There is a Boucherie in the village which , I have been told has always done good business over the years. It didn’t survive Covid however mainly due to pressures from the taxman as I understand it. It started up again in 2021 and did well until it stopped trading due to ill health. New people took over the business with help from the Mairie. At the time, about fifteen months ago the new people who are muslims and very nice people. Problem is that the new venture is halal and there are very few people of muslim origin in our area.
We are non Muslim but really enjoy things like tajine and couscous dishes and so use the boucherie several times each month but we are in the minority in the village.
I was very skeptical when it opened and I have been proven right as the business is up for sale again.
It seems to me that the proprietors didn’t do their homework and really should have known better.
Apart from not selling pork surely there’s really no difference if a butcher is halal or not?
So maybe it’s that there is no longer the footfall needed to keep any butcher in business in that village?
Hate to say it but there is still a great deal of xenophobia here in France especially in rural towns and villages where the same families have lived for generations. I noticed how prevalent it was in Bretagne many years ago when black or clearly arab people would be at village events or even move to the commune, many with white spouses and it was horrible but we decided it was just ignorance of a certain generation and now its not a thing any more on the same scale.
She has been told by people in the village that they will not eat halal. It doesn’t bother me although I find there is a différence in taste in some méats but that’s probably just me.
The ‘village’ has a population of 4000+ people with about one third living within easy reach of the village centre. The previous butcher made a décent living and who ever takes over will make it work as long as it’s not halal imo.
I’ve ordered a lamb couscous for sunday lunch and I assume it will be as delicious as ever.
A shame that, pork is about the only meat I eat, apart from the occasional boeuf bourgignon from the slow cooker.
Yes David, I eat lots of pork in all it’s forms. Your typical French local will regularly eat things like saucisson and filet mignon etc etc and will not go anywhere near a halal butchers if they can pick up everything elsewhere… I use the halal butchers because we really enjoy north african dishes but things like beef and lamb I find at the markets or in other establishments, mainly because I find better quality.
I don’t understand that. You can make north African dishes with meat from any butchers surely.
Yes, I have two tajines, a two-man and a four-man. We have always made our own but decided to take advantage of the local butchers when it opened last year. Ours are good but nowhere near the taste of a réal maghrébin cooks. The meat isnt that important but the secret is in the spices and cooking préparation.I make a pretty mean fish and chips but it’s nowhere near as good as that bought from a réal chippy.
We use all the commerces within our commune because we support our local community, it’s a pity others dont copy us.
We used to runa holiday club and most of our kids came from Muslim families, so we always bought halal. (Many of the Muslim kids were taught to claim to be vegetarian to avoid having to refuse meat dishes. Every time, we had to announce that the meal was halal.)
The beef was always better than non-halal; the chicken also appeared very good quality. We could not afford lamb.
I didn’t detect any difference. I’d use halal meat (in fact, all lamb nowadays, with very rare exceptions, is halal) just as I’d use non-halal.
But, as @JaneJones points out, most people eat pork. Maybe that would account for 50% of a butcher’s turnover, especially in rural France. Merguez is not the only sausage, as Jeanette Winterson didn’t say.
I too enjoy a tajine so I wonder what the difference js in their spicing or marinating time. Have you asked them for their recipe. I have a friend who will not and will lecture anyone on the percieved cruelty of halal.
Yes John, I have asked and have been given some great tips. She gives us our meals served in the tajine. She always cooks her meals on a bed of onions for example, something we have never done but the taste is great though cleaning the tajine after is a réal pain !.
We cook our meals on the bbq where as she (usually) cooks hers over an open flame which changes the taste. She for example soaks her chickpeas overnight and us only for a short while if at all. I’m sure her list of spices and condiments are not the same as ours. Some of them I cant identify.
Quite agrée.
I think the but they would do well if they served pork as the maghrébin population is almost zéro but that’s never going to happen. The local village market has a brilliant volailleur and local butcher with top quality beef and lamb produits from his farm. They both do a roaring trade.
Interesting, I believe I over spice mine as to me they come out a bit heavy tasting whereas I really want depth of flavour.
Isn’t it a bit more involved than that? Principally to do with the method used to slaughter the animals.
I have never detected a difference in taste between kosher, halal or non-religious meat. So to me if a butchers is halal then the only difference I notice is that there is no pork. Method of slaughter is a totally different question.
Yup, I would tend to agree but not particular to France and definitely prevalent in Netherlands and Belgium too…
There is no difference in flavour…meat is meat and meat is murder. 
The dead cows, sheep, lamb, chicken all display certificates of provenance…All French stuff (maybe the chicken is Spanish).
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Here in this part of Seine Maritime the main abbatoir has just been taken over by a halal group. This has not gone down well with some pig and cow farmers. Firstly the new owners categorically will not permit pigs to be slaughtered - Normandy is the 4th largest producer of pork in France…Others,not just farmers, object to the perceived cruelty of not stunning the cows etc before being killed. There is an exemption from stunning (that clearly benefits halal) in farming regulations if it conflicts with religious rituals.
I only tend to eat chicken. Lost interest in other meat long ago and pork never again for many years now after reading about burns injuries on the ships in the Falklands War by Simon Weston.
Yes, that’s your personal take on it but the intrinsic difference, as pointed out above, lies in the method of slaughter imposed by religious beliefs. There is obviously a demand for halal butchers but as Peter_Bird’s OP highlights, not a sufficient one even in a large village. Quite a few halal boucheries and kebab joints have opened and subsequently folded in Marmande but that may be due to the supermarket chains edging in on the market.
Like many of my pupils, so when I get them sweets I never get those with gelatin in them. Original carambar and chupachups lollipops are ok.