Mattak recipe

Raw whale skin with its layer of blubber, cut cold into cubes and eaten with nothing on it.

10 minuteseasy3 ingredients

Ingredients

• 200 g mattak, raw whale skin with blubber
• 1 pinch salt
• 15 ml soy sauce

How to make Mattak

1. Mattak is the raw skin and blubber of narwhal, beluga or bowhead whale, taken from Greenlandic subsistence hunting. It cannot be bought or substituted outside the Arctic, so there is no home version of this dish and nothing else tastes like it.
2. Keep the 200 g piece very cold, straight from the fridge or slightly frozen; the cold is what gives the crisp resistance of the skin.
3. With a very sharp knife, cut squares of about 2 cm, keeping the same proportion of skin to blubber on every piece. Too much blubber and the bite turns greasy, too little and it is only rubbery.
4. Serve it raw and unseasoned, at most a pinch of salt. No cooking, no acid, no marinade: heat and lemon destroy the texture that is the point of mattak.
5. Put a little soy sauce on the side if you want. It is a modern habit in Greenlandic homes, not the traditional form.
6. Eat it as a snack or a small starter, alongside dried fish or dried meat, as it is served in Greenland.

Get Copper on the App Store

More dishes from Greenland →