There she blows...

April 24, 2009 8:54 AM

What's a good edible substitute for whale blubber?

I'm running a teambuilding exercise next week based on Shackleton's expedition to the South Pole. His team had to subsist on whale blubber for part of their journey, and I'm kicking around the idea of having something similar to offer to the group to see if anyone wants to try it. Oddly, my local supermarket doesn't offer whale blubber, so I need to find a substitute. Their journals note that it tasted like cod liver oil, so I know I can use that for taste.

Any thoughts or recommendations on what I can get that is similar in texture or taste?

posted by NotMyselfRightNow to Food & Drink (20 answers total)

Crisco? It was originally promoted specifically as a substitute for lard (same look/texture), so it at least gets you into the blubber-esque territory, though I still don't know that I'd want to eat much of it.
posted by scody at 9:01 AM on April 24, 2009

From a recent NYTimes article:
"Many Makah chewed for hours on small chunks of blubber that, they said, had the consistency of taffy and a strong, salty taste. The meat can be softened by boiling, cured or smoked to a jerky-like consistency or even fried or grilled."
posted by cardboard at 9:03 AM on April 24, 2009

Suet perhaps? Cover it in some Cod liver oil and I'm sure it'll be a real doppelganger.

Yikes!
posted by wrok at 9:05 AM on April 24, 2009

You might want to check out this thread.
posted by donovan at 9:05 AM on April 24, 2009

dried beef tendon (unsoaked)
posted by mr. remy at 9:12 AM on April 24, 2009

I have a friend from Alaska who tried some muktuk once. He said it was very fishy and he had to chew on it for hours before he could swallow it. The closest thing I can think of would be raw pig skin flavored with fish oil, but that sounds less disgusting than his description.
posted by TedW at 9:16 AM on April 24, 2009

They sell dried pig's ears in pet food stores...
posted by Rumple at 9:19 AM on April 24, 2009

You can get whole or shredded dried squid, seasoned and packaged as a ready-to-eat snack, in some North American Japanese grocery stores. Those would satisfy the "fishy" and "chewy" requirements, although they're not fatty, they're definitely a strange new experience to a Western palate. Kind of like fish jerky.
posted by twistofrhyme at 9:55 AM on April 24, 2009

Wouldn't pork rind (the un-fried kind) work? Or some really thick bacon, cooked by boiling it instead of frying? Would be disgusting and blubbery, for sure (though it wouldn't taste fishy). Cod liver oil is a serious laxative, I don't know if I'd go around using it as a seasoning...
posted by chowflap at 9:58 AM on April 24, 2009

I've had pickled muktuk, which is less chewy than the unpickled stuff, but still rather chewy and very fishy. I think to enjoy it you have to grow up with it.

I think you could soak or dip small hunks of parboiled very fatty bacon in the fish-flavored oil left over from a can of sardines (after you have eaten or otherwise disposed of the sardines), and that would come about as close as I would want to to replicating the muktuk experience.
posted by gudrun at 10:26 AM on April 24, 2009

I've eaten more muktuk -- in all forms -- than the average anthropologist. It's fairly unique stuff, nutritionally and flavor-wise.

I've never found mutuk (maktak) "fishy" at all. It's a mammal, after all. It's sort of sweet. I think probaby pork fat (like the fat on raw bacon) would simulate the effect somewhat, but you can't really imitate something so unique. As far as I know, for example, it's the only animal fat rich in vitamin C.
posted by fourcheesemac at 10:33 AM on April 24, 2009

Also, maktak can be made from different whale species (Beluga, Bowhead, etc.) and tastes different depending on which species - significantly different.
posted by fourcheesemac at 10:34 AM on April 24, 2009

And I'll add one more thing for those thinking of alternatives: the blubber part of maktak is not particularly chewy either. In fact, in my experience, it practically melts in your mouth (this is raw maktak, mind you). It's the skin it's attached too -- which can be from a quarter inch to several inches thick depending on species and time of year -- that takes a while to chew.
posted by fourcheesemac at 10:36 AM on April 24, 2009 [1 favorite]

fourcheesemac, I bow to your muktuk culinary experience, but the muktuk I've had has a distinct fishy aftertaste or tone to it, and I've compared notes with others who say the same. It is a sea mammal you are eating, and its diet is fishy, so there is a bit of that flavor in its flesh and fat. I may be hypersensitive, because I'm not partial to most things that even hint of fish, but I know the aftertaste I got when I ate it. It is not overwhelming, but that fishy taste was definitely present.
posted by gudrun at 10:39 AM on April 24, 2009

Briney, maybe. Salty. But whales don't eat fish. They eat krill and plankton.

I've had Beluga and Bowhead maktak, raw, pickled, fermented, and boiled. I've had it at meals where I've also been eating raw fish, raw caribou, and other raw parts of the whale. I insist that it does not taste "fishy" except that fish tastes "meaty."
posted by fourcheesemac at 10:44 AM on April 24, 2009

If you want to aim for amusement and enjoyment rather than "authentic" and questionably edible raw meat/fat, you might want to go in a different direction. I give you . . . Whale Gummis!
posted by donovan at 10:48 AM on April 24, 2009

fourcheesemac, I am not going to debate how it tasted to me, as individual tastes and perceptions differ (briney or salty does not even come close), but this is fast moving into derail territory, so, I'm wondering, as you seem to be the person with the most experience eating it, what would you suggest as a substitute for it? (given that that was the original question.) Raw bacon fat?, you said, but that seems too land mammal meaty to my mind.
posted by gudrun at 10:56 AM on April 24, 2009

For the record, dried squid is quite tasty - I'd have trouble describing it, a sort of salty, uber-stringy jerky? Except I've never tried jerky, so that's hypothesizing - and not really what I'd recommend if you want people to undergo that feeling of food as an endurance (ba-dum-ching!) event.
posted by bettafish at 11:34 AM on April 24, 2009

Bleah. I suggest chunks of raw tofu. All these replacements sound vile and probably really unhealthy for non-starving people.
posted by stray at 12:52 PM on April 24, 2009

of course taste is subjective, and maktak does have a *strong* flavor. I don't think this is a derail to discuss, however. The question I'd what is*like* maktak. And my answer is "nothing."

But pressed for a substitute, how about skin+fat from a healthy sized cut of shark?
posted by fourcheesemac at 2:30 PM on April 24, 2009