Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Marshmallows

A few months after I converted to Islam I found out marshmallows weren't halal among many other things. Oh it was painful...no more marshmallow cookies, no s'mores etc. Luckily halal marshmallows had already been invented and I used to get them in Toronto. Now you can easily find them in halal meat stores and sometimes in the grocery store and dollar stores in many cities. One time we even bought kosher marshmallows in Toronto in the Jewish section ( I guess its called Kensington, anyone remember watching King of Kensington?) and they were made from fish gelatin! Now I've just discovered something even more strange; vegan marshmallows. Well I'm familiar with vegan jello; asians eat it all the time, agar-agar (made from seaweed) but not marshmallows. I've never tasted them so wonder how they are. To tell the truth I've never tasted a halal/kosher marshmallow that tastes or feels as good in your mouth as a non-halal marshmallow. Here's the link. Have you tried these? Would you? Have you ever tasted a marshmallow that compares to the non-halal one (this is a question for converts).

10 comments:

  1. ASA, did you know that if you buy the JAR of marshmallow stuff, it IS halal?? I forget what it's called, but it's all good (and way easier to use to make smores!)

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  2. Wa alaikum salaam

    Yeah I knew that and use it once in awhile.

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  3. Salam C I actually tried vegan marshmallows about a month ago. I got them from Capers, don't know if you guys have it out east but it's a organic food grocery store. I don't remember the brand but they just weren't the same they had more of a jelly candy texture than a fluffy marshmallow texture. Couldn't use them for making rice crispy squares or smores, the best are the fish gelatin kind IMO.

    Hethr - the one you are talking about is kraft jet puffed marshmallow creme

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  4. Wa alaikum Salaam MC

    Capers, haven't heard of it but maybe its in the GTA. So you like the fish gelatin ones...interesting. I found them to be worse than the halal beef gelatin ones. I guess it could depend on the brand too.

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  5. ASA,

    I've tried halal beef ones from the UK and they were just as good as the non halal. They were so soft and yummy. We're working on getting them available here inshallah. I forgot the name but they're made in Denmark.
    I'm really happy that the vegan market is growing because it's making more things accessible to us like the gel caps on vitamins and supplements and now marshmallows!! I'm going to try some inshallah.

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  6. Wa Alaikum Salaam Muneera,

    I can't wait to get my hands on them, then...drool.

    Yes alhumdullilah for the vegans and the Jews who are helping to make shopping a lot easier. We really need to import more halal things too. You can find halal items from Malaysia at the Asian Store which is good. My dream is a totally halal supermarket...no reading just shopping!

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  7. Assalaamu aleikum
    It's been a long time since I had a non-halal marshmallow, I can't remember what they were like! We get marshmallows in the halal stores, and there is a halal brand of rice crispie squares that is pretty yummy. I think the marshmallow in that has the fish gelatin.
    A totally halal supermarket would be wonderful, but I would still have to read the labels for allergy reasons :-(
    When I was in Saudi everyone in the Canadian group was avoiding the jello on the dessert table like we were at the Mandarin Buffet or something, then we remembered where we were and that we *could* eat the jello and everything else! LOL
    PS Canada is about 20 yrs behind UK on vegetarian options. In England a lot of products have a "V" symbol showing that they are approved by the Vegetarian Society. Makes things easier. I'm grateful for kosher symbols on foods in N America too :-)

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  8. Wa Alaikum Salaam

    That's funny that you can't remember..better that way I guess.

    I've seen a few things with the V symbol like cheesecakes. Never knew that the UK was so far ahead. They must have a lot of vegetarians.

    I thought I heard before that sometimes things that get imported into Saudi are not completely checked out and some non-halal stuff gets in. In Malaysia I still had to check all the imported stuff. I guess they are not too careful because 40% of the population is non-muslim. I think the Malays think everything is ok though because I never saw them checking.

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  9. My halal meat shop has some marshmallows that are pretty close to what I remember marshmallows being. They are made by a company called Wellmade out of Guatemala. They use halal beef gelatin.

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  10. Thanks for adding this! It will surely help those who are looking information about marshmallows. Looking forward for more great posts.

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