Comments re: the taste of baked seal flipper

fat tony

fat tony

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Hello, recently mom received a shipment of wild meats and fish from Newfoundland and Labrador. Included in the shipment was an order of seal flippers ready for the oven, so mom cooked them a few weeks ago, and we all had a taste.

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In case you're wondering, my cousin Tom had a licence to harvest 5 seals, so he walked out on the ice in Torbay and non-chalantly shot 5 of them to death, I think the seals were happily balancing balls on their noses and clapping their flippers together before he was finished with them. Now as for the taste of baked seal flipper, it resembles a well cooked roast beef from appearance, the taste is very strong and it has a strong aftertaste like smoked mackerel,and it also has a strong fishy smell while cooking. My mom's friend was there, she almost immediately cut up an onion to have with it to offset the powerful taste of the seal meat, I found it did the trick but raw onions don't agree with me either so I ended up not having very much. Best regards Tony.
 
That's always been my take on flipper, too. Not to my taste at all - but I like the image of this happy little seal with a ball on his nose, just before he gets smoked by an AR-15 toting giant... ;)
 
I tried seal up in Resolute Bay back in '95. Raw or cooked it tasted like sh*t. I don't remember how it was prepared only that it was cooked on a coleman stove.
 
Seal is a different taste for sure, we grew up having it alot, Nan would make flipper pie or flipper and dough boys, i personally do like the taste of it when it it prepared right, i remember taking seal meat sandwiches to school for lunch in Jr high, we used to be able to buy it in a tin,not many kids sat by me, but i was happy none the less, lol!!!
 
I agree with Ryan Robert. I eat lot's of flippers in the spring, and would say that it has to be fresh and prepared properly to be good. With a good soak overnight in water and baking soda, and a gentle bakeing, maybe served with gravy, it is a lovely tasting (but very very rich) meat. No overt gaminess or strong taste. A little old, or not well prepared, can be a bit much.

If you're just getting these now, they've been frozen for at least 7 months. Doesn't mean they're not good though, but not as good as fresh. Did your Mother soak them overnight before cooking? Gotta soak them! ;)

Lucky guy, getting flippers delivered!
 
my sister brought back a bunch of canned seal meat from nwfld. it sat in the cupboard for a few years. one night after watching the leafs lose again and primed with wiser's deluxe 3 of us decided to give it a try, right out of the can.good god almighty , it was awful. how much of this stuff do you have to eat to aquire a taste for it? If ever?
 
She pretty much lived on it along with the rest of her family when growing up in Labrador, what they used to do was cut it up into thin strips and soak it in the fresh seawater and dry it in the sun, that was called 'nikku'(spelling?), they also used to do the same with fish except it was called 'pipsi'(spelling?), there was another way to prepare seal meat in the winter it basically was hung up in the porch *basically a cold frame;(where you used to keep your guns, gear for the dogs etc), and placed a very sharp knife with the seal, every time you needed a snack you would take the knife and cut a very thin slice of the seal meat almost like sushi and ate it, this was only in winter mind you. We gunnutz think of our shotguns and rifles as precious, well back then it was of importance to the power of 10 to have a good straight shooting rifle.
 
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12magnum said:
my sister brought back a bunch of canned seal meat from nwfld. it sat in the cupboard for a few years. one night after watching the leafs lose again and primed with wiser's deluxe 3 of us decided to give it a try, right out of the can.good god almighty , it was awful. how much of this stuff do you have to eat to aquire a taste for it? If ever?
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If it sat in the cupboard for years, you're lucky it didn't poison you - in fact, it may well have, if you were a bit sick afterwards. The quality of canning varies wildly, and the longer it sits, the better your odds of a negative outcome. (Can you say "botulism"?) I've had canned meat (seal and moose) that was amazingly good - and stuff that wasn't fit to eat. I would recommend not letting canned goods sit on the shelf for much more than a few months, in any case.
 
yes i can say botulism. this stuff was commercailly canned and bought at retail outlet. if shelf life was an issue why wasn't it printed on the can? i wasn't sick afterwards,nor were the other two.
 
Oh - you know, it never occurred to me that you'd be talking about commercially canned. That should have been fine, health-wise. I was thinking about the homemade stuff. I won't say I've never seen commercially canned seal or moose, but I've seen about a hundred times more homemade! That's what I get for assuming! :)
 
if your can (OR jar) is sealed, and was brought up to the proper temperature, i don't see how it could have anythign living in it. Thats the whole advantage is that it gets and extra long shelf life. we have had fish in our cupboard for over 10 years, finally opened it was tasty and no one got sick. My mom canned it in out kitchen. Jams, pickles, fish,beets, etc etc alwyas stored for years, never had problems. I miss the pickles the most.
 
Sure - properly done, it'll last nearly forever. Properly done. You've obviously never seen what my father-in-law produces. I've given up on it - I just wing it straight into the garbage and thank him next time he asks about it! :)
 
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