{"id":643,"date":"2018-07-03T12:06:24","date_gmt":"2018-07-03T12:06:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/arcticincontext.com\/?p=643"},"modified":"2021-07-28T20:14:01","modified_gmt":"2021-07-28T20:14:01","slug":"thinking-about-food","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/aic\/2018\/07\/03\/thinking-about-food\/","title":{"rendered":"Thinking about food"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Thinking<\/div>\n
The award-winning cookbook EALLU is the focus of Keven McGwin’s article\u00a0 <\/span> that explores the deep-rooted tradition of reindeer herding, For a diverse group of Indigenous <\/span> peoples’ how reindeer are raised to the distinct way in which the animal is prepared, <\/span> reindeer are of great significance to indigenous food culture. <\/span><\/em><\/div>\n

By Kevin McGwin<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

If you\u2019re like a lot of people, most of the cookbooks you own rarely get opened. So, let\u2019s be honest, how likely is it that a book with recipes calling for ingredients like reindeer eyeballs, cheeks, and hooves is going to find its way down from the shelf?<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you think of it that way, probably never,\u201d says Iss\u00e1t Turi, a S\u00e1mi reindeer herder from Norway who was one of 50 or so contributors to EALLU<\/em><\/a>, an Arctic Council publication that last month was named food book of the year<\/a> at the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards.<\/p>\n

If you want to understand EALLU<\/em>, then you need to think of it as an introduction to reindeer-herding cultures around the world, Turi says, not a lesson in how to make their food.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a book that tries to get people to think about food our way, and by extension, to get them thinking about their own food.\u201d<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

When thinking traditionally, multiple decisions need to be made when choosing a reindeer to slaughter. You need to look at the animals\u2019 gender, age, and even fur color. These varied and complex decisions are underpinned by the need to maintain a diverse and strong herd, in case of harsh winter conditions. \u2013 Iss\u00e1t Turi, <\/em>EALLU: Food, Knowledge and How We Have Thrived on the Margins<\/em><\/p>\n

The most obvious way EALLU<\/em> gets people to think about where their food comes from is with its name, which means \u201dherd\u201d in Northern S\u00e1mi and bears a close relation to the words for \u201cpasture\u201d and \u201clife.\u201d This is one book that can be judged, if not by its cover, then at least by its title.<\/p>\n

But, as those who get past the cover will discover, EALLU<\/em> goes about its task in a less blatant, if equally effective manner. Like Turi, the authors all come from the cultures they write about\u2014all 14 Arctic and sub-Arctic populations from around the Arctic Circle are represented, including the S\u00e1mi in northern Europe, the Inuit in Greenland, and North America, and Russia\u2019s diverse indigenous populations.<\/p>\n

Most of them have hands-on experience raising or preparing reindeer, but, as Turi discovered, knowing your food culture is not the same as knowing the words to explain it.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course I spoke with family and my people first, but this is something we do, it\u2019s just something I know, so explaining it ought to have been simple, right? But how do you put the things you know and do and put into your mouth into words? That proved to be quite difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n

While none of the things Turi does\u2014raise, slaughter, butcher, prepare, eat\u2014are unique to the S\u00e1mi, his involvement in the EALLU<\/em> project introduced him to other traditions. Suddenly, he found that what was normal for him was different for someone from Yamal, in northwest Siberia, or from Alaska.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was an eye-opener. Before I got involved in this, if you asked me why I ate reindeer, I would have answered \u2018because I like it.\u2019 We never had a big discussion about why we raised reindeer, or why we slaughter them the way we do, or why we eat them the way we do. We know which animal to kill, and how to butcher it, but why we did it wasn\u2019t something we had to think much about.\u201d<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

\n
\"\"<\/p>\n

Iss\u00e1t Turi slaughtering a reindeer in the traditional way (Photo: Andreas Ausland\/EALLU)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>

<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

S\u00e1mi cuisine does not take shape in the \u201ckitchen,\u201d but really starts at the moment when and where the reindeer is slaughtered, the condition of the reindeer in the days and weeks before it was slaughtered, and finally how it was killed. \u2013 Iss\u00e1t Turi, <\/em>EALLU: Food, Knowledge and How We Have Thrived on the Margins<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cHave you ever thought that the way you raise and kill your animal is directly linked to the way you eat your dinner afterward? Not just the cut of the meat after it\u2019s been slaughtered, but the way it\u2019s actually killed,\u201d Turi says.<\/p>\n

When it comes to slaughtering, he explains, the S\u00e1mi, like other reindeer herders, pay close attention to how much blood remains in the meat. \u201cIf you live in France, for example, you drain the blood from the meat when you slaughter it because you don\u2019t need it. You have vegetables for most of the year to provide you with minerals. Where do we get our minerals in the winter? From the blood.\u201d<\/p>\n

S\u00e1mi slaughtering techniques ensure that the blood remains in the meat after the slaughter. Turi compares the thinking behind it to Islam\u2019s halal<\/em> tradition, which bans the consumption of blood.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat makes complete sense from a food-safety perspective. If you are living close to the equator where it\u2019s hot, then blood is your enemy. When you are in a warm climate, you need to get it out of the meat, otherwise, it goes bad quickly. We want to keep blood in the meat. In the Arctic, blood is your friend.\u201d<\/p>\n

* * *\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"
\u00a0 Iss\u00e1t Turi with the complete\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 spine of a reindeer, ready\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 for cooking (Photo: Anders\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Oskal\/EALLU)<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Then the quality of the meat is very important, as the reindeer must be fat. Because reindeer meat is not marbled, this means that the more fat it has on the outside, the higher the quality of the meat is. Meat quality is also determined by how you kill the animal. \u2013 Iss\u00e1t Turi, <\/em>EALLU: Food, Knowledge and How We Have Thrived on the Margins<\/em><\/p>\n

Despite Turi\u2019s warning not to think of EALLU as a cookbook, talking about food invariably leads to giving advice about how to make it. He explains, for example, that because reindeer is lean, it should be simmered, never fried. \u201cA lot of people who\u2019ve made reindeer weren\u2019t aware of that. But, if you make it that way, it won\u2019t taste good.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not intentional, but the cooking tip underscores what Turi feels the book is trying to say about the way we should be thinking about our food.<\/p>\n

\u201cA reindeer isn\u2019t a cow. That\u2019s obvious, but industrialized reindeer-meat production has failed because the process is set up for cattle. If you prepare a piece of meat that isn\u2019t beef\u2014whether it is during slaughtering, butchering, or cooking\u2014as if it were beef, you aren\u2019t going to get beef out of it and people aren\u2019t going to want to eat it.\u201d<\/p>\n

At a time when more people are adding meat to their diets, he\u2019s also concerned that the public is losing touch with where the meat comes from\u2014geographically and anatomically.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen people see this book, one of the things they notice is that there more parts of the animal we eat than people in the West do. We try to use the whole animal, from the intestines to the eyeballs. Partly because it is the food we have available to us, but, mostly, because they taste good.\u201d<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

Kevin McGwin is a journalist writing for Arctic Today and an\u00a0occasional contributor to the Greenlandic weekly\u00a0<\/em>Sermitsiaq. He is the former editor of The Arctic Journal and has been writing about Greenland and the Arctic since 2006.<\/em><\/p>\n

[Opening image:\u00a0Reindeer round up in Lovozero, Kola Peninsula, Russia (Chris Schmetz\/EALLU)]<\/p>\n

This article first appeared on the World Policy Institute website.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The award-winning cookbook EALLU is the focus of Keven McGwin’s article that explores the deep-rooted tradition of reindeer herding, For a diverse group of Indigenous peoples’ how reindeer are raised to the distinct way in which the animal is prepared, reindeer are of great significance to indigenous food culture. <\/p>\n

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