Friday, January 2, 2009

How to Make Pickled Beluga

A while back I posted a photo of some pickled beluga muktuk that a friend was selling at one of the craft bazaars. I love pickled beluga and I had some beluga in the freezer so I thought I would make some. I thought maybe one or two of you might be curious how it's made.


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Start out by boiling your pieces of muktuk. I boiled mine for about 35 minutes or so. The best way to tell if it is done is to stab it with a knife. If the knife goes through pretty easily then it is done.



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Next you dump it out into the sink. Rinse it off with hot water and then leave it there too cool off for a while.



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While the muktuk is cooling you can cut up some carrots and onions...



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and cauliflower and jalapenos.



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Cut the beluga into bite size pieces.



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When pickling things like beluga, salmon or herring I use a 1:1 ratio of vinegar and water. More vinegar than that has a tendency to make things mushy.



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I don't do anything special to the brine like boil it or add sugar. I just layer all the ingredients including the pickling spice into the jar and then pour the vinegar and water mixture over it until it is covered. Then you cap the jars and put it in the fridge. After it sits for a couple days it's ready to eat.



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6 comments:

Meandering Michael said...

That looks great!

Ishmael said...

That's so much simpler than I ever imagined!

Would it work with bowhead muktuk, because I've got a couple pounds left after my last care package..... If so, do you think I should trim the skin? It's very, very thick. Maybe just bite-sized pieces of the fat, because it's thick, too.

Anonymous said...

Cathy you are getting me hungry. The next time you come over I am going to piss and moan about how you show this eye candy and I didn't get any. Sunny Boy will be so mad at you.

CabinDweller said...

Cool. Love the stuff, but have never made it. (Looks like I need to develop a beluga connection. :) )

Anonymous said...

When I lived in Point Barrow in 1945, I watched the Eskimos tow in the speared whales that had dragged their umiaks all over the arctic to have the Navy Seabee's dozers pull them up on the beach. Great steaming chunks of fresh whale were a delicacy that I could never bring myself to share. Your recipe for pickled Beluga, however, shows great promise! Thanks for sharing. Now, my next problem..... Where do I get the Beluga? Rich in AZ

Anonymous said...

Rich in AZ. That's easy bro, come back home! The chill factor here in Kotz today is only 43 below zero.

It would be great if you have pictures of these things. Among the great things we had was the military personnel taking pictures of what, at that time to us, was ordinary life. Now it seems so extraordinary and any pictures you have would be great to see.

Signed, Russ the dog