In the long process of adapting to the natural environment, humans have learned how to prepare various foods.

One of the more common methods of preserving food is to pickle food. After pickling, the taste of vegetables or meat will change.

For example, after marinating some meat, it can also enhance the umami taste and taste unique.

One of the disadvantages of pickled food is that it tends to get stinky.

If it is dried food, it will not produce a strong odor.

Some meats pickled with moisture will produce a strong odor after fermentation.

A well-known moist pickled meat is canned herring, which makes many people feel nauseous and makes them want to vomit when they smell it.

When meat is directly fermented, the protein will rot and produce various chemicals with strong odors.

But along with it, microbial fermentation will produce freshness-enhancing substances, so it smells bad but tastes delicious.

Some people have a special liking for this kind of stinky fermented food. Compared with canned herring, which is already a food that people are afraid to approach, the Eskimo delicacy, pickled puffin, has a smell that kills canned herring instantly.

Many people vomit at the smell, let alone even take a bite.

Its stink is comparable to that of a rotting corpse. Since it is a product of sealed fermentation, the stink is stronger than that of a corpse that rots directly in the air.

However, such a disgusting thing is a unique delicacy of the Eskimos.

Even today, when the Eskimos are no longer troubled by lack of food, they still retain the tradition of eating pickled puffins.

Where did this food come from?

This has to talk about the living environment of the Eskimos.

They live in the material-poor Arctic Circle, which is frozen all year round and has very little vegetation.

Without plants, the Eskimos had to rely on preying on marine life.

They have developed many unique traditions during their long-term adaptation to the Arctic environment.

For example, living in groups to increase the probability of survival, several families lived together, men hunted together, and women used the furs of captured animals to make clothes.

The food that the Eskimos can capture is very limited, and there are not many species of organisms in the Arctic Circle, which further limits their food sources.

Although the temperature in the Arctic Circle is very low, there are few animals.

But when the temperature rises in summer, some tundra organisms will grow on the ground, and some herbivorous animals will come to look for food.

The Eskimos were able to take advantage of that time to capture some land animals.

In winter, hunting is even more difficult.

To cope with food shortages during the winter, Eskimos would hunt as many animals as they could when they could.

Meats are cured and stored until winter, and pickled puffin is one of them.

There are many pygmy puffins in Greenland in summer. Eskimos use nets to catch these pygmy puffins, which is not difficult to catch.

They can catch many pygmy puffins at once, and the excess pygmy puffins will be made into pickled puffins.

This is done by hollowing out the inside of the seal and stuffing it with pygmy puffins.

After stuffing and squeezing out the excess air, the puffins are not depilated and their internal organs are not removed. The Eskimos pickle the puffins mainly to eat the fermentation products of the puffin's internal organs.

After loading, they would sew the seal shut and grease the seams to seal it.

After several months of fermentation, the marinated puffins will be made. In winter, they will take out the marinated puffins.

As for how to eat it, because Eskimos rarely use fire to cook or grill food, they naturally eat it directly.

Eskimos will suck the viscera of pickled puffins directly, and will also pluck out the hair and eat the meat of pickled puffins.

Vitamins can be obtained by eating them directly, and eating pickled puffins is an important way for them to obtain vitamins.

Perhaps due to long-term consumption of pickled puffins, the Eskimos have a taste memory for this food.

Even though food is no longer an issue, they still maintain the tradition of eating pickled puffins.

Most people can't stand the smell, but Eskimos eat it often and are accustomed to the smell.