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Not True // October 11, 2009 at 1:56 AM
Pat,
Question, I am surprised the shark liver did not have a harsh taste, as the meat needs boiling (at last for me) before further cooking, to remove the strong ammonia taste.
Another question,
How did they ‘prepare the oil’, I do not know the process?
*************************************
@Not True, the other blog is closed, so I am answering your question here.
To aficionados, the liver is the best part of the shark. Fishermen swore by it. They never caught cold and were never sick.
It depends, my friend, on the type (kind) of shark you ate. We never ate blue peter, or gansey (great grey, what some call great white). When the harbour was first built you could see large gansey sharks swimming around down there. We considered them garbage sharks. Once, they brought in one at Tent Bay and when it was opened it contained an entire dead dog.
The best shark to eat are nursies. They are small sand sharks no more than 5 ft in lenght. They have no teeth but plates in the mout to crush food. The next best is lion shark. Most of this flesh is red and if prepared well, one would think it was tuna. Shark is best fried. But no matter how it was done, I never ate it. When raw, to me, it smelled like human. So I was given sardines when the others had shark.
Now to making shark oil.
Get a a shark liver, (these are quite large) running almost the length of the shark. In fact, they run from the gills to the navel (that is the hole underneath through which it does all its business).
Hang from a high location with the lobes hanging down. Put one small slit in the bottom of each lobe to drain blood and leave overnight over a basin, bucket, bowl or skillet to catch blood.
Get up early in the morning, get firewood and have a very large cast iron pot at the ready. Make a fire in the yard, put water in the pot. Cut up liver and boil and mash with a flat piece of wood until it becomes pappy. Have a wash tub ready and strain this mash through a crocus bag. Make sure you squeeze out all the juice – I mean oil.
After children eat some mash feed rest to pigs, dogs, fowls, etc.
Return oil to pot and boil again, skimming all solids and foam from top.
Strain through muslin. Replace in pot, and boil again with a handful of salt and some fresh water (this is to clarify, I think). The oil will become clear and solids will fall to bottom.
Let settle and cool. Prepare 3 gill rum bottles and bottle off.
Store in a cool place until the “white” folks come to buy it. If they dont buy all, take remainder to Baxters Road, Suttle Street, or Nelson Street and sell to the St. Lucians who will increase the price and sell to local Bajans.
A good four foot liver (8 ft for two lobes) can give 8 to ten 3 gill bottles of oil. Not all livers give lots of oil though. Depending on how much oil has dripped out after the blood, my grandfather would determine whether it was worth his while to make oil.
That is how it was done 45 years ago when I was a kid and my grandfather owned his own boat.
@ROK,
Not sure I like the name ‘conspiracy detectors’.
May I suggest, ‘paranoid delusional’?
Pat,
Thanks for the wonderful details of both shark types and oil production.
For the humour as well, on selling.
GP,
Thanks for the details on Vitamin D.
Pat
As someone who was “forced” to take shark oil as a child (we lived next to a fisherman so access to shark liver was no problem) I absolutely hated it. In fact I would “offer” to take cod liver oil (the lesser of two evils) rather than take shark oil. I think I will make an appointment with some therapist and accuse my mother of child abuse (LOL). However despite hating shark oil I loved the liver after it was fried – I think that it was called “cracklin” not to be confused with the “crackling” from fried pig skin. My mother then resorted to bribing me; if I took the shark oil then I could have the shark “crackling” served like a “cutter” in salt bread- that was an offer I couldn’t refuse.
I remember the “Lion Shark” and the “Blue Peter”. You couldn’t fry the Blue Peter because it supposedly produced a lot of water which negated the frying process so “Blue Peter” was steamed and “Lion Shark” was fried.
Video lecture Vitamin D and the Prevention of Chronic Disease:
Michael Holick, MD, PhD, Boston University School of Medicine, discusses vitamin D relating to bone and muscle health and the prevention of autoimmune and chronic diseases.
Warning, it’s a bit long at 58min but geared to a lay audience and very interesting.
Re the video on vitamin D, I linked above, upon reviewing it, I noticed it does contain a bit more medical and technical jargon than I remembered since I viewed it the first time. However, most of the information is accessible to non medical people and Dr. Holick presents the information in an entertaining and at times humorous fashion.
@ Georgie Porgie
I did not realize that gall stones were made from cholesterol acids. In you slide presentation, your total level seem lower than what my Dr. wants me to maintain. My cholesterol level was 6 which was normal for normal people. She had me bring it down to 3 as I am considered high risk. So now my total is 3.1, bad is 1.1 and the good is 2. I have not had shrimp,visible animal fats nor egg yolks in two years and it has remained at that level.
My question, what is normal and why is my level still higher than the total in your slide? I think it was slide 24.
Thanks, Pat.
@ Sarg.
I hope your mother fried that shark liver in the yard. All my brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts and everyone else ate roasted shark liver. Roaster outside! The smell would have remained in the house. I agree cod liver oil is way better than shark oil. I asked for it too and was told, “who gun go buy cod liver oil, when we does mek the cleanest shark oil?”
No, you cant fry blue peter. If you buy two pounds, it melts to about a pound. The rest is water. No one in our area ate it. They fed it to the animals. Some unscrupulous fish sellers would take it out Parks, Bisset, Sugar Hill, etc. and sell even though the fishermen always gave it away.
@ Not True
We did the same with sea moss. First the whites, then the St. Lucians. Usually before school started when money was needed for books, uniforms, etc.
@ Pat
Re I did not realize that gall stones were made from cholesterol acids.
It is good that BU allows this level of education and information to be put to our BU community and to our Bajan people, here there and everywhere. Kudos to DAVID!
Re In you slide presentation, your total level seem lower than what my Dr. wants me to maintain. My cholesterol level was 6 which was normal for normal people. She had me bring it down to 3 as I am considered high risk. So now my total is 3.1, bad is 1.1 and the good is 2. I have not had shrimp,visible animal fats nor egg yolks in two years and it has remained at that level.
My question, what is normal and why is my level still higher than the total in your slide?
1- You really are exercising great discipline.
2- Seems you have a hereditary problem with your LDL receptors (will look for a note I have on that somewhere and post it, or and get David to post a ppt on that issue if I can find it..
3 The levels I quoted were
Normal levels 150 -200 mg/dl 200-220 mg/dl considered high
These are the numbers used in the American literature.
I notice you quote 1-6. Perhaps the Canadians report cholesterol levels using different units (think its SI units—I think we do the same at home. Don’t know the conversions.)
Your Canadian Dr is using the reporting system used in that country, so don’t get confused with the mg/dl system. After all you are well controlled it seems.
I think the discrepancy in numbers you are seeing is just two different systems of units used for reporting what is the normal range.
@GP
Would the BU household be on firm grazing to conclude from your slides that to be vegetarian would be a good counter to managing ones cholesterol effectively?
Yes and no.
The folk who seem to have the most trouble with cholesterol levels seems to be those with a genetic defect.
If you have serious problems with cholesterol, you should reduce your fat intake.
Whereas using vegetables is great, remember that cholesterol is to be found in some plant materials that we consume.
Get your levels measured as a base line, and then monitor them if you have problems, by diet exercise and drugs.
The real trouble with cholesterol management is due to the fact that the liver will make it if your levels drop. This makes the fight harder.
Its not impossible though.
@ Dr. Porgie
Thanks for that relief. The only thing I really miss is my Anchor cheese and eclipse biscuits. I have a block upstairs and I take it out, smell it and put it back. I eat low fat cheese – 8% milk fat. My son eats the anchor, right at the table in front of me!
Yes Anchor cheese from NZ and eclipse biscuits is a great combination.
GP wrote:
Whereas using vegetables is great, remember that cholesterol is to be found in some plant materials that we consume.
GP, What might those be?
From the American Heart Associaton:
People get cholesterol in two ways. The body — mainly the liver — produces varying amounts, usually about 1,000 milligrams a day. Foods also can contain cholesterol. Foods from animals (especially egg yolks, meat, poultry, shellfish and whole- and reduced-fat milk and dairy products) contain it. Foods from plants (fruits, vegetables, grains, nuts and seeds) don’t contain cholesterol.
http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=4488
Did you find any other errors in the 101 powerpoint presentation also?
Do you have anything of substance to contribute to the discussion? Or are you just a copier and paster of things you dont understand, besides being a nit picker?
@ Dr. Georgie
If the gall bladder is removed there is no storage sack so the bile goes directly into the stomach. Can this create a problem or have any bearing on cholesterol levels? Seeing that gall stones are cholesterol acids.
Actually the bile goes into the duodenum…… and out into the draft usually. Colors the stool and helps in the differential diagnosis of jaundice.
Does not affect serum cholesterol levels.
I think maybe Georgie has it right after all.
Here is a suitable reference.
@ Georgie and Not Saved
Thanks a million.
@Pat,
You are welcome, but my contribution was rather trivial by comparison.
A presentation submitted by Doctor GP to add value to the topic.
The blogmaster invites you to join the discussion.