Christopsomo (Greek Christmas Bread) [Alcohol / Shirk]

ARTICLE

ALCOHOL, SHIRK
	Christopsomo is adorned with wine-soaked figs. It is consecrated, then offered as a food for Christ on Christmas Eve. View our recipe for halal Anise Sweet Bread A loaf of christopsomo, "Christ's Bread"

Spotlight Halal is a collection of food and ingredient articles on IsItHaram.com.

WHAT IS IT?

Greek Christmas Bread, also known as Christopsomo (Χριστόψωμο, pronounced hree-STOHP-soh-moh ) or "Christ's Bread," is a round Greek sweet bread that is prepared in Greek Orthodox homes for the Christmas celebrations.

It is a sweet, buttery brioche bread, similar in flavor and texture to the Turkish çörek . However, unlike most other sweet breads, christopsomo is decorated with an early form of the Christian cross with ends that split and curl into circles. It can be flavored and scented with red wine-soaked figs , brandy and spices such as anise, orange and mastika (mastic gum).

HOW IS IT MADE?

A bread dough is made using flour, yeast, red wine , brandy , orange juice, and orange peel. After rising, the dough is blended with sugar, raisins, walnuts, pine nuts, mastic gum or anise, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg. The dough is formed into a ball and then decorated with the Greek Orthodox cross and, often, wine soaked figs and walnuts.

Baking Christopsomo is considered a sacred task in Greek Orthodox homes. Careful preparation of this bread is said to ensure the well-being of the home in the year to come. The cook crosses himself and consecrates the bread in the names of the Christian Trinity before baking begins. Families leave pieces of bread on the table as a food offering for Jesus , believing that Christ will come and eat them during the night.

-- Try our halal Anise Sesame Sweet Bread recipe for a delicious winter treat. --

WARNING LEVEL: LOW

Christopsomo is served in Greek Orthodox homes only during the Christmas festivities. If you are an invited guest in a Greek home during this season, please enjoy other delicious Greek dishes so long as they are made without wine or pork . But avoid christopsomo, whether it is made with or without wine or other forms of alcohol , as the rituals associated with its typical preparation render it "food of shirk" .

Similar spice breads sold in Greek and Italian bakeries may contain red wine , but are unlikely to have been consecrated. Be sure to ask your baker, or check the product ingredients for wine , brandy or a flavored liqueur like fruit flavored schnapps or anise-flavored sambuca . Brandy is a spirit, a distilled alcoholic beverage , produced from wine . Brandy contains 36%–60% alcohol by volume. The typical wine contains 12% alcohol by volume.

WHAT ARE FOODS OF SHIRK?

Foods of shirk ( Ta'am ash-shirk, طعام الاحتفالات الدينية) are those foods which fit the category of "ma ouhila bihi li gheir iLah" (ما اهل به لغير الله) [Quran, Surat Al-Ma'idah 5:3 ]. These are foods that have been consecrated — made or declared sacred and dedicated to the service of a deity or a person — to any one other than to Allah, in direct conflict with the Islamic principle of tawheed (the Oneness of Allah / Islamic monotheism). Food produced or slaughtered in such a manner is rendered as ta'am ash-shirk , thus religiously unclean and forbidden for Muslims to eat. This is true regardless of whether or not that food contains any haram substance and, contrary to popular belief, applies to all foods, not simply to meat.

Muslims are permitted to eat food that has been consecrated, sacrificed or slaughtered according to Jewish ritual because the monotheistic nature of that religion and belief in the same God does not conflict with tawheed . In general, Muslims are permitted to eat food of the "People of the Book," Christian and Jews, so long as the food itself comes within the limits of Islamic permissibility.

For more information on food of shirk , see

ALCOHOL AND COOKING

AMNA classifies any food that has been made with an alcoholic product as ALCOHOL , even if it has been sautéed, simmered, baked or set on fire. The conventional wisdom accepted by just about everyone is that all the alcohol you add to a dish evaporates during cooking. It’s wrong.

In fact, according to a study conducted by the US Department of Agriculture’s Nutrient Data Laboratory, you have to cook something for a good three hours to remove virtually all traces of alcohol. After it has baked for an hour, 25% of the alcohol from the wine remains in the Christmas Bread – around a quarter of a cup, depending on the recipe.

-- Learn more about Alcohol cook-off times on the AMNA web site at --

CAN MUSLIMS USE KOSHER SYMBOLS TO KNOW IF A HOLIDAY SPICE BREAD IS HALAL?

YES & NO. Like Islamic law, kosher law forbids the consumption of any foods that have been consecrated to a deity. However, the consumption of alcohol is not counter to kosher law. Therefore, while you will never find a christopsomo that has been certified kosher , you may find other kosher-certified spiced sweet breads that have alcohol mixed into the dough.

-- View a comparison of Jewish and Islamic dietary law on the AMNA web site at -

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