Iceland
Photo: Chris 73, CC BY-SA 3.0, croppedHákarl
/ˈhauːˌkʰa(r)tl̥/HOW-kartl
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- Taste
- Sour
- Made with
- Fish
History
Hákarl is fermented Greenland shark. The fresh meat is poisonous, so it was buried in gravel for weeks, now usually pressed in containers, to drain the fluids, then cut into strips and hung in an open shed to dry for four or five months. The result has a strong ammonia smell and a cheesy, fishy taste. It is eaten in small cubes on toothpicks, usually with a shot of brennivín, the caraway spirit. Hákarl was a way of turning an inedible fish into food in a land where nothing could be wasted. Today it is mostly eaten at Þorrablót, the midwinter festival of traditional foods. The species grows slowly and lives for centuries, so some people question eating it.
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