Eating rotten shark?

May 10, 2007 5:01 PM

As a follow-up to this AskMe of yesteryear about bad food, I have recently acquired some kæstur hákarl or Icelandic rotten shark. Help me to eat it.

The can stinks of ammonia, so much so that I can hardly breathe near it without choking. Please can any Icelandic MeFites, or even someone who has just seen the episode of No Reservations where Anthony Bourdain eats it, reassure me that a) it's not going to poison me and b) that it needs no preparation. The expiry date is May 15th, so I need to tackle the shark in the next few days.

posted by roofus to food & drink (12 comments total)

Well, I've eaten surströmming and lived to tell about it. Similar concept, different fish correct? Surströmming literally stunk from yards away, kinda like wet dog. No preparation need. Spread on crisp bread, eat, enjoy!
posted by Otis at 6:13 PM on May 10, 2007

Um, people do get sick from it from time to time. Seriously. Not deathly sick, but sick. Are you absolutely sure it's okay?

If it smells that bad, keep in mind, you'll be burping it up for days.
posted by gesamtkunstwerk at 6:19 PM on May 10, 2007

Why would you put yourself through eating something heinous just because it's exotic? There are plenty of exotic things that are delicious. Also, I assume you have already opened the can, which makes it bad after only one day!
posted by WaterSprite at 6:29 PM on May 10, 2007

While in Iceland, the only instruction I heard regarding it was
1.) Open the can outside (too late?), and preferably, eat it outside. If you bring it in the house, it will smell for days.
2.) Drink Brennevin in large amounts.
posted by arruns at 6:35 PM on May 10, 2007

As I recall from that episode of No Reservations, the rotting was pretty much the only preparation involved. Possibly slapping it on a piece of dark rye bread, at most. Maybe you could rinse it off some, to get some of the strong fluid off of it.

Bourdain found it soul-crushingly foul... and that's from a man that has downed a shot of cobra bile. Couldn't you have found a can of the jellied sheep balls instead?
posted by CKmtl at 7:08 PM on May 10, 2007

Oh my. roofus, I don't know whether to be touched or very, very sorry, since it's my comment in your post that is at least partially to blame for your predicament. I think the best way to eat it would be to get very, very drunk first. And please return and report with your findings.
posted by brain cloud at 8:01 PM on May 10, 2007

The ammonia smell is the standard odor from the shark decomposition or 'ripening'. The reason why the shark is buried and rotted is to rid the shark of the poison that is found when it is 'fresh'. The traditional thermogenic process of burying it in sand and letting the combination of rot and trickling salt water remove the poison.

The harkarl's evil smell is normal however you may feel sick from eating it because of your revulsion and not from pathogens UNLESS you let it lay around and go bad so to speak.

Follow the advice found in the thread, which is open the container outside and have plenty of booze on hand. BUT if you can't eat it due to projectile vomiting or revulsion then don't do it, just eat some other traditional Icelandic food like jellied ram's testicle.
posted by jadepearl at 9:09 PM on May 10, 2007

1.) Open the can outside (too late?), and preferably, eat it outside. If you bring it in the house, it will smell for days.

2.) Drink Brennevin in large amounts.

Writing from Sweden here. The rules for eating surströmming are just slightly different, but may apply in your case.

1.) Drink Brennevin/vodka in large amounts.

2.) Open the can outside (too late?), and preferably, eat it outside. If you bring it in the house, it will smell for days.

3.) Drink Brennevin/vodka in large amounts.

That being said, the taste (IMHO) is not worth the smell.
posted by three blind mice at 9:33 PM on May 10, 2007 [2 favorites]

I just had a friend who had recently been to Iceland describe the stuff to me, and the one major point he made was that _everyone_ gulps down that Brennevin stuff liberally while they're trying to choke down the shark.

(P.S. There are some very nasty legends about how the "authentic" harkarl is prepared. I have no idea if those stories are apocryphal or not, and no matter what, I'm sure the commercial stuff is prepared without the human urine, but still. Gives you an idea of just how repulsive it is.)
posted by LairBob at 10:46 PM on May 10, 2007

Been there, done that!

It smells of ammonia (as you say) and tastes (literally) of piss. The only reason to eat it is so you can say you've eaten it (guilty as charged!).

Have some friends over, get a little tanked, dare each other to eat it, nibble some then throw it away! That's the most fun you're going to have with it!
posted by SpacemanRed at 5:19 AM on May 11, 2007

yup. all my relatives and all the Þorrablot celebrations i've attended seem to demonstrate the need for copious amounts of brennivín (colloquially known in iceland as "black death") coupled with tiny cubes of hákarl. can't give you any personal advice, as i've done an excellent job of avoiding the stuff thus far, and intend to continue to do so.

good luck!
posted by the luke parker fiasco at 3:29 PM on May 11, 2007

I tried a single cube, and I'm slightly underwhelmed. The initial fishy shark taste is good, the long ammonia aftertaste, not so good. I have been quite flatulent since eating it though, which might be a coincidence.
posted by roofus at 3:49 PM on May 13, 2007