuits etc. it's a particular problem with Christmas type foods that my daughter still eats like mince pies, Christmas pudding, and Christmas cake and I have to make my own each year. The only nutmeg free mincemeat I've found was sainsburys but after hours and hours of searching I'm 99.99% certain that there isn't a Christmas pudding made that doesn't contain nutmeg! But my home made puddings were very nice 😆

But Nutmeg and mace are halal
It's big in North African and Pakistani cuisine

Ive always bought my meat from a halal meat butchers as its fresh but if you have a halal section at sainsbury that should be fine too saves online shopping. Spices have never been a challenge for me i tend to use a lot of spices and herbs in my cooking mosts schwartz herbs and eastern apices are absolutely fone (tumeric, paprika, ground corriandor) sauces i always need to check but all of this you can get from a local shop or any large super market. I find my self replacing ingredients like veg stock cubes instead of chicken stock for example if i cannot be bothered to hunt things in local cash and carries

these local shops may look intimidating to a newbie but actually have a wide selection of halal alternatives and are generally cheaper than super markets when it comes to spices etc.

islam is a way of life, so it impacts every aspect of your being and your day, as muslims living in non/muslim countries we generally have learnt to adapt and navigate around others. i think its very wholesome and admirable that you are thinking about this and making accommodations.

All vinegars are halal