HALAL SLAUGHTER METHOD

The cut.

The shape and the particular consistence of the “baladi” meat, is due to the fact of being cut from the body of an animal slaughtered just a short time before. When the cut process begins, the meat of the animal is still pulsating, not yet arrived to the “Rigor Mortis” state. Right after the killing of the animal, even being very tender, the meat has a gelatinous consistency, that makes it difficult to be cut with the knife.

The butcher, often being the one who kills the animal itself, does not cut according to physiognomic rules, but cuts the body into pieces of variable sizes, keeping though an acceptable proportion of bone-fat-meat.

He does not follow a precise model of cut, but he does not even proceed with a “random cut”. In this case the butcher does not have in his mind the imagine of a precise form, but he tries to give to the pieces an aspect that shows the evidence of a balanced structure: a bone surrounded by a thick layer of rosy, shiny and softly gelatinous meat, flowing under the weight of a subtle layer of foamy grease.

The butcher-slaughter-man-vendor works with heat, with dust, with the exotic sound of the “suk”, so far away from the cold and dark environment where the urban butcher operates.

The “rumi” meat instead is cut by a butcher who chooses the adequate tool for the cut for each specific piece he wants to obtain. Steaks, rumps, thighs, ribs and other roasts are cut from meat shining like wax, very red, cut and removed from carcasses of animals already in a “rigor mortis” state in the refrigerators of the slaughterhouses, according to the Moroccan rules.

Thanks to an extremely well sharp blade and thanks to a good knowledge of fibres  and articulation of the parts, the meat “matured” for 48 hours, can be cut like butter.

The particular brightness of the ”baladi”  pieces and  their extreme freshness, attract very easily the human eye to a subject that seems not having yet lost its vital strength. For this precise reason, all urban butchers use special cuts miming the “baladi” piece, that can be described like this:

“With a transversal cut, he leaves completely naked a central bone, better rosy, to testify the young age and the freshness of the animal , and  this naked bone covered by a thin membrane of grease is well exposed on most exhibition counters.

The butcher, still using “rumi” techniques and keeping the rule of selling tender meat, reserves half of his exhibition counter to cuts of meat in “baladi” style, satisfying the visual need of an opulence that will give the buyer a true feeling of satiety and satisfaction.

Halal meat, sold in most Moroccan butchers shops in the south west of France, is often cut and sold by ex farmers reconverted into the trading commerce. Their intuitive knowledge of becoming  butchers has been inspired by an original syncretism that in Morocco never gets to a point of fusion.

We can finally say, that Halal meat is not just the product of a particular ritual or process of the animal’s slaughter, but also the original result of a society, with its scent, tradition and religious background of muslim populations.