89 88 in fermento in ferment about norse alchemies and taste transmutations #in ferment curated by Stefano Santangelo the scandinavian trilogy of fish fermentation Folding the matter to give it the shape of our desires and fundamental needs is in the very human nature. Made of a rib out of this natural instinct is alchemy, philosophical system and esoteric science that was intended to turn into positive what men considered negative: in this specific case, lead into gold. In relation to certain foods, the link with alchemy is as impressive as it is involuntary. It was 1601 when a big shark was dragged to shore in the settlement of Asparvík – north of the Bjarnarfjörður fjord in Iceland – and left to rot on the spot, until someone thought it best to hang it in and let it dry in the air, a widely spread Icelandic practice to preserve either meat and fish. The poisonous nature of shark's flesh had hitherto kept it away from the very little selective Icelandic dining tables, but at that time – through the three fundamental stages of the alchemical process, namely Nigredo [putrefaction], Albedo [purification] and Rubedo [recomposition] – such a natural state had been subverted, thus sanctioning the birth certificate of hákarl. The refined traditional production process foresees that, beheaded and deprived of the entrails, the Cethorinus maximus should be buried in a gravelly hole and covered with a big boulder for a few weeks. During this time the meat undergoes the loss of fluids, and chemical mutations linked to the fermentation process take place. Urea and trimethylamine oxide, responsible for toxicity of the fresh meat, are thus neutralized. Once it has been exhumed, sliced and left to dry in huts strategically built at a considerable distance from population centers, what remains of the shark loses one third of its weight and reaches maturation. At the end of this process, meat will have come in the three colors of the alchemical stages: black and red of the outer layer and white of the internal flesh. But Icelandic philosopher's stone can represent a great challenge for the neophyte who wants to have it in his hands. It seems in fact that what most people consider in absolute the human food with the most mephitic odour, mainly due to the content of ammonia infesting its fermented meat, is second only to its taste. Today hákarl is on sale everywhere in Iceland, having become a sort of culinary tourist attraction, but traditionally its consumption takes place in social situations such as Þorrablót, a mid-winter festival celebrating Icelandic ethos. Eating hákarl is considered an act of courage and it is always accompanied by a shot of brennivín, the most famous distilled spirit of the Island, which helps to swallow the bitter pill. Whether you wish to try your luck with its more glassy version, called glérhákarl, or with the smoother one, the skyrhákarl, tasting hákarl can turn out to be a cultural shock for the palate, against which even a defunct esoteric science can do very little. chapter I: icelandic hákarl
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