Nutrition Science and Everyday Application - beta v 0.1

248 ALICE CALLAHAN, PHD, HEATHER LEONARD, MED, RDN, AND TAMBERLY POWELL, MS, RDN
Clark expedition), after tasting eulachon from the Columbia River in 1805, wrote: “They are so
fat they require no additional sauce, and I think them superior to any fish I ever taste[d], even
more delicate and luscious than the white fish of the lakes which have heretofore formed
my standard of excellence among the fishes.”
Clark may have been the first person of European descent to document the eulachon,
but it had long been valued by indigenous people, including members of the Tsimshian,
Tlingit, Haida, Nisga’s, and Bella Coola tribes. The eulachon run was an annual community
event, and people camped for several weeks at the mouths of rivers to net and process the
fish. They smoked eulachon to preserve it, but even more importantly, they fermented it in
large batches and then cooked it to extract its oils. Once cooled, the fat was solid at room
temperature—similar to lard or butter—and could be used for fat and flavor in cooking for
the year ahead. It was so valuable that it was traded hundreds of miles inland, forming the
great “grease trials” of the Northwest.
VIDEO: “Watch a Fish Transform From Animal to Candle,” by National Geographic (July 10, 2015), 2
minutes.