Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 259, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 November 1918 — Gulls as Human Food. [ARTICLE]

Gulls as Human Food.

“The flesh of gulls,” says one of the best-known cyclopedias, “is rank and coarse/’ So it is. You have only to shoot a .gull and cook it to find this is the case, and that as a dinner dish it is a complete failure. Yet in Iceland gull flesh Is one of the principal winter foods of the people. There, in early summer, when the cliffs swarm with nesting gulls, parties are organized and men are let down over the lofty precipices by ropes. They catch young gulls, which are as fat as butter, and send them up to the top in sacks. The moment they reach the top the birds are skinned. A great caldron of boiling water is ready and into this the bodies are dipped and held for a few seconds. This completely does away with the fishy taste, and the birds are then taken home and hung in smoke until they are thoroughly dried. When winter comes they are cooked and eaten, and are as delicate as any chicken or game bird, but far more fat "and nourishing.