Muktuk

Muktuk[1] is the traditional Inuit and Chukchi meal of frozen whale skin and blubber.

A bowhead whale, which is most often used in muktuk

Sliced and prepared muktuk

Muktuk is most often made from the skin and blubber of the bowhead whale, although the beluga and the narwhal are also used. Usually eaten raw, today it is occasionally finely diced, breaded, deep fried, and then served with soy sauce. Despite it being usually eaten raw it could also be eaten frozen or cooked.[2] It is also sometimes pickled.[3] When chewed raw, the blubber becomes oily, with a nutty taste; if not diced, or at least serrated, the skin is quite rubbery.

In Greenland, muktuk (mattak) is sold commercially to fish factories,[4] and in Canada to other communities (muktaaq).[5]

Elders sharing maktaaq, 2002

A group of people eating muktuk, 1997

Muktuk has been found to be a good source of vitamin C, the epidermis containing up to 38 mg per 100 grams (3.5 oz).[6][7] It was used as an antiscorbutic by British Arctic explorers.[8] Blubber is also a source of vitamin D.[9]

As whales grow, mercury accumulates in the liver, kidney, muscle, and blubber, and cadmium settles in the blubber.[10] It also contains PCBs, carcinogens that damage human nervous, immune and reproductive systems, bioaccumulated from the marine food web,[11][12] and a variety of other contaminants.[13]