Smoked whale (Lettrøkt hvalkjøtt)
(Smoked whale, Smoked whale meat)
Lettrøkt hvalkjøtt is traditional Norwegian lightly smoked whale meat. The whale meat is paced in a secret spice mixture and it's then lightly smoked. It can be served as an appetizer, usually thinly sliced as carpaccio. Fresh whale steaks are usually fried and seared with a raw middle point.
The flavor is usually described as fatty, oily, salty, sweet, game-like, beef-like, and reminiscent of cod liver oil. The meat is rich in iron, vitamin A, vitamin D, and vitamin B. Apart from aboriginal whaling, Norway and Iceland are the only two countries that continue to practice commercial whaling, despite regular outcries coming from animal rights groups and regular people who object to the cruel practice of killing whales.
In Norway, minke whale is the most common species that's hunted. The species is free range and not endangered. However, in 2000 the conservation organization WWF warned that Norwegian whale meat is toxic and contains hormone-disrupting chemicals and metals such as organic mercury that is bio-cumulative.
None of the chemicals have exceeded the WHO limits at the time of the warning.
