WHALE MEAT IN BRITAIN

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25090, 23 January 1947, Page 3

WHALE MEAT IN BRITAIN

NEED FOR EXPERT COOKING (From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON, January 11. The first consignment of 15,0001 b of whale meat to come to Britain is now on sale. It has been released mainly in the north, but small quantities have been available in the last few days in London. It sells at Is lOd a pound, and may be bought off the ration. British whalers brought it home from the Antarctic—dark red meat cut from the whale’s back. To the well-fed New Zealander whale meat may not sound too appetising, but to the Englishman a steak is a steak—whether it be beef, horse, or whale —and it is expected to sell well. A whale steak looks like a piece of frozen beef steak. But it smells fishy, particularly when you begin to cook it. It gives out little juice, and tends to cook dry unless basted with fat. It is much improved if well beaten

and scored beforehand, and sprinkled with vinegar, salt, and pepper.

A whale steak cooks quickly under a hot grill. To eat. It is rather like a tasteless, but quite tender, piece of rump steak, with a faint flavour of herring or sardine. Because of this, it is much improved if served with a thick, highly-seasoned onion sauce.

The Minister of Food (Mr John Strachey) is rather sceptical about whale meat as an addition to Britain’s diet. “I have not tried it myself,” he has stated, “but my experts have. I think it would be true to say that it can be extremely palatdble and pleasant—but only when cooked by an expert. Cooked by a novice, it is not likely to be so satisfactory.”