Any whale recipes?

iudex

First of all, I am not trying to start a riot over whale meat (as I have been told multiple times, by my SO included, that it is wrong). 

However, my father in law brought whale from Norway, where whaling and eating the catch is still a thing. 

I am tasked with making it, on the egg is obviously implied. Does anyone have any experience or guidance? I have a sous vide stick, so temp control should not be an issue. Really don't want to under- or overcook this very rare opportunity. 

Any help or great whale jokes are highly appreciated  

Ybabpmuts

"Any help or great whale jokes are highly appreciated  "

My sister Beulah has a whale of a bum. If I had to cook it I'd baste it with something that makes it shrink, because nobody who's anybody can turn over something so big, so i'll just burn one side and the other side will be raw as all get out. I've seen the front of her raw and believe me, it's better to stare at the back of her burnt whale bum than the rawness of her front bum. If I had a giant spatula and a lot of strength, I could have cooked both sides, but alas, it's a whale of back.bum paloooza for me and Beulah.  Seafood jokes are the best.

iudex

This, although useless for what I need to do, still made my day  . Thanks! 

Legume

Google maybe?

if not, maybe treat it like you would pork belly.  If you have enough, try some experiments.

iudex

Google is the next step, I just reckoned it was impossible that nobody here would have any experience with it. I mean, once you see a small gator on an egg, everything must have been done already, no 

Ozzie_Isaac

No idea, but interested to read your impressions.  Since it is a mammal I would expect it to be more robust than fish.  Coming from the sea, maybe it will be salty, and probably fatty and oily.  

Dyal_SC

Gopher chops fried in whale fat.  Only way I eat gopher these days. Don’t knock it til you try it.

Dyal_SC

If you do Whale Burnt Ends, I can promise you no one here could ever top that. 

OhioEgger

When in Bergen, Norway this summer, there were plenty of restaurants where you could get whale meat. The most common way they served it was as a burger, but I also saw it cut into finger sized pieces and braised.

chzplz

Just use a regular dolphin recipe and adjust for the weight. 

Ybabpmuts

There are no regular dolphins? Global warming makes them all irregular, which means they poop at unexpected intervals. This doesn't mean anything to the dolphins in the front, but the ones in the back ...  that were used to following regular dolphins and therefore had this beautifully synchronized swim pattern   .. suddenly start this erratic swim pattern. 

Botch

Back in my younger days I found The L. L. Bean Game and Fish Cookbook in a clearance bin of the local bookstore.  It was $3 and I bought it, even though I don't fish or hunt.  
Dug it out and went thru the "W" portion of the index, had recipes for walleye, weakfish, whitefish, weinerschnitzël of antelope, wild boar, woodchuck, and woodcock, but no whale recipes.  
Good luck, and I'd love to be there to try a bite.  Don't think that's something I'll get to taste in this lifetime, unless I visit Japan or Norway (unlikely).  Looking forward to hearing your results!  

stv8r

In my neck of the woods "whales" refers to crabs, most often soft crabs.  Have plenty of recipes for those lol

lousubcap

In my neck of the woods whales refer to around half of the late Friday/Saturday night bar crowd.  That recipe is beyond the scope and decorum of this place.  Hard to believe...

Kayak

On a recent trip to Newfoundland, I had an entree of 'sealfin pie'. Pretty much what it sounds like, with the potatoes and carrots and such. Back in olden days they put the whole fin in the bottom of the dish and you picked the bones clean. Must have been like having 'hand pie' I imagine. Strong flavored but pretty good. 

Buckwoody Egger

Nothing to add but sharing that this post has appeared while I am reading a Doc Ford series book, Chasing Midnight, that mentions Japanese whale hunting among some other sturgeon caviar elements of a plot. It was a weird collision of online and offline.  Happy egging everyone!

Ybabpmuts

stv8r said:

In my neck of the woods "whales" refers to crabs, most often soft crabs.  Have plenty of recipes for those lol

In that case I went out with a girl who had a lot of whales in her pants. They jumped into mine when we got too close, if you have a recipe for them please let me know.

AprèsSki

iudex said:

Does anyone have any experience or guidance? 

I recently had smoked minke at a BBQ place in Oslo named Den Glade Gris. Very tasty. 

From the taste I assume they cured it some way before smoking.

Corv

I dug up an old cookbook, "Out of Alaska's Kitchens," sixth printing, 1969, figuring that would be the only way I'd find a recipe. Haven't opened that cookbook in decades.

"Whale meat dishes"

"Boneless and gristleless, whale meat is all meat. Panbroiling the square steaks and serving them sizzling hot is a popular method of preparation, Whale meat is excellent also for soup stock, stews, roasts and curries. The following recipes are approved by food technologists of the Fish and Wildlife Service."

It goes on to list Whale Bobotee (which uses roast whale), Pot Roast of Whale, Stuffed Whale Roast, Broiled Whale Steaks and Fillet of Whale with Mushrooms.

I'll have to get back to this later since I'm time-pressured this morning. If you'd like, choose one or two and I'll copy it in then. None of the recipes are on a grill but you can cope, I'm certain.

HeavyG

Corv said:

I dug up an old cookbook, "Out of Alaska's Kitchens," sixth printing, 1969, figuring that would be the only way I'd find a recipe. Haven't opened that cookbook in decades.

"Whale meat dishes"

"Boneless and gristleless, whale meat is all meat. Panbroiling the square steaks and serving them sizzling hot is a popular method of preparation, Whale meat is excellent also for soup stock, stews, roasts and curries. The following recipes are approved by food technologists of the Fish and Wildlife Service."

It goes on to list Whale Bobotee (which uses roast whale), Pot Roast of Whale, Stuffed Whale Roast, Broiled Whale Steaks and Fillet of Whale with Mushrooms.

I'll have to get back to this later since I'm time-pressured this morning. If you'd like, choose one or two and I'll copy it in then. None of the recipes are on a grill but you can cope, I'm certain.

There's a recipe in that book titled "Jellied Moose Nose". After somebody cooks some whale I'm hoping they'll score some moose nose and tell us how that goes.

Corv

Well, here are some recipes to get you folks started. Please let us know how they turn out.

HeavyG

"One fresh moose nose". 

I've only seen frozen moose noses at my local Kroger's. I'm guessing that will be fine tho.

Ozzie_Isaac

Corv said:

Well, here are some recipes to get you folks started. Please let us know how they turn out.

Wish I could like your post 100x.  This forum never stops amazing me.

It is interesting that preparation for nose seems similar to tongue.

I don't care the meat, but cold meat jello with chunks does not sound appetizing.

Botch

Ozzie_Isaac said:I don't care the meat, but cold meat jello with chunks does not sound appetizing.

You may want to avoid head cheese, then:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Head_cheese
I recall sampling something similar back home (SD/IA/MN) when younger, but I thought it was called "snapple" or something like that (not the all-natural iced tea that has nothing natural in it).  It'll come to me, probably at 0400 tomorrow.  

Botch

Scrapple, not Snapple!  It was head cheese I was thinking about though (yay, I can sleep thru 4 am tomorrow)  
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrapple
My college roommate brought this, fresh, back after holiday breaks from MN and loved cooking it up.  Like liver, it's edible as long as you don't have to sit and smell it cooking; blech.  
 
A fahncy form of "head cheese" is  Lark's Tongue in Aspic, for those of you who fly in private jets, buy new John Deeres and drive Porsches...    
 
EDIT:  And I know I've actually seen Oscar Mayer sliced head cheese luncheon meat, for sammiches.  I'm tempted to try it now (I won't have to smell it cooking) but not sure I've seen it here in UT, may have been just back home.  

Ybabpmuts

I think I wrote a poem about scrapple not long ago ..

Yapple dapple love the scrapple
played double Dutch with the girls in the chapel
We then played naked ball toss with a sour apple.
Sister Eunice caught it in her Snapple.
Brother Edward brought her in the backle
Around the corner we heard him cackle
She came back with an empty Snapple
Brother Edward came back, in his pants was a chapel.
One can only hope it was the sour apple 

buzd504

Botch said:

Ozzie_Isaac said:I don't care the meat, but cold meat jello with chunks does not sound appetizing.

You may want to avoid head cheese, then:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Head_cheese
I recall sampling something similar back home (SD/IA/MN) when younger, but I thought it was called "snapple" or something like that (not the all-natural iced tea that has nothing natural in it).  It'll come to me, probably at 0400 tomorrow.  

Head cheese is awesome.

dbCooper

@Botch - Head Cheese is readily available in butcher shops in my area, typically pork based.  I'll buy it occasionally, very good in a sandwich or straightup, in my opinion. 

Give it a try.

OhioEgger

Ate lots of head cheese as a kid, and some butcher shops around here still carry it. Bloodwurst was more of a favorite though.

iudex

Sorry guys, **** week at work and had no time to look here. 

Thanks everyone for the help, most thanks to @Corv obviously. Will update the thread once I got to make it! 

'Filet of whale' is cracking me up for some reason, gonna enjoy saying that

Corv

We're still eager to find out how it was.