Muktuk facts for kids
Muktuk is a traditional Inuit and Chukchi food consisting of frozen whale skin and blubber.
Muktuk is most often made from the skin and blubber of the bowhead whale, although the beluga and the narwhal are also used. Usually eaten raw, today it is occasionally finely diced, breaded, deep fried, and then served with soy sauce. Despite it being usually eaten raw it could also be eaten frozen or cooked. It is also sometimes pickled. When chewed raw, the blubber becomes oily, with a nutty taste; if not diced, or at least serrated, the skin is quite rubbery.
In Greenland, muktuk (mattak) is sold commercially to fish factories, and in Canada to other communities (muktaaq).
Muktuk has been found to be a good source of vitamin C, the epidermis containing up to 38 mg per 100 grams (3.5 oz). It was used as an antiscorbutic by British Arctic explorers. Blubber is also a source of vitamin D.
As whales grow, mercury accumulates in the liver, kidney, muscle, and blubber, and cadmium settles in the blubber. It also contains PCBs, carcinogens that damage human nervous, immune and reproductive systems, bioaccumulated from the marine food web, and a variety of other contaminants.
Spellings
- Ikiilgin, Chukchi
- Maktaaq (ᒪᒃᑖᖅ), Siglitun, Kivalliq, Aivilik, North Baffin, East Baffin, South Baffin
- Maktak (ᒪᒃᑕᒃ), Inupiat, Siglitun, North Baffin
- Maktaq, Inuinnaqtun, Natsilingmiutut (Inuvialuktun)
- Mattak, Labrador, Greenland
- Mangtak, Alaskan Yup'ik
- Mungtuk, Siberian Yupik
- Kimaq, Alutiiq/Sugpiaq
In some dialects, such as Inuinnaqtun, the word muktuk refers only to the edible parts of the whale's skin and not to the blubber.
See also
In Spanish: Muktuk para niños
