sca-cooks Viking Period Cooking - Looking for Information about

[Philip W. Troy]

Aonghas MacLeoid (B.G. Morris) wrote:
> 
> Yum Yum!  Rotting Shark, can we have seconds!!!  : )
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Ealasaid (I know , don't knock it til you try it!!)

Comments on hakarl, the aforementioned rotting shark:

A) Depends on what you mean by rotten. As with the liquamen / garum of
the Romans, there is little or no bacterial action in the breakdown of
these fish products into a paste. In the case of liquamen, salt prevents
this. With hakarl, cold prevents it. However, there are enzymes stored
in the muscles of the fish which cause it to break down over time. Quite
similar, in fact, to the enzymes which reverse rigor mortis in aged
beef.

B) As previously suggested, don't knock it till you've tried it: the
fishing authority / sports writer / food writer A.J. McClane encountered
hakarl for the first time in Iceland, and had no idea what it was. He
was a little surprised to see Brie cheese at a smorebrod; and wondered
how and why it was there. However, he was glad it was there; he loved
the stuff. Eventually he found out it was a paste of fermented Greenland
shark, thought about it for a bit, shrugged, and went back for more. The
evidence suggests he is a wise man.

Adamantius