How to prepare "rotten shark!"

[gunug]

I can remember the time my cousin was convinced by a friend of hers to buy and prepare shark steaks.  Somehow things went from bad to
worse and her room mate tried to run the remains down the garbage disposal which backed up into all the other apartments and almost caused
a mass migration!  Well, I thought the recipe must be called "rotten shark" but this is apparently the actual procedure for preparing that fine dish:

http://www.simnet.is/gullis/jo/shark.htm

I like the disclaimer:

QUOTE

Don't try this at home unless you know what the end product is supposed to taste like. Putrefied shark can become spoiled.

[Gregg]

I'll try it at my mother-in-law's home.

[Xairbusdriver]

QUOTE

Putrefied shark can become spoiled.

Nothing like redundancy to drive home a point!

Then, there are Balutes...

[Frances144]

I have actually eaten rotten shark from Iceland.  It was beyond disgusting.  I put it on the bird table in the end and the hooded crows flocked round it.  Ugh.  It stunk.

I have also eaten ‘Skerpikjøt’. This is the special Faroese delicacy of lamb that has been hung for over a year and is eaten raw.

....and dried fish (ling) which you rehydrate and eat with boiled potatoes.

Not very nice, any of it.  But you have to try these things, don't you?

[Xairbusdriver]

QUOTE

But you have to try these things, don't you?

Absolutely not! And I hope you don't have that attitude when someone suggests a bungee jump over a frozen lake! Or aerobatic flight without a seat belt or parachute. Or swimming in the middle of a hurricane. Or flying a kite in a severe thunderstorm. Do you need more examples of the fallacy of that kind of 'reasoning?' If I can't spell it, know what went into it, or stand the smell/site of it, I certainly don't need to take a chance on eating it!

Now, if I find myself alone on a deserted island, all bets are off!

[Frances144]

XABD, I never had you down as unadventurous!

[gunug]

I will usually at least try something if it passes the "sniff" test; I suspect that "rotten shark" couldn't manage that!

[Frances144]

Oh, believe me, it doesn't.  Not even slightly.

[Mayo]

When I lived in Sanity Cruise years ago I ate a fair amount of grilled shark steaks... It sold for around $1.99/pound which even then was a Great Deal. No off-flavors!  My wife won't touch shark for some strange reason...

[jcarter]

Old fish stinks no matter if its shark, swordfish, mackeral, flounder,,,,,,,anything at all.
Longgggg story made short, I used to grab some of the sharks that the scientists had taken 'what they were studying' out of the animal, and my Bermudian friends would cook it up.  It was only dead about 2 hours and it was delicious, but if you leave it to get warm, it will decay really fast, as sharks are full of urea and thats stinky.
Shark has to be cooked right away, not left around like you can do with other fish, ick.
Jane

[Gregg]

QUOTE(jcarter @ May 26 2008, 07:49 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Shark has to be cooked right away, not left around like you can do with other fish, ick.

I didn't know that. I suppose that explains why you don't see it on the menu at restaurants.

[Paddy]

It also might have something to do with the fact that shark is very high in mercury - (top of the food chain and all that, lives a long time) The EPA recommends that young children and women of childbearing age not eat shark, swordfish, King Mackerel, or tilefish at all.

And then there is farmed salmon - high in PCBs, and apparently sometimes inaccurately labeled as "wild." Hard to know what they're going to tell us not to eat next... but I think I'll avoid rotten shark.

[kimmer]

QUOTE(Paddy @ May 27 2008, 08:35 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

And then there is farmed salmon - high in PCBs, and apparently sometimes inaccurately labeled as "wild."

Farmed salmon is also fed synthetic coloring agents so that their flesh turns pink-orange instead of gray. Many folks (Sneakers is one) are allergic to the coloring agent and will get sick, break out in hives, etc. Not fun.

I'll pass on the shark - rotten or not.

[gunug]

Do you suppose that they use that artificial coloring in shrimp?  If I eat too much shrimp I get a scratchy feeling in my throat and I always supposed I had a little allergy problem with the shrimp itself!

[Paddy]

Kimmer, is he sure it's the coloring agent? It's actually astaxanthin - which is a naturally occurring carotenoid - and what makes wild salmon pink too. Some people actually take it as an anti-oxidant. http://www.naturalstandard.com/index-abstr...astaxanthin.asp Of course, much of what is fed to the farmed salmon isn't from natural sources, but synthesized - but even then, generally should not contain the proteins needed to provoke a true allergic reaction.

Allergic reactions to astaxanthin and canthaxanthin are actually relatively rare (and according to the paper below, it's inconclusive that these agents are capable of causing a true allergic reaction - even when they're synthesized from non-natural sources.)
 
Really interesting paper on the mechanism of allergy and natural color additives: http://www.allerg.qc.ca/coloradditives.pdf

Sneakers' reaction certainly does suggest an allergy - but it could also be something other than the coloring agent. (Something else they fed the fish?) My husband has variable reactions to shrimp - sometimes they've made him throw up, other times he's been absolutely fine. Gotta wonder if it has something to do with the source - and what the shrimp ate! He tends to avoid shrimp for the most part now...(and our oldest son is truly allergic to all shellfish - the swelling up, scary sort of allergic for which we have an Epipen. He's fine with fish though.)

Good article on farmed salmon: What happens when we feed fish like a cow?

Another really interesting article - in which the author does finally admit that the coloring may or may not have been the cause of her allergic reaction:

Is something fishy going on?

At any rate, for most people, the high levels of PCBs and dioxin would be the primary concern - long term ingestion of these is clearly NOT healthy.