To many people in the Arctic and Subarctic, seal is or has been a major source of food.
Seals are abundant in many of the cold waters on the top of the globe and represents a huge resource today and in the future.
Therefore, seal has been a focus area throughout several workshops. At a workshop in Nuuk, the focus was to develop a new method for cutting and treating seal. We do not claim to have reinvented the way we use seal, merely gathered inspiration, traditions, and new ways, and put them into a system. Building on this, we have focussed on the cutting of the animal, refining, and expanding the use.
By doing this, it will be increasingly possible to make a broader use of the animal and create more different products out of it. This will increase the local use, the potential for exports and possibly pave way for new products that can be traded at a higher price.
The method
Treating the seal as a game animal is the core of the method. Separating the meat and the blubber makes both the meat and the blubber more delicate and usable for several new products. De-constructing the animal and creating a cutting chart, is the most important outcome of the work and research and half of the basis of the method. The other half is soaking the meat in water, preferable just after the kill, to water out the “fishy” taste from the meat. The result is an extremely tender meat of a very high quality.
Method, step-by-step:
1) Cut of the head to drain as much blood as possible.
2) Separate meat and blubber.
3) Clean the seal for intestines.
4) Keep it cooled
5) Soak the meat in water, preferable sea water or water with 3-4% salt.
6) Cut the seal according to the cutting chart and the picture of the cuttings (can be done before soaking it).
All must be done as soon after the kill as possible to get the best result.
