Akutaq (also known as Alaskan Indian ice cream, Inuit ice cream, Indian ice cream or Native ice cream, and

Inuit Inuit (singular: Inuk) are a group of culturally and historically similar Indigenous peoples traditionally inhabiting the Arctic and Subarctic regions of North America and Russia, including Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwe ...

- Yupik varieties of which are known as ''akutaq'' or ''akutuq'') is a dessert made by Alaskan Athabaskans and other

Alaska Native Alaska Natives (also known as Native Alaskans, Alaskan Indians, or Indigenous Alaskans) are the Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Indigenous peoples of Alaska that encompass a diverse arena of cultural and linguistic groups, including the I ...

s. It is traditionally made of whipped fat or tallow (e.g. caribou,

moose The moose (: 'moose'; used in North America) or elk (: 'elk' or 'elks'; used in Eurasia) (''Alces alces'') is the world's tallest, largest and heaviest extant species of deer and the only species in the genus ''Alces''. It is also the tal ...

, or walrus tallow, or seal oil) and meat (such as

dried fish Fresh fish rapidly deteriorates unless some way can be found to preserve it. Drying (food), Drying is a method of food preservation that works by removing water from the food, which inhibits the growth of microorganisms. Open air drying using sun ...

, especially pike, sheefish or inconnu, whitefish or cisco, or freshwater whitefishes, or dried

or caribou) mixed with

berries A berry is a small, pulpy, and often edible fruit. Typically, berries are juicy, rounded, brightly colored, sweet, sour or tart, and do not have a stone fruit, stone or pit (fruit), pit although many wikt:pip#Etymology 2, pips or seeds may be p ...

(especially cowberry,

bilberry Bilberries () are Eurasian low-growing shrubs in the genus ''Vaccinium'' in the flowering plant family Ericaceae that bear edible, dark blue berries. They resemble but are distinct from North American blueberries. The species most often referre ...

, '' Vaccinium oxycoccos'' or other cranberries, bearberry, crowberry, salmonberry, cloudberry or low-bush salmonberry,

raspberry The raspberry is the edible fruit of several plant species in the genus ''Rubus'' of the Rosaceae, rose family, most of which are in the subgenus ''Rubus#Modern classification, Idaeobatus''. The name also applies to these plants themselves. Ras ...

, blueberry, or prickly rose) or mild sweeteners such as roots of Indian potato or wild carrot, mixed and whipped with a whisk. It may also include tundra greens. There is also a kind of ''akutaq'' which is called snow ''akutaq''. The most common recipes for Indian ice cream consist of dried and pulverized moose or caribou tenderloin that is blended with moose fat (traditionally in a birch bark container) until the mixture is light and fluffy. It may be eaten unfrozen or frozen, and in the latter case it somewhat resembles commercial ice cream.Priscilla Russell Kari, ''Tanaina Plantlore, Dena'ina K'et'una'' (1987), p. 61. It is not to be confused with Canadian Indian ice cream (or ''sxusem'') of First Nations in British Columbia, nor with '' kulfi'' (Indian ice cream) from the

Indian Subcontinent The Indian subcontinent is a physiographic region of Asia below the Himalayas which projects into the Indian Ocean between the Bay of Bengal to the east and the Arabian Sea to the west. It is now divided between Bangladesh, India, and Pakista ...

. "Ice cream songs" used to be sung during the preparation of Alaskan Athabascan Indian ice cream. File:Akutaq.jpg, Akutaq made from raspberries, blueberries and vegetable shortening File:Tumnaq.JPG, ''Tumnaq'', a wooden bowl used to make akutaq File:Alaska wild berries.jpg, Wild berries from the Innoko National Wildlife Refuge: '' Vaccinium uliginosum'' (blue), '' V. vitis-idaea'', and '' Rubus arcticus''

Native names

References

{{Reflist Native American cuisine Alaskan cuisine Alaskan Athabaskans Inuit cuisine Yupik culture Chukchi cuisine Canadian cuisine American desserts American seafood dishes Wild game dishes

Native names

See also

References