Religious culinary traditions play an important role in shaping the culture of a place. In Wisconsin, a notable example of this is the Friday fish fry, a custom rooted in the Catholic tradition of abstaining from eating the meat of land-based animals on Fridays. Fish fries originated in this context, but the tradition has become so ubiquitous that the connection between religion and culture isn’t always made — and it doesn’t have to be. Many Wisconsin restaurants now offer Friday fish fries year-round, and you don’t have to be Catholic or even Christian to partake.

I’ve been considering the Friday fish fry as it relates to Madison’s Muslim population and halal food. In our September 2024 issue, Petra Bakery & Restaurant chef Mohammed Elbeik said, “You don’t have to be Muslim to enjoy good halal food.” That’s true in the Madison area, where Muslim diners sit alongside people with different religious beliefs at a handful of halal restaurants like Petra, Silk Road and Madistan, which serve no pork, no alcohol and only meat that has been slaughtered and exsanguinated in accordance with Islamic dietary laws. We also have a few local grocery stores that offer halal meat, like India House in Madison and Fresh Mart in Sun Prairie, plus access to corporate retail and wholesale sources like Costco and Restaurant Depot.

I reached out to Ibrahim Saeed, president of the Islamic Center of Madison, to understand how Muslims in Madison feel about local halal options. Saeed notes that in the past 10 to 15 years, the availability of halal meat has increased. While Saeed says people used to have to drive to Milwaukee, Chicago and Minneapolis to purchase halal meat, he adds that variety in Madison is still limited, and the cost can often be prohibitive compared to nonhalal options. Cost and availability are both primary concerns for restaurant owners, which is likely a factor in what Saeed sees as a shortage of local halal dining experiences. Yet for some restaurant proprietors, the struggle to supply diners with halal food goes beyond that.

Sultan on Williamson Street serves food inspired by chef and owner Sultan Ahmed’s native Pakistan, a majority Muslim country where halal food is the norm. But Ahmed told me he’s made a well-intentioned decision not to cook with halal meat. “For me, I think it was more important to have humane, antibiotic- and hormone-free, high-quality farmed protein than it was to have halal meat,” says Ahmed, who cites a lack of local sources for halal meat that fit those standards. Like many other Madison restaurant owners, Ahmed values sourcing fresh ingredients from local farms, eschewing frozen halal meat shipped in from other places. It’s also a way for Ahmed to ensure the meat he serves is humanely raised, which he believes is a key part of the halal designation, even if it’s not blessed and slaughtered by a practicing Muslim.

It makes me wonder if there’s an opportunity to increase access to halal food here in Madison by leaning into our emphasis on local sourcing. If more halal meat were produced nearby, people would have access to a product that is fresh, affordable, abundant and easier to vet for quality.

Ahmed notes that many farms already use the halal method of cutting an animal’s throat to slaughter it; all that’s missing is the blessing. “The easiest way to make this possible would be for [local farms] to allow an imam or other Muslim person to bless the slaughter of the animals as it occurs,” says Ahmed. He believes this could be incentivized by developing a halal certification criteria that is specific to Wisconsin and created in collaboration with local Muslim religious leaders. Certainly, spreading awareness to local farms and grocers would be necessary, but Saeed emphasizes that the demand is there. “If a producer has their meat certified as halal, it opens up an entire new market of customers which would have been previously inaccessible,” says Ahmed.

Emma Waldinger is food editor at Madison Magazine.

In the 2024 Milwaukee Press Club’s Excellence in Journalism Awards, “Back of House” won Bronze in the “Best Column” category.

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