Muslim: cheese and tradition
Halal rennet, and the cheese pastries and sweets of Ramadan and Eid tables.
In Islam, cheese is permitted, halal, when it is made from the milk of halal animals and set with an enzyme that is itself acceptable. The main question is rennet. Rennet from microbes or plants, or from an animal slaughtered according to Islamic law, is accepted; rennet from pigs is not; and rennet from other animals not slaughtered by Islamic rules has been debated by scholars. Certification bodies set their own standards.
Halal rennet
Classical scholars debated cheese made with rennet from animals not slaughtered by Islamic rules: some accepted it, reasoning that rennet is not meat, and others did not. Today, most large cheesemakers use microbial rennet or chymosin made by fermentation, which is widely accepted, and halal certification bodies in Malaysia, Indonesia, the Gulf, Turkey and Europe certify cheeses for Muslim buyers. Many shoppers look for a halal mark or a note that the rennet is microbial.
Cheese across the Muslim world
White cheeses are part of daily food from Morocco to Iran. Turkey's beyaz peynir, Egypt's domiati and soft areesh, the Levant's akkawi and nabulsi, Iran's lighvan and Morocco's fresh jben are eaten with bread, olives and tea. In Indonesia, the dangke of Enrekang in South Sulawesi is set with papaya sap. In Pakistan and among Muslim communities in India, paneer is cooked into curries and kebabs, and in Central Asia kurt is carried on journeys.
Ramadan and Eid
During Ramadan, the fast is broken at sunset, at iftar, and cheese appears both then and at the meal before dawn, suhoor: white cheese, bread and olives in Turkey and the Levant, cheese sambousek in Lebanon and the Gulf, and ful medames in Egypt. Sweets fill the evenings, especially kunafa, made with akkawi or nabulsi, and qatayef, small folded pancakes filled with sweet cheese or nuts. Eid al-Fitr, at the end of the month, brings more pastries to the table.
Worth knowing
- Knafeh: Cheese pastry in syrup, a Ramadan favourite
- Qatayef: Pancakes filled with sweet cheese or nuts
- Akkawi: Mild brined cheese of the Levant
- Nabulsi cheese: Spiced brined cheese of Nablus
- Domiati: Egypt's white cheese
- Beyaz peynir: Turkey's white cheese, at iftar and suhoor
- Dangke: South Sulawesi cheese set with papaya sap
Sources and further reading
Original text by the EveryCheese desk, written with AI assistance and checked against the sources above. Customs are described as tradition, not as advice. If we have something wrong, tell us.
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