🇸🇦 The cattle breeds of Saudi Arabia

Saudi cooking, varied across the kingdom's regions, leans on dates, wheat, ghee and meat, with Islamic law governing slaughter and forbidding pork. Cattle surface chiefly through dairy: ghee in the pot and yoghurt drunk as laban. Beside coffee, dates and hospitality, cattle keep a small place in the kingdom's food.

• Ghee counts among the ingredients Saudi cooks get from local sources, beside wheat, dates and meat.
• Yoghurt is normally made into laban, a drink.
• Islamic law, enforced nationwide, requires halal slaughter; pork is banned outright.
• Hospitality means coffee and dates: beans were once ground before guests with cardamom.
• Cooking varies across the Central, Eastern, Southern and Western regions.

Cattle in Saudi Arabia

Cattle keep a modest place in Saudi Arabia's food story, where the leading ingredients are dates, wheat, spices and coffee. Dairy still runs through the kitchen: ghee, a clarified butter, is named among the foods the country produces itself, and yoghurt is made into laban, a drink. Meat belongs to the festive table, served at weddings, religious seasons and gatherings for guests, and any animal eaten must be killed the halal way, blessed before slaughter, under Islamic law. Pork is forbidden throughout the kingdom. Cooking differs from the Central region to the Eastern, Southern and Western ones, and old trade routes brought the spices that season local dishes. Hospitality centres on coffee and dates; dairy and meat carry their own share of the generous table.

Milk, butter and beef

Ghee, a clarified butter, is listed among the ingredients the kingdom grows and makes for itself, alongside wheat, dates, vegetables and meat. Yoghurt is turned into laban, a drink. Meat reaches the table under religious rules: Islamic law, enforced nationwide, requires that animals be butchered in a halal manner and blessed first, and pork is banned altogether. These foods belong to the cooking of celebration, the dishes set before guests and the meals that end the Ramadan fast, which begin with dates, water and small cups of coffee.

Today

Eating out is changing fast. Old coffeehouses are giving way to cafe-style food halls, and restaurant chains, though still only a quarter of service-industry sales, grow faster than independents; one Saudi fried-chicken chain has pushed into neighbouring Gulf states. In 2024 a government culinary body under the Ministry of Culture set out the signature dishes of all thirteen regions, a formal nod to regional cooking. Dairy drinks such as laban, and the meat of the festive table, remain part of this shifting food scene.