Alaskan ice cream facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Alaskan ice cream

Alaska wild berries from the Innoko National Wildlife Refuge, a mixture of true berries (blue Vaccinium uliginosum and red Vaccinium vitis-idaea) and aggregate fruits (red Rubus arcticus). These berries are used in Alaskan ice cream.
Alternative names	Native ice cream, Alaskan ice cream
Type	Dessert
Place of origin	United States
Region or state	Alaska
Created by	Alaskan Athabaskans
Main ingredients	dried fish or meat, fat, berries

Alaskan ice cream, also known as akutaq, is a special dessert from Alaska. It's often called Native ice cream or Eskimo ice cream. This unique treat is very different from the ice cream you might be used to. It was traditionally made by the Alaskan Athabaskans and other Native groups in Alaska.

Akutaq is made from a mix of ingredients found in nature. These include dried fish (like pike or whitefish), dried moose or caribou meat, and fat. It also contains different kinds of berries, such as cowberry, bilberry, cranberry, and cloudberry. Sometimes, mild sweeteners like wild carrot roots are added.

To make akutaq, these ingredients are mixed and whipped. Traditionally, people used a whisk or their hands. The fat, often from animals like caribou, moose, walrus, or seal, is whipped until it's light and fluffy. Then, berries, fish, or even tundra greens are mixed in.

There is also a type of akutaq called "snow akutaq." The most common recipes for this "Indian ice cream" involve dried and crushed moose or caribou meat. This meat is blended with moose fat, often in a birch bark container, until it becomes light and airy. Akutaq can be eaten fresh or frozen. When frozen, it can feel a bit like regular ice cream.

In more recent times, people have started adding ingredients like sugar, milk, and vegetable shortening to akutaq.

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  Akutaq made from raspberries, blueberries and vegetable shortening

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  Tumnaq, a wooden bowl used to make akutaq

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  Iced akutaq made from raspberries and blueberries

Native names for Akutaq

This special dessert has different names in the many Native languages of Alaska. Here are some of them:

See also

In Spanish: Akutaq para niños