{"id":"01KFNR89TW4QD4MDMJBAM87TQM","cid":"bafkreifqeojymop6gkb2crqu2nlxp2wtrp74bdmgbx5we2b2euh2lda4ny","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":11943,"extracted_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:04.727Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 0","source_file":"01KFNR0Z394A878Y5AQ63MQEM2","start_line":11881,"text":"CHAPTER 65. The Whale as a Dish.\r\n\r\nThat mortal man should feed upon the creature that feeds his lamp, and,\r\nlike Stubb, eat him by his own light, as you may say; this seems so\r\noutlandish a thing that one must needs go a little into the history and\r\nphilosophy of it.\r\n\r\nIt is upon record, that three centuries ago the tongue of the Right\r\nWhale was esteemed a great delicacy in France, and commanded large\r\nprices there. Also, that in Henry VIIIth’s time, a certain cook of the\r\ncourt obtained a handsome reward for inventing an admirable sauce to be\r\neaten with barbacued porpoises, which, you remember, are a species of\r\nwhale. Porpoises, indeed, are to this day considered fine eating. The\r\nmeat is made into balls about the size of billiard balls, and being\r\nwell seasoned and spiced might be taken for turtle-balls or veal balls.\r\nThe old monks of Dunfermline were very fond of them. They had a great\r\nporpoise grant from the crown.\r\n\r\nThe fact is, that among his hunters at least, the whale would by all\r\nhands be considered a noble dish, were there not so much of him; but\r\nwhen you come to sit down before a meat-pie nearly one hundred feet\r\nlong, it takes away your appetite. Only the most unprejudiced of men\r\nlike Stubb, nowadays partake of cooked whales; but the Esquimaux are\r\nnot so fastidious. We all know how they live upon whales, and have rare\r\nold vintages of prime old train oil. Zogranda, one of their most famous\r\ndoctors, recommends strips of blubber for infants, as being exceedingly\r\njuicy and nourishing. And this reminds me that certain Englishmen, who\r\nlong ago were accidentally left in Greenland by a whaling vessel—that\r\nthese men actually lived for several months on the mouldy scraps of\r\nwhales which had been left ashore after trying out the blubber. Among\r\nthe Dutch whalemen these scraps are called “fritters”; which, indeed,\r\nthey greatly resemble, being brown and crisp, and smelling something\r\nlike old Amsterdam housewives’ dough-nuts or oly-cooks, when fresh.\r\nThey have such an eatable look that the most self-denying stranger can\r\nhardly keep his hands off.\r\n\r\nBut what further depreciates the whale as a civilized dish, is his\r\nexceeding richness. He is the great prize ox of the sea, too fat to be\r\ndelicately good. Look at his hump, which would be as fine eating as the\r\nbuffalo’s (which is esteemed a rare dish), were it not such a solid\r\npyramid of fat. But the spermaceti itself, how bland and creamy that\r\nis; like the transparent, half-jellied, white meat of a cocoanut in the\r\nthird month of its growth, yet far too rich to supply a substitute for\r\nbutter. Nevertheless, many whalemen have a method of absorbing it into\r\nsome other substance, and then partaking of it. In the long try watches\r\nof the night it is a common thing for the seamen to dip their\r\nship-biscuit into the huge oil-pots and let them fry there awhile. Many\r\na good supper have I thus made.\r\n\r\nIn the case of a small Sperm Whale the brains are accounted a fine\r\ndish. The casket of the skull is broken into with an axe, and the two\r\nplump, whitish lobes being withdrawn (precisely resembling two large\r\npuddings), they are then mixed with flour, and cooked into a most\r\ndelectable mess, in flavor somewhat resembling calves’ head, which is\r\nquite a dish among some epicures; and every one knows that some young\r\nbucks among the epicures, by continually dining upon calves’ brains, by\r\nand by get to have a little brains of their own, so as to be able to\r\ntell a calf’s head from their own heads; which, indeed, requires\r\nuncommon discrimination. And that is the reason why a young buck with\r\nan intelligent looking calf’s head before him, is somehow one of the\r\nsaddest sights you can see. The head looks a sort of reproachfully at\r\nhim, with an “Et tu Brute!” expression.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 0"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KFNR84EBA6KY2R8GT4XT2762","peer_label":"65","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KFNR84EBA6KY2R8GT4XT2762","peer_label":"65","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"partOf"},{"peer":"01KFNR81RMVAX2BBMMBW51V97D","peer_label":"Moby Dick; Or, The Whale","peer_type":"novel","predicate":"partOf"},{"peer":"01KFNR0H0Q791Y1SMZWEQ09FGV","peer_label":"Moby Dick","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KFNR89KSAQAF1YBZ3XFEGPKH","peer_label":"Chunk 1","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:05.521Z","ts":"2026-01-23T15:41:16.525Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}