Canadian Inuit elders sharing muktuk, outside their summer tents, 2002Expedition team of German photographer Ansgar Walk eating muktuk in celebration of a young hunter's catch in theCanadian Arctic, 1997
In Greenland, muktuk (mattak) is sold commercially tofish factories,[4] and in Canada (muktaaq) to other communities.[5]
One account of a 21st-centuryindigenous whale hunt describes the skin and blubber eaten as a snack while the rest of thewhale meat is butchered (flensed) for later consumption. When boiled, this snack is known asunaaliq.[6] Raw or cooked, the blubber and skin are served withHP Sauce,[6][7][8][9][10] a British condiment, orsoy sauce.[11]
The most important item of food of the PolarEskimos is thenarwhal (Monodon monoceros). [...] The skin (mattak) is greatly relished and tastes like hazel-nuts; it is eaten raw and contains considerable amounts of glycogen and ascorbic acid. TheWhite whale (Delphinupterus leucas) is almost as important...[16]
Contaminants from the industrialised world have made their way to the Arctic marinefood web. This poses a health risk to people who eat "country food" (traditional Inuit foodstuffs).[17] As whales grow,mercury accumulates in the liver, kidney, muscle, and blubber, andcadmium settles in the blubber,[18] the same process that makesmercury in fish a health issue for humans. Whale meat alsobioaccumulates carcinogens such asPCBs, chemical compounds that damage humannervous,immune andreproductive systems,[19][20] and a variety of other contaminants.[21]
Consumption of muktuk has also been associated with outbreaks ofbotulism.[22]
^abZellen, Barry Scott (2008).Breaking the ice : from land claims to tribal sovereignty in the arctic. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books. p. 376.ISBN978-0-7391-1941-9.OCLC183162209.
^Fediuk, K.; Hidiroglou, N.; Madère, R.;Kuhnlein, H. V. (2002). "Vitamin C in Inuit Traditional Food and Women's Diets".Journal of Food Composition and Analysis.15 (3): 221.doi:10.1006/jfca.2002.1053.
^McClintock, Francis Leopold (2012), "CHAPTER XVI",A Narrative of the Discovery of the Fate of Sir John Franklin and His Companions, Cambridge University Press, pp. 301–322,doi:10.1017/cbo9781139236522.018,ISBN978-1-139-23652-2{{citation}}: CS1 maint: work parameter with ISBN (link)
^Kuhnlein, H. V.; Barthet, V.; Farren, A.; Falahi, E.; Leggee, D.; Receveur, O.; Berti, P. (2006). "Vitamins A, D, and E in Canadian Arctic traditional food and adult diets".Journal of Food Composition and Analysis.19 (6–7): 495.doi:10.1016/j.jfca.2005.02.007.
^Wagemann, R.; Snow, N.B.; Lutz, A.; Scott, D.P. (1983). "Heavy Metals in Tissues and Organs of the Narwhal (Monodon monoceras)".Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences.40 (S2):s206–s214.Bibcode:1983CJFAS..40S.206W.doi:10.1139/f83-326.
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