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| Folding flavoring ingredients into animal fat to make Akutaq |
When most people think of ice cream they think of the sweet thick milky substance that is widely available, be it grocery stores, or creameries. However, most people wouldn't think that whipping reindeer fat with the day's available game would be considered ice cream. For the Alaskan natives it is. This form of ice cream. Akutaq has been made for generations by the natives and can also be made from fat from other local animals like seal or moose. Other ingredients are added such as fish, dried salmon adds, or berries. Akutaq is served creamy and cold but due to its fat content, will not taste anything like the ice cream we get everywhere else. Traditional akutaq made by natives in communities along the Bering Strait has no sugar or sweetener is added, however today you may sometimes find the ice cream made with sweetener to be more palatable to foreigners.
WOW! This sounds absolutely gross! This took me back to my freshman year where we each had to cook a meal from Medieval times, and in those times they hardly used sugar. So this once kid made a cherry meat pie. But he didn't tell us till after we all puked! Turns out he left the pie unrefrigerated for the whole night. Otherwise, it might have tasted better. But I don't know if I would ever try this, or call it ice cream.
ReplyDeleteIs there a reason why its strictly animal fat?
This sounds like a very interesting dish though it is not for me. Too much fat content in one dish. I have heard though that even commercial ice cream now contains fish oil in it as well. I have been noticing that some of my ice cream tastes a little fishy.
ReplyDeleteI think the animal fat was just what they had to work with. alaskan natives (when it was created) i'm sure didn't have access to ice cream makers or mass produced commercial ice cream so this is probably just what they thought ice cream should be. :)
ReplyDeleteAnd yes it is a very high fat content... In my mind I imagine it tasting like bacon... minus the bacon flavor. However a lot of ice cream is very fattening due to the high sugar content.
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