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Eskimo Ice Cream

Iced akutaq made from raspberries and blueberries
Alternative names	Native ice cream, Alaskan ice cream
Type	Dessert
Place of origin	United States
Region or state	Alaska
Created by	Alaskan Athabaskans, Inuit, Yupik peoples, and Cup'ik Peoples
Main ingredients	dried fish or meat, fat, berries
Media: Eskimo Ice Cream

Eskimo ice cream (also known as Alaskan Indian ice cream, Inuit ice cream, Indian ice cream or Native ice cream, and Inuit-Yupik varieties of which are known as akutaq or akutuq) is a dessert made by Alaskan Athabaskans and other Alaska Natives.

It is traditionally made of whipped fat or tallow (e.g. caribou, moose, or walrus tallow, or seal oil) and meat (such as dried fish, especially pike, sheefish or inconnu, whitefish or cisco, or freshwater whitefishes, or dried moose or caribou) mixed with berries (especially cowberry, bilberry, Vaccinium oxycoccos or other cranberries, bearberry, crowberry, salmonberry, cloudberry or low-bush salmonberry, raspberry, 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.

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.

"Ice cream songs" used to be sung during the preparation of Alaskan Athabascan Indian ice cream.

• Akutaq made from raspberries, blueberries and vegetable shortening
• Tumnaq, a wooden bowl used to make akutaq
• Wild berries from the Innoko National Wildlife Refuge: Vaccinium uliginosum (blue), V. vitis-idaea, and Rubus arcticus

Native names

See also

• List of desserts
• Pemmican
• Suorat
• Tolkusha
• Tavukgöğsü - another dessert made of chicken breast meat

References

1. Priscilla Russell Kari, Tanaina Plantlore, Dena'ina K'et'una (1987), p. 61.
2. ^ "Keynote abstracts - HLK 2010, Lund University". Conference.sol.lu.se. Retrieved 23 April 2018.
3. "Land Use and Economy of Lime Village" (PDF). Subsistence.adfg.state.ak.us. Retrieved 23 April 2018.
4. "Course: Deg Xinag Learners' Dictionary". Ankn.uaf.edu. Retrieved 23 April 2018.
5. ^ "ABCD" (PDF). Adfg.alaska.gov. Retrieved 23 April 2018.
6. "EFGH" (PDF). Subsistence.adfg.state.ak.us. Retrieved 23 April 2018.
7. The Upper Kuskokwim People and Gathering Plants in the Upper Kuskokwim Archived December 24, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
8. "Whitefish Biology, Distribution, and Fisheries in the Yukon and Kuskokwim River Drainages in Alaska: a Synthesis of Available Information" (PDF). Rapidresearch.com. Retrieved 23 April 2018.
9. Tanacross Learnersʼ Dictionary Archived 2010-12-02 at the Wayback Machine by I. S. Arnold, G. Holton, and R. Thoman (2009)
10. "Gwich'in Social & Cultural Institute". Plants.gwichin.ca. Archived from the original on 4 December 2012. Retrieved 23 April 2018.
11. "Nunavut — Food and Restaurants". iExplore. Retrieved 13 January 2022.

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