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Fermentation Atlas

Meat from Canadian Arctic

Inuit aged meats and fish (seal, walrus, narwhal, whale, caribou, char)igunaq (aged walrus or seal)

Inuit age many animal foods without salt or starter, in skin pouches, caches under rocks, pits above the permafrost or, today, sheds and refrigerators. The family covers walrus and seal igunaq, caribou, flippers, fish heads, birds and blubber oil. It is slow decomposition in the cold rather than acid fermentation. Made in 3 steps over 30 days – 2 months. The longest step, cache and age in the cold, takes 30 days – 2 months (Food Safety Network for the National Collabor…) and runs at 2–23 °C (Leclair D. 2008). Clostridium and Clostridium and Bacteroidales do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step30 days – 2 monthsReported[ncceh2009]Cache and age in the cold
Temperature2–23 °CMeasured[leclair2008]Cache and age in the cold
Fully documentedMeat30 days – 2 monthsMore meatMore from Canada

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedTraditional practice with no fixed amounts. Recipes, ageing places and times vary within and among communities.
Meat, fat or fish from one animal · Nothing else is added for most preparations[ncceh2009]
Animal skin, stomach or a container · Seal skin pouches, the caribou's own skin, or steel basins and pails today[ncceh2009]
Starter: spontaneous

Total time across the recorded steps: 30 days – 2 months

Start
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What changes: Meat and fat are packed into a skin pouch or a pail

Step 1 of 3
Pack meat, fat or fish into skin or a container
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented

For caribou, the stomach with fat and meat goes into the body cavity and the skin is tied around the body. Output: packed meat, fat or fish.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

Not documented for this step.

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

What makes this one different

This entry groups the whole Inuit family of aged foods. Its best-studied member, walrus and seal igunaq, has its own page; others include caribou pavunnaaq, aged seal flippers (ujjaq), aged fish heads and misiraq oil.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Igunaq (walrus, seal)Meat and fat sewn into skin and cached; see its own entry.
  • Pavunnaaq (caribou)Whole caribou with fat and meat in the stomach, wrapped in its skin, cached for a couple of months.
  • Ujjaq (seal flippers)Flippers with blubber in a pail; ready when the skin slips off; also made in the fridge.
  • Misiraq (aged blubber oil)Seal, walrus or whale blubber left to liquefy, then frozen; used as a dip.
  • Fish-head and bird igunaqCod and char heads or birds aged in sealskin; rare today.

Safety

A Canadian public health review notes that this ageing does not lower the pH the way true fermentation does, so cold is the main safeguard. It advises against sealed plastic containers and warm, above-ground ageing, and states that storing food at 4 °C or lower in containers that are not airtight prevents growth of C. botulinum. Boiling for 10 minutes or longer destroys the toxin.

Hazards the sources name: Clostridium botulinum type E (aged marine mammal meat); Trichinella nativa (walrus).

History and sources

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

The National Collaborating Centre for Environmental Health review records igunaq of walrus, seal, seal flipper, caribou, fish, fish head and bird. Fish-head igunaq was more common in North Baffin and Northern Québec, and bird igunaq in Northern Québec.

  1. [campbell2022] Campbell R., Hauptmann A., Campbell K., Fox S., Marco M.L. 2022, Better understanding of food and human microbiomes through collaborative research on Inuit fermented foods, Microbiome Research Reports 1:5paper
  2. [ncceh2009] Food Safety Network for the National Collaborating Centre for Environmental Health 2009, Safe preparation and storage of Aboriginal traditional/country foods, a review (funded by the Public Health Agency of Canada)gov
  3. [leclair2008] Leclair D. 2008, Molecular epidemiology and risk assessment of human botulism in the Canadian Arctic, PhD thesis, University of Ottawapaper