Muktuk

Sliced and prepared muktuk

Muktuk is the traditional Inuit/Eskimo and Chukchi meal of frozen whale skin and blubber.

A Bowhead Whale which is most often used in muktuk

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, it is today occasionally finely diced, breaded, deep fried, and served with soy sauce. 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 more than a bit rubbery.

Elders sharing maktaaq, 2002

A group of people eating muktuk, 1997

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). Blubber is also a source of vitamin D. However, it also contains PCBs, carcinogens that damage human nervous, immune and reproductive systems, that originate from industrial sources and are concentrated in the marine food web.

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.