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22 Apr 04 - 09:17 AM (#1167881) Subject: BS: Inuit cooking From: Roger the Skiffler In the Notes and Queries section of yesterday's UK Guardian someone asked what Eskimos (sic) used for cooking fuel and why didn't their igloos melt. It is well known that for fuel the Inuit use rendered down whale blubber. A tripod of walrus ribs is positioned above the fire from which meat is suspended. Traditionally, this would have been seal or caribou, now it is increasingly likely to be supermarket meat. Nanook of the North's distant cousin, Catspaw of the Mid-West put it more succinctly on the Mudcat many years ago: "Whale oil, beef hooked". RtS (I'll get me parka) |
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22 Apr 04 - 09:30 AM (#1167896) Subject: RE: BS: Inuit cooking From: Rapparee Muktuk is good for you and doesn't need cooking. Besides, cattle don't do well, ranging across the tundra and icefields. |
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22 Apr 04 - 10:14 AM (#1167923) Subject: RE: BS: Inuit cooking From: GUEST Couple things,RtS. 1. Igloos are not built to "live" in - they are temporary shelters used (usually) only one night while out hunting. 2. They do melt a bit, and that is purposeful. You build the igloo, get a hot fire going inside, close the entrance and wait a few minutes. The entire inside should be melting. Then open the entry, pull out the fire, and let the cold air enter. That freezes the melting water, and leaves a layer of ice coating the inside. Now the structure is strong enough so that even a heavy animal (polar bear, for example) can walk on top of it without it crushing. (You hope, anyway!) |
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22 Apr 04 - 10:25 AM (#1167938) Subject: RE: BS: Inuit cooking From: mack/misophist Rapaire: An Inuit friend once did me the great honour of letting me have some of the muktuk his aunt had sent. Eating it with a smile is probably the bravest thing I've ever done. And I don't believe it's especially good for you. |
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22 Apr 04 - 11:18 AM (#1168022) Subject: RE: BS: Inuit cooking From: el ted Interesting. |
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22 Apr 04 - 11:30 AM (#1168034) Subject: RE: BS: Inuit cooking From: Inükshük They also used an ingenious lamp called, I think a kudelik. It was dish shaped and a bit of dried moss served as a wick along one edge. A lump of blubber was suspended over the wick. Once lighted the blubber would drip oil into the lamp, but as the level of the oil rose, the wick was diminished and the flame grew smaller. On the other hand, as the oil was used up, the wick became more exposed resulting in a greater flame. with only minor tending such a lamp can serve for heat, light, and cooking. |
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22 Apr 04 - 11:47 AM (#1168053) Subject: RE: BS: Inuit cooking From: Rapparee Mack/misophist, your Southern Bias is showing. A high-fat, high-calorie diet was (and is) essential in the Arctic lands. As for the nutritional content of such foods, poke around at http://www.itk.ca/english/itk/departments/enviro/wildlife/seal.htm |
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22 Apr 04 - 12:28 PM (#1168090) Subject: RE: BS: Inuit cooking From: JenEllen Muktuk is kind of like Gatorade, IMHO. You know, when you haven't exercised, Gatorade tastes like piss's poor cousin, but after a run it is nectar of the gods? Same deal. Muktuk in the comfort of a building is HORRIBLE, but when you've been out on snowshoes all day you could also eat the arm that handed it to you. The only reason it hasn't made it as a professional sports product thusfar is that the commercials would be to ugly. |
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22 Apr 04 - 12:53 PM (#1168122) Subject: RE: BS: Inuit cooking From: Ebbie I have a friend who believes that muktuk is not an acquired taste- that everyone will like it who does not have a preconceived dislike for the idea. And he's a very white boy from Roanoke, Virginia. |
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22 Apr 04 - 12:55 PM (#1168126) Subject: RE: BS: Inuit cooking From: Ellenpoly el ted, my desire is to hunt you down and pour muktuk down your 100th posting!..xx..e |
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22 Apr 04 - 12:58 PM (#1168132) Subject: RE: BS: Inuit cooking From: Rapparee Here's the clicky. For some reason I couldn't make it before. |
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22 Apr 04 - 01:01 PM (#1168135) Subject: RE: BS: Inuit cooking From: Metchosin Ellenpolly, el ted seems to be a man of few words, most of them boring. |
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22 Apr 04 - 07:14 PM (#1168451) Subject: RE: BS: Inuit cooking From: mack/misophist Rapaire: I understand the need for fat calories under severe conditions. Read Mowat's book on the Canadian Inland Eskimos. However, my friend Joe grew up in Wales, Alaska in an ordinary house and never lived in such harsh circumstances. But what he gave me was nothing but fat in oil with some anonymous greens thrown in. He missed it because it was a link with home. In a pinch, he ate still frozen fish sticks dipped in Wesson Oil. |
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22 Apr 04 - 08:57 PM (#1168512) Subject: RE: BS: Inuit cooking From: GUEST Canadian Inland Eskimos??? Eskimos are coastal dwellers. Inland dwellers are Indians. |
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22 Apr 04 - 10:06 PM (#1168542) Subject: RE: BS: Inuit cooking From: Rapparee If he was from Wales, he knew about cold weather! The Bering Strait on one side and Lopp Lagoon on the other, and north of Nome. Brrrrrrrrrrrrr! squared. Maybe cubed. |
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22 Apr 04 - 11:12 PM (#1168573) Subject: RE: BS: Inuit cooking From: Stilly River Sage When I was in Calgary a couple of weeks ago I made sure to get some coins as change to bring back to the states for the kids. One was of an Eskimo, I think. Someone up there told me that the coins were popular and disappeared in a hurry, so I was lucky to get one. It celebrates Nunuvik or Nunuvut, not sure which, becoming a province. SRS |
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23 Apr 04 - 12:20 AM (#1168613) Subject: RE: BS: Inuit cooking From: mack/misophist Hudson's Bay cuts almost half way across Canada and it has Inuit there. The original 'Nanook of the North' was a Hudson's Bay Inuit. But the people Mowat wrote about were inland Inuit, caribou hunters living in skin tents all year round. 'Three mouthfuls of fat for one of meat. If you eat fish, eat the guts too or you'll end up starving.' BTW, that's the same Farley Mowat who wrote Never Cry Wolf. The book is much better than the movie but not as pretty. |
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23 Apr 04 - 12:44 AM (#1168622) Subject: RE: BS: Inuit cooking From: Ebbie Rapaire, might mack/misophist have meant his friend was from Prince of Wales Island? That's in Southeast and that's pretty moderate. |
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23 Apr 04 - 12:59 AM (#1168628) Subject: RE: BS: Inuit cooking From: GUEST,Clint Keller I once got an eskimo dessert from a nice lady. Huckleberries and Crisco. It was ok, though she said the Crisco should really have been blubber. clint |
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23 Apr 04 - 03:55 AM (#1168709) Subject: RE: BS: Inuit cooking From: Roger the Skiffler Mudcatters should know better than to take anything I post seriously! I'll say anything to drag up an old joke for another airing. However, if you have factual information you want to share with the Guardian's enquirer you can e-mail NQ@Guardian.co.uk RtS (I'll just get me mukluks on, then I'll sled for cover) |
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23 Apr 04 - 04:48 AM (#1168764) Subject: RE: BS: Inuit cooking From: Metchosin SRS, Canada still only has 10 Provinces. Nunavut is officially a Territory. Nunavut |
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23 Apr 04 - 05:44 AM (#1168806) Subject: RE: BS: Inuit cooking From: el ted Mmmmmmmmmm still interested. |
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23 Apr 04 - 08:14 AM (#1168881) Subject: RE: BS: Inuit cooking From: Inükshük I was interested in Guest Clint Keller's post. Half way through our first winter in Aklavik, NWT in 1968, we were not thriving well on our government rations of canned and dried goods. A kindly old Innuit couple felt sorry for us, especially our children, and came over with a generous helping of "Eskimo Icecream". It was a frozen delicacy, very rich, and delicious tasting. It was made from the tiny native blueberries and cranberries mixed with the chopped-up raw liver of fresh water ling cod (loshe). I guess huckleberries and Crisco would make a reasonable substitute, but not nearly as nutritious. |
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23 Apr 04 - 11:52 AM (#1169041) Subject: RE: BS: Inuit cooking From: Stilly River Sage Metchosin, thanks for the link. I remember reading about this when it happened, but couldn't remember the sequence of events and line drawings. Our equivalent of huckleberries and crisco is strawberries or blueberries and oil-filled cool whip (over angel food cake in a quick shortcake sort of dessert). SRS |
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23 Apr 04 - 12:37 PM (#1169094) Subject: RE: BS: Inuit cooking From: Blackcatter As for the whole - fire in the igloo thing again - the fires started inside them were usually small - like was said - that first it was to help with creating a ice skin. Being temporary structures, the Inuit didn't usually cook in their igloos - on hunting trips, etc., they carry dried meat, blubber, etc to eat - things that did not need to be cooked. They also carried a great deal of water with them - though the would melt water outside on larger fires. Fires inside igloos are not good - not because of the heat - but because of the fumes and smoke. That's why arctic explorers use clean-burning gas heaters. |
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23 Apr 04 - 10:45 PM (#1169450) Subject: RE: BS: Inuit cooking From: Alaska Mike In the summer my igloo is water. |
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24 Apr 04 - 12:57 AM (#1169492) Subject: RE: BS: Inuit cooking From: GUEST,Clint Keller The nice eskimo lady was the sister-in-law of my ex-brother-in-law, and I only met her once. so that's really all I know about huckleberries and Crisco. clint |
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24 Apr 04 - 01:12 AM (#1169495) Subject: RE: BS: Inuit cooking From: Desert Dancer Hey, RtS, I got the joke right at the start! Think I was alone? ~ B in T |
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24 Apr 04 - 11:45 AM (#1169729) Subject: RE: BS: Inuit cooking From: Risky Business I think the huckleberries and crisco is called "Eskimo Ice Cream" I was given some muktuk once, it consists of part whale or walrus skin and part of the inner lining of fat, so it's a kind of oreo colored, black white thing. The fat turned liquid and went right down. The meat part stayed rock hard. I had to dispense with it, and the nice eskio lady gave me a lovely smile and went right on chewing through hers, with one tooth in her head. There is a also a nice Eskimo recipe for what to do with fish heads, the title begins with the word "stinky". Song TIE IN: Stan Rogers, this genius Canadian folk song writer/ singer wrote among many great songs: "Northwest Passage" invoking the name of Sir John Franklin, who led an ill-fated expedition into northern Canada and disappeared, precipitating more expeditions to find out where his went. An apocryphal tale is that taking pity on some of his starving men, the locals (Eskimos) gave them some muktuk, whereupon the English burned the fatty part to cook the meaty part, thereby losing the caloric benefit the fat would've provided, and destroying the vitally important mite of vitamin C that was in the uncooked flesh. |
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05 May 04 - 08:10 PM (#1178961) Subject: RE: BS: Inuit cooking From: GUEST,Me anyone know how to make inuit tea? I need to for a school project |
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23 Sep 04 - 09:13 PM (#1279504) Subject: RE: BS: Inuit cooking From: Ebbie In Alaska we make labrador tea- but I suppose the shrub doesn't grow that far north. |
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24 Sep 04 - 10:46 AM (#1279986) Subject: RE: BS: Inuit cooking From: GUEST all I can find is that Inuit tea is made from the dried leaves, flowers and shoots of Ukiurtatuq . |
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24 Sep 04 - 11:32 AM (#1280027) Subject: RE: BS: Inuit cooking From: Inükshük Check out Ledum groenlandicum(Labrador Tea)on Google or elsewhere. The stuff grows everywhere from the great lakes to well inside the arctic circle. |
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24 Sep 04 - 06:37 PM (#1280369) Subject: RE: BS: Inuit cooking From: GUEST order@labrador-tea.com They are located in Darwell, Alberta. That is their e-mail address. |
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24 Sep 04 - 07:24 PM (#1280386) Subject: RE: BS: Inuit cooking From: Sorcha Is that stuff similar to Uva Ursi? (I'll check out the links) |
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24 Sep 04 - 08:59 PM (#1280478) Subject: RE: BS: Inuit cooking From: Ebbie psssstttt It isn't very good to my buds. It must be an acquired taste. |
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25 Sep 04 - 08:48 PM (#1281094) Subject: RE: BS: Inuit cooking From: Big Al Whittle is the name muktuk patented? you could have a whole range muktuk,shitsnax,dungbikkies,crapbars,poohpies..... |
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26 Sep 04 - 12:01 AM (#1281166) Subject: RE: BS: Inuit cooking From: The Fooles Troupe I thought 'cooking' implied changing the flavour, texture and other aspects of raw food by the application of external forces to change the resultant physical and chemical composition of the product? |
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26 Sep 04 - 04:36 AM (#1281253) Subject: RE: BS: Inuit cooking From: Ebbie Ah, come on, weelittledrummmer. Muktuk is not the waste product of an animal. The Inuit and other native people would be more likely to judge it akin to berries or bird eggs, something that is ready to eat. Cultures differentiate between what is acceptable and what is offal. Not too many years ago, a great many Americans would not have tried Sushi. |
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26 Sep 04 - 07:10 AM (#1281312) Subject: RE: BS: Inuit cooking From: The Fooles Troupe ... or Sashimi. |
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26 Sep 04 - 11:26 AM (#1281447) Subject: RE: BS: Inuit cooking From: Big Al Whittle apologies to all Inuits. in England, Tuck as in Friar Tuck is food. Tom Brown and all posh English schoolboys have access to a tuck shop, with scrummy snax. And muck is ....well ...muck. there was no suggestion of enjoying a crap sandwich out there on the ice floes, I'm sure thing are difficult enough and in dietary terms they have much to teach us all. |
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07 Mar 09 - 12:06 AM (#2583062) Subject: RE: BS: Inuit cooking From: GUEST,skizzza please tell me how to cook traditional tnuit desserts |
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07 Mar 09 - 10:11 AM (#2583274) Subject: RE: BS: Inuit cooking From: InOBU As to the question about Canadian inland Inuit, the people about whom Farley Mowat wrote, now have a semi autonimous state called Ninavut. It is a great book, and well worth reading. I spent and hope to spend time among the Innu, are are far northern "Indians" as they speak an Algonquin language, but many aspects of their life are like the Inuit. In fact the plural of Innu is Innuat, but they do not speak the same language. They live in Quebec and Labrador, and hunt the same carabou as the people of Ninavut, on the carabous seasonal migrations. I learned that the traditional food not only tastes good, but eating it is a protection (to some small degree) against the voracious mosquitos and black flys, which given the option will eat the guy who is eating sugar, garlic, or using soap or antipersperant, or other things that taste yummy to huge blood sucking insects. When Innue friends such as Yvette (from my song Yvette's song, on Mudcat someplace) would come to speak at the UN, they'd often bring me a huge hunk of Carabou in an ice chest, and there is nothing like it... yum. Also, the Innu dried powdered carabou is a real treat - polverized pemicin. When one eats with an open mind, lots of things are good. Innu traditional cooking also has been added to by the boarding school years, the dark days of Innu life from the late 1940s to the late 60s. The only good part of those days was the injection of French cooking, which a lot of traditional families add to their tradition, as Bannock (Scottish Whitebread) was added hundreds of years ago. Quai Quai Lorcan |
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07 Mar 09 - 01:47 PM (#2583373) Subject: RE: BS: Inuit cooking From: meself Farley Mowat: to be consumed with copious quantities of salt; known by some old northern hands as, "Hardly Know-it" "Nunavut" - "semi-autonomous" in the sense that any Canadian province or American state is semi-autonomous (incidentally, not to be confused with "Nunavik", which is the Inuit region of Quebec, in French, "Nouveau Quebec", or, as a certain beer label would have it, "Fin du Monde"). In the several years I spent there, about the only cooking I saw was of "southern" food - although occasionally some caribou or seal meat would be tossed into a frying pan. And of course bannock. The general habit was to eat "country food" raw. By the way, muktuk is a true delicacy, once you've acquired a taste for raw fish and meat. |
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07 Mar 09 - 02:10 PM (#2583385) Subject: RE: BS: Inuit cooking From: gnu meself.... "Hardly Know-it".... hahahaha. Yup. A lot of people have the same opinion. My uncle was in the north a valley or two away from Farout when he "researched" "Never Cry Wolf". Was a good book. Made a great movie. Did not make a friend of many northerners, including my uncle. Subsequent books and antics are much the same. Written to sell copies at the expense of some. Ask the sealers. I never met the man. Don't care to. I've met enough who have. Maybe they were jealous? all of them? I dunno. In any case, the movie "Never Cry Wolf" was... is... amazing. The cinematography... the characters... the jokes... I highly recommend it. As for caribou and seal and such, it's okay when yer hungry, nooguktook. |
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07 Mar 09 - 02:57 PM (#2583401) Subject: RE: BS: Inuit cooking From: Peace I really like caribou. Very lean meat and great slow cooked. Only had caribou from the east a few times. The rest was near the Circle in the west. Seemed leaner there for some reason. |
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07 Mar 09 - 04:58 PM (#2583496) Subject: RE: BS: Inuit cooking From: gnu I first ate seal stew and caribou stew in Makkovik, Labrador. At Susie Anderson's Hotel. Never saw a piece of meat in any of it. It was.... ahhh.. thick. |
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07 Mar 09 - 07:33 PM (#2583587) Subject: RE: BS: Inuit cooking From: gnu I like Virginia White Tailed Deer (venison?). Then moose. Of course, Birch Partridge (Ruffed Grouse) taken in budding season, when they are eating alder and birch and poplar are the best. Of course, that's kinda PI these days. Caribou. Not particularly. |
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07 Mar 09 - 10:16 PM (#2583647) Subject: RE: BS: Inuit cooking From: GUEST,Inobu Don't forget Moose, and moose pie... yum. Lorcan sans cookie |
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08 Mar 09 - 03:08 PM (#2584000) Subject: RE: BS: Inuit cooking From: Peace I like dry meat--a kinda jerky made from moose meat. Tough as nails, but smoked properly it's DEE LISH USS. |
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08 Mar 09 - 03:10 PM (#2584001) Subject: RE: BS: Inuit cooking From: Peace Allow me to rephrase that. The meat is not rolled in cigarette papers or put in pipes and then smoked. It's dried over a low slow fire and sunlight. THEN ya roll it in papers and smoke it. |
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08 Mar 09 - 04:01 PM (#2584045) Subject: RE: BS: Inuit cooking From: bobad A research project I worked on in the late 1980s found a high incidence (>30% in the case of Toxoplasma) of parasitic infections among the native population of northern Quebec. Although it was not reported, preliminary investigation led us to believe that the most likely vector was caribou. One interesting bit of information that emerged during the study which pointed out the need for involving cultural anthropologists when dealing with communities that have significantly differing cultural practices, was the question of consuming raw meat. When asked if wild meats were ever consumed raw, the answer was no but it was later learned that meat, once having been frozen, was not considered to be raw. |
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08 Mar 09 - 04:02 PM (#2584047) Subject: RE: BS: Inuit cooking From: gnu Moose Draw? Ain't that in Saskcatch... Saskach... out west? |
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08 Mar 09 - 04:09 PM (#2584051) Subject: RE: BS: Inuit cooking From: gnu Well, bou eat some nasty shit out on the tundra and even below the forest line... worse than moose. BTW, my old man told me deer (whitetails) and moose would not drink standing water. I have seen them both drink from puddles in woods roads. I cook the works really well. |
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08 Mar 09 - 04:14 PM (#2584057) Subject: RE: BS: Inuit cooking From: bobad The caribou migration takes them to the northern edge of the boreal forest and it was suspected that that was where they were picking up the parasites, most likely from eating grass contaminated by foxes, which are carriers. |
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08 Mar 09 - 06:05 PM (#2584158) Subject: RE: BS: Inuit cooking From: Skivee One of artifacts in my shrine to the Franklin expedition is a book from 1910 called "Adventures In The Artic Regions". It's a decidedly nonscholarly collection of tales from 18th and 19th century explorers. My favorite chapter descibes a hilarious clash of cultures as a group of British sailors and officers, while searching for Franklin, are feted by a clan called the Tuski. [please pardon the following run-on sentence. I'm trying to reduce 3 dense pages into a paragraph] The Tuski chief pulled out all the stops for his honored guests: frozen raw fish ( discribed as horrid), a huge lump of blubber (foul)covered in a green moss (which turned out to be undigested caribou ruminant, boiled seal (tough to the point of being nearly uncutable), whale skin(inner layer having a custardy texture and a taste a bit like coconut), Caribou meat. The sailors noted that successive courses were more palatable than the previous. The rude reception the sailors gave the first courses nearly started a fight. By the end, one of them muttered "If only they had brought these things out first! Ultimately most food is disgusting except for the disgusting food you were raised on. |
