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Fish and seafood from Alaska

Tepa (stinkheads)tepa

Tepa are salmon heads left to age in a grass- or moss-lined pit or a barrel in the ground until they turn soft, then eaten. Health agencies note that the aging is mostly protein breakdown, not an acid fermentation, so the pH stays near neutral and Clostridium botulinum type E can make toxin. Sealed plastic or glass containers and warm aging raise that risk.

Fully documentedFish and seafood10 min

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedA home method with no fixed amounts; heads are aged in a pit, barrel or other container.
Salmon headsIn 1877–1881 Nelson saw king salmon heads, taken in summer, aged in small pits[ak-guide]
Straw, grass or moss to line the pit, and turf to cover it[ak-guide]

Total time across the recorded steps: 10 min

Start
Drag the bar or press Play

What changes: Heads are cut from salmon caught in summer

Step 1 of 4
Cut off the salmon heads
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
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

At a glance

Tepa are salmon heads left to age in a grass- or moss-lined pit or a barrel in the ground until they turn soft, then eaten. Health agencies note that the aging is mostly protein breakdown, not an acid fermentation, so the pH stays near neutral and Clostridium botulinum type E can make toxin. Sealed plastic or glass containers and warm aging raise that risk. Made in 4 steps over 10 min. The longest step, boil before eating, takes 10 min (CDC 2026).

Key numbers
Main step10 minReported[cdc-prev]Boil before eating
Temperatureup to 2 °CReported[ak-guide]Age until the heads are soft

What makes this one different

Nelson's account of tepa mentions no salt, rice or other starch. The Alaska guide says the aging is protein breakdown, not acid fermentation, so the pH stays near neutral. Surströmming, by contrast, relies on salt and chilling.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Stink eggs (aged salmon roe)Salmon roe aged the same way in pits, barrels or a seal- or fish-skin poke; see stinky-eggs.

Safety

This page records a practice; it is not a recipe to follow. Alaska has a far higher botulism rate than the rest of the United States, and every Alaska case has been tied to traditional foods. Salmon heads were implicated in 14 of 141 confirmed outbreaks from 1950 to 2010, and type E caused 83% of all outbreaks. Sealed plastic, glass or bags keep air out and favour C. botulinum; warm aging in the sun or indoors speeds toxin formation. One experiment found no toxin in a grass-lined pit, but that does not make a pit safe; the Alaska guide says traditional preparation will not always prevent toxin. For people who keep this tradition, the state guidance is to use traditional methods, age at below 2 °C, wash hands and containers, and cook the food; CDC advises boiling home-fermented Alaska Native foods for 10 minutes before eating. Boiling is no guarantee, because the FDA says not to rely on heat as the control. CDC says the toxin cannot be seen, smelled or tasted, and that even a small taste can be deadly.

Hazards the sources name: Clostridium botulinum, mostly type E (salmon heads were implicated in 14 of 141 confirmed Alaska botulism outbreaks, 1950–2010).

History and sources

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

Edward Nelson saw king salmon heads aged in straw-lined pits in the Yukon–Kuskokwim district during his 1877–1881 visit; by autumn the heads were soft enough to knead into a paste. Shaffer and colleagues found in 1990 that preparation methods had changed over the previous 50 years in ways that may favour botulism.

Starter
The sources we found do not say how its fermentation begins.
  1. [fda-ch13] US Food and Drug Administration, Fish and Fishery Products Hazards and Controls Guidance, Chapter 13: Clostridium botulinum Toxin Formationgov
  2. [ak-guide] Alaska Division of Public Health, Section of Epidemiology 2011, Botulism in Alaska. A guide for physicians and health care providers, 2011 update (CDC Stacks copy)gov
  3. [cdc-prev] CDC, Preventing botulism (botulism prevention page), read 2026-10gov
  4. [shaffer1990] Shaffer N., Wainwright R.B., Middaugh J.P., Tauxe R.V. 1990, Botulism among Alaska Natives. The role of changing food preparation and consumption practices, Western Journal of Medicine 153(4):390–393 (abstract)paper