Fresh Greenland shark is actually poisonous — its meat is loaded with toxins that only break down after weeks of fermenting and months of drying.
Greenland shark meat is buried or pressed to ferment for six to twelve weeks, then hung to dry in open-air sheds for several more months until it develops a strong ammonia smell and firm, chewy texture. Family producers in the Westfjords and on the nearby Snæfellsnes peninsula still make it using methods barely changed since the Viking age.
Why it's made this way: Production of hákarl is concentrated almost entirely in the Westfjords and Snæfellsnes, where a handful of multi-generation family farms, most famously Bjarnarhöfn, have kept the fermenting-and-drying process alive as a regional specialty rather than a nationwide practice.
Roughly what's in it
160kcal
22gprotein
0gcarbs
8gfat
Estimated per typical street-vendor portion — not lab-tested.