You’ve never tried this version of ice cream!

Eskimo ice cream, called Akutaq (ah-goo-duck), is an Alaskan delicacy!

Unlike regular ice cream, this one is made up of animal fats, oils, and berries.

This mixture kept the eskimos strength high while they were out hunting long hours.

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup reindeer, caribou, or moose fat (back fat)*
  • 1 cup animal oil (seal, walrus, or whale), divided
  • 1/2 cup water or 2 cups loose snow
  • 4 1/2 cups berries (blueberries, cloudberries, cranberries, salmonberries, or blackberries)

Instructions: 

  1. Grate or grind fat into small pieces. In a large pot over low heat, add fat and stir until it becomes a liquid (the fat should never get hotter than it is comfortable to your hand).  Add 1/3 cup seal oil, mixing until it is all liquid.  Remove from heat and continue stirring the fat in big circles.

  2. While continuing to stir at a steady rate, add 1/4 cup water or 1 cup snow and another 1/3 cup seal oil.  As fat slowly cools and starts to get fluffy and white, add remaining 1/4 cup water or 1 cup snow and remaining 1/3 cup seal oil, continuing to stir.

  3. When the Akutaq is as white and fluffy as you can make it, fold in berries.  Form into desired shape. Cover and freeze to firm up.