Caribou Bones
3:30 min. - After cutting the caribou bones into pieces, we add water and cook them. This is the fat we'll offer to visitors.
Transcription
Zacharie Bellefleur - There are two kinds of fat on a caribou. The best quality of fat, which we jealously guard and protect, and offer to visitors, comes from the animal's bone marrow.
Narrator - It sometimes happens that hunters show a lack of respect towards the animals. The hunters must then make amends for their absent-mindedness. They've offended Papakassik, the master of the caribou.
Thus, they organize a "feast to the finish", a ceremony of restitution, during which Papakassik demands that all of the caribou fat be eaten in a single night. The hunters must eat everything, scour every last trace, scrape the pots clean, scrub the utensils with moss, and throw the moss into the fire. In addition, the banquet must be over before sunrise, or the hunters risk possible unpleasantness.
After cutting the caribou bones into pieces, we add water and cook them. We ask a taster to monitor the cooking process and appraise it. Also, to conserve the bone marrow, we cook it before incorporating it into the fat. In a word, this fat is a real culinary delight, to be saved for special occasions.
A second category of fat also exists. After cooking the bones once and separating them from the fat, we boil what's left of the bones in hard snow. This results in a substance of lesser quality, which we use to cook dry meat such as hare.
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Caribou Bones
3:30 min
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- atan
- smooth rock
- atsheu
- he crushes the bones with a mortar and pestle
- mamatishakanua uina
- they cut the marrow into slices
- mameshinikutakan
- sculpture of two males in heat
- manaipimeu
- skim the fat from the top of the bone broth
- minuassukaimu upimim
- we mix the fat with the marrow slices
- mushkami
- bone broth
- natshi-minu-akutau ushkanima
- out of respect for the caribou, he’ll place the bones in an elevated spot
- nipishaputshenanu
- we make tea
- nutapuenanu
- skim the bone broth
- panishauenanu
- they cut the meat in large, thin slices
- pashtatashkuaikanu mak massekushkamiku ashtakanu tshetshi mamuashkatik
- we place wooden blocks and moss on top of it so it will all freeze together
- pitaikanu umiku uinashtakat
- they add blood to the stomach
- shiutau uiashinu
- he salts the sliced meat
- tshishtaimu uiashinu
- he grills meat on a stick
- tshissakanua uina
- we cook the bone marrow slices
- uikutaimu uina
- he extracts the bone marrow
- uina
- marrow
- ushakanana
- boiled bones
- ushikaneu
- he boils the powdered bones
- ushkan
- bone
- ushkan-atiku
- caribou bones not used in the fat-making process
- ushkuai akunaikatshenanu nakatuashun
- the food packets are covered in birch bark
- utapiukatiapia makupitakatsheu nenu utipatshipishikan
- he uses roots to tie the dried meat of an entire caribou into a bark container
- utapuinakan
- bark container
- Fall
- Winter
- Spring
- Spring
- Spring
- Summer
- Summer
- Summer
- Summer
- Fall
- Fall
- Fall
- Fall
Nametau innu: Memory and knowledge of Nitassinan, a website dedicated to the Innu nation in which elders pass on their skills and knowledge to younger generations.
1 Comment
Je n'arrive pas à croire que ma culture néglige une nourriture aussi saine et délicieuse. Je n'ai pas de caribous et je ne sais pas chasser, mais je me procure des os de bœuf d'élevage biologique, et bien sûr j'en tire tout ce que je peux, autant la graisse que le bouillon. Quel gaspillage, sinon, et quel manque de respect que de gaspiller!