[jslabovitz]

The excellent book On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen (Harold McGee) has sections on major food groups, along with some incredible stories of how those foods have been preserved in the past — many of which involve some sort of fermentation. I recall one story about birds being encased inside a dead seal, which was then buried for a time (looking that up now, I think it's Inuit 'kiviak'). It's a great book all around, if you're interested in how food works.

[fbdab103]

I must be missing something. That sounds like encasing some rapidly rotting meat inside more rotting meat. A significantly less appealing turducken.

It would take some strong convictions to turn multiple meals now (seal + bird) into a future meal that could potentially be stolen by scavengers.

[4gotunameagain]

From wikipedia:

  Up to 500 whole auks are packed into the seal skin, beaks and feathers included. As much air as possible is removed from the seal skin before it is sewn up and sealed with seal fat, which repels flies. It is then hidden in a heap of stones, with a large rock placed on top to keep the air out. Over the course of three months, the birds ferment, and are then eaten during the Arctic winter, particularly on birthdays and weddings.  

Things were rough up there

[rolisz]

Think about hakarl: icelandic rotten shark. It stinks to high heaven: I'm not kidding, a colleague brought a small sealed cup to the office and opened it. The whole floor (where 80+ people were seated) stank like crazy.

Regular shark meat is poisonous. But if you bury it in the sand and leave it for 6 weeks, the toxin decomposes and humans no longer die from it. But it stinks.

How hungry must have those Icelanders been that they tried this?

[nightfly]

Check out the manga/anime Moyashimon if you haven't already