Alaskan 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 Dessert is a course (food), course that concludes a meal. The course consists of sweet foods, such as confections, and possibly a beverage such as dessert wine and liqueur. In some parts of the world, such as much of Greece and West Africa, and ...

made by Alaskan Athabaskans and other

Alaska Native Alaska Natives (also known as Alaskan Natives, Native Alaskans, Indigenous Alaskans, Aboriginal Alaskans or First Alaskans) are the indigenous peoples of Alaska and include Iñupiat, Yupik, Aleut, Eyak, Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian, and a numbe ...

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

caribou Reindeer (in North American English, known as caribou if wild and ''reindeer'' if domesticated) are deer in the genus ''Rangifer''. For the last few decades, reindeer were assigned to one species, ''Rangifer tarandus'', with about 10 subspe ...

, moose, or walrus tallow, or seal oil) and meat (such as dried fish, especially

pike Pike, Pikes or The Pike may refer to: Fish * Blue pike or blue walleye, an extinct color morph of the yellow walleye ''Sander vitreus'' * Ctenoluciidae, the "pike characins", some species of which are commonly known as pikes * ''Esox'', genus of ...

, sheefish or inconnu, whitefish or cisco, or freshwater whitefishes, or dried moose or

) mixed with berries (especially cowberry, bilberry, '' Vaccinium oxycoccos'' or other cranberries, bearberry,

crowberry ''Empetrum nigrum'', crowberry, black crowberry, or, in western Alaska, blackberry, is a flowering plant species in the heather family Ericaceae with a near circumboreal distribution in the Northern Hemisphere. It is usually dioecious, but there ...

, salmonberry, cloudberry or low-bush salmonberry,

raspberry The raspberry is the edible fruit of a multitude of plant species in the genus ''Rubus'' of the rose family, most of which are in the subgenus '' Idaeobatus''. The name also applies to these plants themselves. Raspberries are perennial with w ...

blueberry Blueberries are a widely distributed and widespread group of perennial flowering plants with blue or purple berries. They are classified in the section ''Cyanococcus'' within the genus ''Vaccinium''. ''Vaccinium'' also includes cranberries, bi ...

, or

prickly rose ''Rosa acicularis'' is a flowering plant in the Rosaceae family. It is commonly known as the prickly wild rose, prickly rose, bristly rose, wild rose or Arctic rose. It is a species of wild rose with a Holarctic distribution in northern regions o ...

) 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 First Nations in British Columbia constitute many First Nations governments and peoples in the province of British Columbia. Many of these Indigenous Canadians are affiliated in tribal councils. Ethnic groups include the Haida, Coast Salish, Kw ...

, 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. Recent additions include sugar, milk, and vegetable shortening. File:Akutaq.jpg, Akutaq made from raspberries,

blueberries Blueberries are a widely distributed and widespread group of perennial flowering plants with blue or purple berries. They are classified in the section ''Cyanococcus'' within the genus ''Vaccinium''. ''Vaccinium'' also includes cranberries, bi ...

and

vegetable shortening Shortening is any fat that is a solid at room temperature and used to make crumbly pastry and other food products. Although butter is solid at room temperature and is frequently used in making pastry, the term ''shortening'' seldom refers to b ...

File:Tumnaq.JPG, ''Tumnaq'', a wooden bowl used to make akutaq File:Iced Akutaq.jpg, Iced akutaq made from raspberries and

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