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Meat from USA

Fermented seal flipper(Yup'ik and Iñupiaq names not found this round)

Fermented seal flipper is a traditional Alaska Native food in which seal flippers are aged until the skin and hair slip, then eaten. Alaska health authorities note that such aged sea-mammal foods are not truly fermented, since there is too little sugar to make acid and the pH stays neutral; the change is putrefaction. Seal foods, including seal oil, are the foods most often implicated in Alaska botulism outbreaks. Across all foods, most of those outbreaks are type E.

A short entry: the sources we found record only what is said here about Fermented seal flipper itself. Its own sources do not record how it is made, so the steps and scenes below are those of Igunaq, the closest documented meat ferment, shown as a guide to the method, not as a record of Fermented seal flipper.

Short entryMeat

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedA household practice with no recipe; the sources we read give no amounts, times or temperatures for seal flippers.
Seal flippers[ak-botulism-2011]
Starterspontaneous

Total time across the steps of Igunaq: 14 days – 42 days

Start
Drag the bar or press Play

What changes: Starting material: walrus or seal meat and fat, butchered on the shore

Step 1 of 4 · steps of Igunaq
Butcher the walrus or seal
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented

Output: meat and fat pieces.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

spores of C. botulinum type E can reach the meat from coastal rocks, tidal water and shoreline soil during butchering

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

At a glance

Fermented seal flipper is a traditional Alaska Native food in which seal flippers are aged until the skin and hair slip, then eaten. Alaska health authorities note that such aged sea-mammal foods are not truly fermented, since there is too little sugar to make acid and the pH stays neutral; the change is putrefaction. Seal foods, including seal oil, are the foods most often implicated in Alaska botulism outbreaks. Across all foods, most of those outbreaks are type E. Protein- and fat-decomposing bacteria (putrefaction); no source we read names the species does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Temperatureup to 2 °CReported[ak-botulism-2011]Store flippers until the skin and hair slip

What makes this one different

Unlike lactic meat ferments, aged seal flipper never sours; it is decomposition of protein and fat at neutral pH, which does not stop botulinum toxin forming.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Fermented walrus flipperWalrus flipper aged the same way.
  • Aged beluga whale flipperWhale flipper; whale is the second most often implicated sea mammal.

Safety

Seal foods, including seal oil, were implicated in 54 of 141 confirmed Alaska botulism outbreaks in 1950–2010. Alaska guidance advises using traditional methods rather than sealed plastic or glass, ageing food cold (ideally below 2 °C), and cooking aged foods before eating, since heat destroys the toxin. The same guide says traditional preparation practices will not always prevent toxin production. CDC says to boil all home-fermented Alaska Native foods for 10 minutes before eating them, adding 1 minute for each additional 1,000 feet of elevation. CDC also says you cannot see, smell or taste the toxin, that even a small taste of food containing it can be deadly, and to throw the food out when in doubt.

Hazards the sources name: Clostridium botulinum type E (type E strains are inhibited only below pH 5, which aged sea-mammal foods do not reach).

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

  1. [ak-botulism-2011] Alaska Division of Public Health, Section of Epidemiology, Botulism in Alaska, a guide for physicians and health care providers, 2011 update (CDC Stacks copy)gov
  2. [cdc-prev] CDC, Preventing botulism (botulism prevention page)gov
  3. [s1] KNOM, Three people ill after eating fermented seal flipper, 2015web
  4. [wp-yupik] Wikipedia, Yup'ik cuisine (taaqassaaq)wiki