Beluga Bites: Sharing Recipes & Cultures
Beluga Bites: Sharing Recipes & Cultures
Alex Tesar | August 26, 2025
How do you like your beluga? Have you ever tried pickled maktaaq? Dried or smoked whale meat (mipku)? What about aged muktuk, with oil for dipping other country food?
In 2024, Oceans North worked with the Tuktoyaktuk Hunters and Trappers Committee (HTC) and the Kangiqliniq Hunters and Trappers Organization (HTO) to support a cultural exchange that brought together community members from Tuktoyaktuk, Inuvialuit Settlement Region, and Rankin Inlet, Nunavut, to share the different ways they harvest, prepare, and manage beluga.
One of the things that people were most excited to share was their recipes—and we’re excited to share them with you as part of a new series, Beluga Bites.
Below, you’ll find videos with step-by-step instructions from local people on some of the different ways they prepare muktuk/maktaaq and whale meat, along with print-friendly PDFs for each recipe.
Mamaqtuq!
Fried Whale Meat & Mipku
Natalie Noksana from Tuktoyaktuk shows two different ways you can prepare beluga whale meat, including dry/smoked meat (mipku).
Pickled Maktaaq
Christine Tootoo from Rankin Inlet shares her technique for making pickled maktaaq.
Aged Muktuk
John Noksana Jr. from Tuktoyaktuk goes through the process of making aged (stink) muktuk from a freshly harvested whale.
Hungry for more?
In addition to the recipes, we’re working on a longer film highlighting the many ways harvesting contributes to Inuvialuit and Inuit cultural continuity, environmental stewardship and intergenerational knowledge sharing. Stay tuned for Naulikkak (Two Harpoons), coming soon in Fall 2025.
