' High Meat ' - Fermented Animal products

[TeeDee]

High Meats.

I recently came across by accident some hilarious footage of someone enjoying 'High Meat' -Fermented Liver in this case , - which was something I wasn't aware of as a 'thing'

Just wondering if anyone has any experience or opinion of it?
Sampled it anywhere? Exotic delicacy or risking ones internal workings.

Fermented High Meat: Benefits, Risks & How to Make It

Discover the benefits, risks, and step-by-step guide to making fermented high meat safely. Learn if this unique food is right for you!

pureluxy.com

 

[Chris]

I've heard of it done with a bird wrapped in a seal skin, called Kiviak. I'm afraid that falls into the same category for me as 'balut', that category being 'Revolting'. It killed a famous explorer once due to botulism.

Though I think Inuit also do (or did) it with seal, walrus, caribou meat as well. I forget what that is called. Again, I understand that botulism isn't a stranger to communities who eat it.

I love pickled stuff and went down a Wikipedia rabbit hole a while back.

 

[Tengu]

Knud Rasmussen.

 

[Toddy]

It's called Guga up here....well it's pretty much confined to the Western Hebrides these days...10 men from Ness are allowed to go out and take a couple of thousand young gannets from the cliffs of an Atlantic island. The birds are traditionally buried to develop their flavour.

Guga - Scottish Food Guide

Unavailable. They don’t come much more unique than the Guga, Gaelic for Gannet, harvested and prepared by a special group of 10 Ness men once a year for 2 weeks on the isle of Sùlaisgeir (Gannet Skerry), Sula being the Scandinavian word for Gannet. Sùlaisgeir is a desolate rocky isle over 40...

scottishfoodguide.com

Used to be that Islanders paid their rents in seabirds and their eggs. St. Kilda for instance.

I have second cousins who ate guga. They said it's good, it's like salty goose, with a fishy sort of undertone.

Scotland's last surviving guga hunt to resume this summer

The controversial harvest of young gannets has not been held since 2021 due to concerns around avian flu.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Tengu]

Its salted, not fermented.

 

[Toddy]

There's not enough salt to brine preserve them though; certainly not in the past when it was commonplace to deal with seabirds in glut like that. The folks on Lewis certainly believe that the process ferments the meat.

You know the way that ghee, or ripe soft cheese, tastes 'not fresh', well, seabirds, and geese, etc., birds rich in fats, their fat changes as they lie anaerobic and cold. Like the Kiviak, I mean.

https://deccalewis.com/preserving-tradition-a-guide-to-processing-guga-the-treasured-delicacy-of-lewis/

 

[Tengu]

Ah.

I have heard much about Guga, including how tasty it is, but not much as to how it is preserved.

You live and learn.

 

[Chris]

You live and learn.

Not necessarily if you eat a bad batch of fermented seabird, as Knud Rasmussen tells us.

 

[Nice65]

One of Peter Mays novels centred on guga collection, The Black House. It’s the only reason I know what guga is. I’ll leave it I reckon, same as that canned stuff that reeks.

 

[Billy-o]

Surströmming is like a real thing in Sweden. Fermented herring in a can. Niffs a bit aparently, but entirely pleasant

 

[TeeDee]

More for Comedy than anything else but this is the Video that I came across that made me laugh.
The Content creator mostly makes archery/ballista type things.

Made me laugh watching his face crawl off his face..

< I can't remember if there is swearing - I don't think so. >