[Sca-cooks] Re: Halal and Kosher

[Lyn]

> Halal and kosher both require slaughtering an animal in an approved method
> (zabihah); in this case with the animal on the ground, using a very sharp
> blade to sever the blood vessels in the throat while a blessing or the name
> of Allah is spoken.

This reminded me of a very good story from my mis-spent youth. When I was in college I shared a house in Colorado Springs with 3 Saudi students. We had a regular house with a fenced-in yard, while all the other Saudi students in town lived in apartments. So when 3 of the apartment dwellers went in together on a 3-month-old goat that they bought from a nearby farmer, they asked if the goat could live in our yard until the weekend, when they would come over and slaughter it for a feast. No problem. Except that my roommates went to the Disco, had a few too many (as was common) and arriving home at 2 am, decided they wanted to eat the goat.

To justify this, they called the guys who had bought the goat, and told them "the goat tried to jump the fence and has cut its throat -- we're going to have to kill it right away before it bleeds to death, or no one will be able to eat it." Of course the poor buyers agreed, not wanting to lose their entire investment.

I was enlisted to help -- I couldn't bring myself to kill the goat (I had been feeding it out of my hand for 3 days), but I did have to help skin and butcher. You haven't lived, really until you've hung a goat upside-down from the basement rafters in the laundry room, and then removed each and every hair on its little body.

We had fresh goat stew at 4 am. Fortunately no one offered me the eyes.

~~ Lorète (who still prefers goat to lamb, hold the eyes please)