Is Bigos Halal?

Bigos, often called hunter's stew, is Poland's slow-cooked dish of sauerkraut and fresh cabbage with several kinds of meat. A typical pot holds pork shoulder, smoked kiełbasa sausage and bacon, sometimes with beef or game, plus dried forest mushrooms, prunes, juniper, bay and allspice. Many cooks add a glass of red wine. It is simmered, cooled and reheated over several days, and most Poles will say it is best on the third. It is a staple of Christmas, New Year and winter gatherings.^[4][1]

Why it is not Halal

Pork is not an optional extra in bigos; it is the base of the dish, both as fresh meat and as smoked sausage and bacon.^[2] Because everything is cooked together for days, there is no picking it out. A bowl from a Polish restaurant, a deli counter or a jar is treated as pork unless it plainly says otherwise.

Jars and delis

Polish shops sell bigos in jars and tins, and deli counters sell it by weight. The label will list pork, pork fat or sausage; meat-free jars exist too: Polan sells a bigos of sauerkraut, cabbage, vegetables, prunes and dried mushrooms in rapeseed oil, with no meat or wine on the label.^[3] Read the label for meat and wine every time.

A Halal version at home

The flavour of bigos comes from the sour cabbage, the smoke and the long cooking. A Halal pot can use Halal beef or lamb, a Halal smoked beef sausage, dried mushrooms and prunes, with a little smoked paprika in place of bacon and no wine. It is not the traditional dish, but it is close. For the cabbage itself, see sauerkraut; for the dumplings served beside it, pierogi; for pork in processed foods, pork.