In 1959, Alaska
became the 49th state to join the United States. Yet it remains the last
frontier in many ways, including the kitchen. Alaska frontier food
combines influences from Inuit populations, Russian
fur trappers, Yukon gold prospectors, and others who
have occupied and cooked in the area. So today, we're
going to take a look at some surprising foods people
ate on the Alaskan frontier. But before we get started,
be sure to subscribe to the Weird History Channel. After that, we'd be much obliged
if you would leave a comment and let us know what
other historical food you would like to hear about. OK, so let's find out
what gets baked in Alaska. Or fried, or
boiled, or whatever. [MUSIC PLAYING] I scream, you scream, we
all scream for ice cream. And, well, some of us
scream for Inuit ice cream. The concoction is also
commonly known as "aqutak," which is a Yup'ik word that
means "mix them together," and can be spelled
in a variety of ways. Aqutak is a traditional
food that is usually served to commemorate special
occasions like weddings, funerals, celebrations
of a boy's first hunt, or after the successful catch
of a seal or polar bear. As a frontier food,
aqutak was prepared by taking the fat from any
number of animals, including, but not limited to, seal,
whale, bear, or moose, and whipping it
until it was a paste. Some tribes, like
the Athabaskan Group, used marrow from
caribou as well. Once the fat was sufficiently
whipped, snow and wild berries were added. Which berries were
used usually depended on the region in which
the aqutak was being made. Modern versions of
aqutak might use Crisco or some fat
substitute instead, and include sugar, something
that traditional Inuit groups didn't have. It is still served as both
a snack and a dessert. [MUSIC PLAYING] Pemmican, a dish whose name
is derived from the Cree "pimikan," meaning
"manufactured grease," begins with jerky,
which is ground up and pulverized before
being mixed with animal fat. Traditionally, the
jerky, which can be made from the meat
of moose, deer, elk, or any number of animals,
would be powdered with a mallet or mortar and pestle. Once the mashed-up
jerky and melted fat were blended together,
dried fruit and spices were slowly mixed in. Blueberries,
currants, and cherries were the most common
types of fruit, but cranberries
could also be used. Once the mixture cooled, it
was placed in rawhide or cloth bags. It could be then stored
for months at a time, serving as a vital and portable
solution of protein and fat. In fact, pemmican was so highly
valued at times, the food itself could even
be used as currency. Pemmican was commonly
consumed by fur traders because it could be
stored and easily shipped to the North American prairie
regions, where foods could be extremely difficult to
find, especially in the winter months. The fur traders are
believed to have learned how to make it from an
English explorer named Peter Pond in 1779, which
is a pretty sweet name. It quickly became vital
to the trade, and was even picked up by the Royal
Navy, who used it to provision several Arctic expeditions. [MUSIC PLAYING] If you're the kind of
person who's afraid of bees, you might want to
consider moving to Alaska, because there are
no bees in Alaska. What? That doesn't make any sense. Yeah, because they have
bees, and they have had bees. But I think this
is what we mean. What we mean is there were
no honeybees introduced into Alaska at the time. That meant that the men and
women on the frontier of Alaska had no access to honey. As a result, they learned
to make sweeteners from natural herbs. Squaw honey, for
example, was made by boiling clover with
firewood or flowers, the nectar in the flowers
being the ingredient that provided the sweetness. White sweet clover, although
not native to the area, is common in
Alaska, and fireweed is an easily-identifiable
wildflower. Once the plants were
boiled, the sweet syrup could be spread over foods like
bread, flapjacks, or biscuits. Squaw honey was a staple of the
19th century gold prospectors, or "stampeders," who
came to the Klondike seeking their fortunes in 1896. In addition to
syrups, they would use it to make soups,
mashes, and spices that added some flavor to the
otherwise bland foods they stuck with. [MUSIC PLAYING] Kelp relish was used as
a substitute for salsas and other condiments
made from vegetables like tomatoes and cucumbers. Most commonly made out of
bull kelp native to Southeast Alaska, kelp relish
was pickled and eaten with seafood like halibut,
clams, and shrimp. In order to pickle the kelp,
it was soaked in brine, rinsed, and chopped
into small pieces. Sometimes, spices like
mustard seed, onion, and lemon were added for extra flavor. In lieu of dicing the
kelp, whole portions could be eaten like
pickles instead. Much like the
aforementioned squaw honey, kelp relish became a favorite
of the Klondike gold miners, who learned to make it
from the Native Alaskans. [MUSIC PLAYING] Dependent on large game like
moose and caribou for survival, the Inuit made sure to use
all parts of the animal. Modern meals made
out of moose meat, which resemble the types of
foods eaten on the frontier, include moose steak pie
and simple moose pie. Both recipes use flesh
from a moose with fillers such as potato and onion. Moose steak pie is breaded
on the bottom and top, while simple moose pie is more
of a casserole with ground moose meat on top. Moose minced meat
can also be made by blending moose flesh with
an array of spices, molasses, brandy, wine, and other
seasonings to taste. This can all be baked
into a sweetened pie or eaten on its own. Another moose-based delicacy
is jellied moose nose. The jaw of a moose is boiled
and then placed in cold water so that all the
hair can be removed. Fresh water is then placed in
a pot along with onion, garlic, spices, and the moose nose. After soaking, the bone
and cartilage are removed, and the thinly-sliced
meat is allowed to set in its own juices. [MUSIC PLAYING] As John Lennon
once sang, I am he, as you are he, as you are me. And we are all together,
possibly eating a walrus stew. All right, we might have
changed that last part. Anyway, stews were common
on the Alaskan frontier, which stands to reason. They're hearty
meals that could be made from any
available ingredients, including salmon, moose, or
even just beans and vegetables. Walrus stew began as a mixture
of meat and broth in a pot. However, with the introduction
of barley, buckwheat, and potato cultivation
by Russian fur traders, it soon expanded to
include those items. Traditional walrus stew,
often served at Thanksgiving, may also feature rice, along
with some diced seaweed and walrus fat added for flavor. It's served with walrus
koq, the cooked skin of the animal with a
layer of blubber attached. Goo-goo-gajoo. The dish known as
"stinkhead" is called "tepa" by the Inuit, which seems to
be a much more appetizing name. But regardless of
what you call it, stinkhead consists of fermented
whitefish or salmon heads. Traditionally, stinkhead is
made by wrapping and burying the heads of fish
for weeks at a time. By the time the
heads are retrieved, the good bacteria has
presumably eaten away the bad. Traditionally, the food was
buried in a wooden barrel covered with burlap. However, for a short
period in modern times, the wooden barrel was
replaced with a bucket, and the burlap with plastic. Why a short time? Well, it was found that both
stinkhead and stinky eggs buried in this way contributed
to high rates of botulism in Alaska each year, which
was a considerable downside. That being the case,
native Alaskans have greatly returned to
using the traditional bucket and burlap. [MUSIC PLAYING] While it sounds like a
gritty cop show from the 70s, this was a staple on
the Alaskan frontier. Bannock was a simple bread
made out of flour, salt, baking powder, and water. Some recipes
featured milk, eggs, and dried fruit,
all of which varied according to what was on hand. Inuit women who made bannock
may have included seal oil, because it kept the
bread from freezing. Traditional bannock got
its name from the Scots, and the word, in
an alternate form, goes back to at least
the eighth century. It was the Scots who
introduced weed flour to the Alaskan population. But indigenous groups may
have made their own variant of bannock using the edible
bulbs of the [? carnis ?] plant as well. In either form, bannock
or bannock-like bread could be fried in a pan
or wrapped on a stick and baked over an open flame. Large bannock rounds
made in frying pans would be cut into segments
and served with stew, or covered in squaw honey. [MUSIC PLAYING] While this also may sound
like Thundarr the Barbarian's sidekick, muktuk is
basically just whale skin with a layer of
blubber attached. But it provided
essential nutrients to Inuits and Alaskan
frontier people. In fact, it's such a good source
of vitamin C and vitamin D, the British would give it
to their Arctic explorers to help prevent scurvy. Most often taken from
bowhead and beluga whales, muktuk is still consumed today. Muktuk can be eaten
raw, in which case it is said to have
a nutty taste. Or it can be consumed
in frozen cubes. It's also often fermented and
stored for later consumption. In modern times, muktuk
is sold commercially in places like
Greenland and Canada. And it is often diced,
breaded, deep-fried, and served with the
condiment like soy sauce. As a delicacy, muktuk may be
salted and served on its own. But it can also be incorporated
into other recipes, like muktuk meatloaf, which
blends muktuk, eggs, oats, and flour with salt and pepper. [MUSIC PLAYING] Heinz may boast that they
make 57 varieties of ketchup, but they've got nothing
on the Inuit, who have been putting
their local berry supply to good use
for a long, long time. Blueberries, cranberries,
lingonberries, and Partridge berries
were only a few of the fruits picked and used
by Inuit groups, many of which still remain fundamental for
dietary and medicinal purposes. As settlers adjusted
their eating habits to what was available
on the Alaskan frontier, berries were used
for an increasing array of foods and condiments. Cranberry ketchup, for example,
was made by boiling berries before separating
the pulp and juice. Cranberries could be used of
the highbush or lowbush variety. Both tart fruits that
ideally saw sufficient sugars and spices added to taste. Once boiled again and
thickened, cranberry ketchup could be canned and
stored before being served with meat or poultry. [MUSIC PLAYING] With a name derived from the
ancient protoslavic word "pir," meaning "festivity"
or "banquet," the pirog is most
commonly associated with Eastern Europe and Russia. Made from yeast-raised
dough, pirogs usually come in oblong shapes
with tapered ends. But there are no
hard and fast rules. They could just as easily
be circular or rectangular. The pirog was introduced
to the Alaskan area by Russian fur
traders, and it quickly became a favorite
of Aleut peoples. Nobody knows exactly
when this took place. But when Captain James Cook
visited what would later be Alaska in 1778 on his voyage
to find the Northwest Passage, he claimed that women
brought him a pirog, indicating it was
perhaps already a common dish in the region. Aleuts made crusts using new
types of flowers, which were also introduced by Russians. Those crusts were then filled
with things like salmon, eggs, rice, and onions. The Aleut pirog
resembles a specific type of the dish, a traditional
salmon pie Russians call [RUSSIAN]. So what do you think? What one of these dishes
would you like to try? Let us know in the
comments below. And while you're at it, check
out some of these other videos from our Weird History. [MUSIC PLAYING]
