Also, many nationalities see rotten/fermented as icky because, historically, it was deadly. Food poisening (most likely the majority was from bad meat) killed a large portion of the American colonists. Similar to the reason shellfish is not Kosher. It was unsafe and killed people.

How does one go about eating a sheep’s head? Do they literally put the whole head on your plate? I’m thinking of the scene in Indiana Jones where they’re served monkey brains – perhaps that’s why the idea is a turn off for me.

Always learn something new. Had no idea about that shark deformation. So uric acid is that then, gah, small wonder is tastes worse than it smells (or so I hear).

Sheep heads are delicious!!! Just gotta be careful not to bite yer own tongue.

You know, the longer this post has sat here, the more often I’ve thought that either A) I copied the text from the book incorrectly or B) the book itself was wrong. I tried checking the text at Google Books, but alas, no preview is available of Viking Age Iceland. I did, however, find some more information about hakarl, which might explain why the author said what he said:

The reason for this is actually simple–fresh shark meat, from the sharks of that region, is poisonous. In Iceland the sharks that are predominant are Greenland sharks, which do not have urinary tracts and, therefore, must secrete their urine from their skin. As a result, high amounts of uric acid become so concentrated in the shark that eating even some of it can potentially cause people to vomit blood. By allowing the shark to fully decay and be cured the acid is removed from the flesh, thus making it easier to digest.

That certainly doesn’t say that the meat is soaked in shark urine, but at least it explains why the shark meat has to be processed in such a way. (As an aside – how in the world does a fish develop to not have a urinary tract? Is that common?)

I don’t know whether I’d try sheep head or not. I’d have to see it prepared first. I know I wouldn’t touch the tongue, though; cow tongue is fairly popular where I live, among the older people, but I won’t touch the stuff. I have a hard time eating meat of any kind – tongues, fish, etc. – when I can see what it was before it ended up on my plate. Silly, perhaps, but that’s me.

“The shark itself is poisonous when fresh due to a high content of URIC acid, but may be consumed after being processed (see below). It has a particular ammonia smell, not too dissimilar from many cleaning products. It is often served in cubes on toothpicks. Those new to it will usually gag involuntarily on the first attempt to eat it due to the high ammonia content. It is usually eaten with a shot of the local spirit, brennivin.” Wikipedia

Skate, however, WAS urinated on to preserve it due to a shortage of salt. Now it’s not processed like that anymore.

Oh, might as well point out that I’m a native of Iceland and don’t touch that stuff. Sheep heads, on the other hand, especially the tongue …