Mattak (also spelled muktuk or maktak) is a traditional Inuit food made from whale skin and blubber, eaten raw, frozen, cooked, or fermented. It has been a dietary staple for Inuit and other circumpolar peoples for centuries, prized both as a source of nutrients in an environment with almost no edible plants and as a culturally significant food that remains central to Arctic communities today.
What Mattak Is Made Of
Mattak consists of two distinct layers harvested from whales: the outer skin (epidermis) and a layer of blubber directly beneath it. The skin is dark, dense, and rubbery, while the blubber underneath is softer and fatty. Together they’re typically sliced into small, bite-sized pieces for eating. In some Inuit dialects, the word specifically refers only to the edible skin portion, not the blubber, though the two are almost always consumed together.
The bowhead whale is the most common source, but beluga and narwhal are also widely used. Narwhal mattak, with its mottled black-and-white skin, is considered a particular delicacy in Greenland and parts of northern Canada. Each species produces mattak with slightly different thickness, texture, and fat content.
How It Tastes and How It’s Prepared
The skin layer has a firm, chewy texture that resists the teeth, sometimes compared to dense coconut or cartilage. The blubber layer beneath it is oily and much softer, almost creamy. The overall flavor is mild and nutty, with a distinct marine taste that varies depending on the whale species and whether the mattak is fresh or aged.
The most traditional way to eat mattak is raw and fresh, sliced into small cubes or strips right after a whale harvest. It can also be frozen and eaten as a crunchy, icy snack, or boiled until tender. Some preparations involve baking it with seasonings like onion soup mix, or deep-frying the pieces. In parts of Greenland and Alaska, mattak is also fermented or pickled, which changes the texture and develops a stronger, more pungent flavor. Slicing is traditionally done with an ulu, the crescent-shaped knife used across Inuit cultures.
Nutritional Value in an Arctic Diet
Mattak’s nutritional reputation rests largely on its vitamin C content, which made it unusually valuable in a region where fruits and vegetables were historically unavailable for much of the year. Raw beluga skin contains roughly 36 mg of vitamin C per 100 grams, and narwhal skin about 20 to 32 mg per 100 grams, depending on the study. For comparison, an orange contains about 53 mg per 100 grams. That makes raw whale skin one of the richer animal-based sources of vitamin C in existence.
For decades, mattak was credited as the primary reason Arctic peoples avoided scurvy, the disease caused by vitamin C deficiency that plagued European sailors and explorers. The logic seemed straightforward: no plants, no scurvy, so the vitamin C had to come from whale skin. More recent research has complicated that picture. A 2021 reanalysis of historical dietary data from East Greenland found that narwhal skin likely played only a minor role in meeting daily vitamin C requirements. The study concluded that algae consumption was probably more important in preventing scurvy than previously recognized, with mattak contributing just a few milligrams per day to the typical diet.
That said, mattak remains a meaningful source of fat, calories, and protein in Arctic diets. The blubber layer is rich in omega fatty acids, and the skin provides connective tissue nutrients. In an environment where calories are burned rapidly and food sources are limited, those dense fats are essential rather than excessive.
Food Safety Risks With Fermented Mattak
Eating mattak fresh or frozen carries relatively low food safety risk, but fermented mattak is a different story. Alaska has one of the highest rates of botulism in the world, and virtually every case of foodborne botulism in the state has been linked to traditional Alaska Native foods, including fermented muktuk.
The specific culprit is a type of botulism toxin (type E) that is naturally associated with aquatic animals. It’s responsible for more than 85% of all botulism cases in Alaska. The bacterium that produces this toxin thrives in oxygen-free environments, which is exactly what fermentation creates. Traditionally, fermentation happened in outdoor pits or open containers where conditions were harder for the bacteria to exploit. The shift to modern airtight plastic bags and sealed containers has made the problem worse by creating the anaerobic conditions the bacterium needs to produce toxin. Public health authorities in Alaska have linked this shift in storage methods to a measurable increase in foodborne botulism cases between 1970 and 1997.
One notable outbreak involved a beached whale in Alaska. Community members harvested and stored the blubber in sealed plastic bags, and several people developed botulism after eating it. The practice of eating beached whales is traditional, but the storage method was not, and that combination proved dangerous.
Cultural Significance
Mattak is far more than a survival food. Whale harvests are major community events in Inuit, Inupiat, and Yupik cultures, and sharing mattak is an important social and ceremonial practice. A successful whale hunt can feed an entire community, and the distribution of mattak follows long-established customs about who receives which portions. In Greenland, narwhal mattak is often served at celebrations and offered to honored guests. Across the Arctic, it remains one of the most valued traditional foods, connecting modern Indigenous communities to practices that stretch back thousands of years.