Ambergris And Eggs, Perhaps the Most Expensive Dish on Earth.

[GlorifiedRice]

I saw an article today about a young boy who found a chunk of Ambergris on the beach and its valued at $60,000.00.

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatches/globalpost-blogs/weird-wide-web/whale-vomit-worth-63000-found-8-year-old-charlie-naysmith

Ambergris is the resinous vomit of Sperm Whales.Its used by perfumers as a scent fixative.

Knowing that its now illegal for civilians to collect it on the beach in the USA (the govt wants that money to themselves)*

I did some research to make sure and came across something highly interesting. I searched eGullet and found nothing

so im super excited to share something new in the culinary world...

According to Wikipedia Charles II;s fave dish was Eggs and Ambergris, leading me to Google that and come to this

Gourmet Mag article

http://www.gourmet.com/food/2008/01/ambergris

Would you eat it?

*I obviously didnt read that it was collected in the UK, not USA

[Panaderia Canadiense]

Mmm, puke 'n' eggs? No thanks.

[GlorifiedRice]

Mmm, puke 'n' eggs? No thanks.

C'mon, what are your thoughts on Birds nest soup?

[Arey]

I always thought that Charles II's fave dish was Nell Gwynn. Or maybe he just wanted her oranges.

[Panaderia Canadiense]

Mmm, puke 'n' eggs? No thanks.

C'mon, what are your thoughts on Birds nest soup?

I can do without that one as well, but for some reason I find bird spit less odious as a food than whale vomit, and my main objection to birdsnest soup is textural rather than providential. Then again, I use shellac and cochineal with no qualms at all, and those things are essentially beetle poo and ground up scale bugs. I will also gleefully eat many things that make most westerners blanch (mmm, tarantulas! And chonta palm grubs, so tasty!)

I think it all comes down to personal taste.

[jfrater]

I have a bottle of it tinctured which I bought from a European perfumer. The smell is quite nice actually. I would consider eating it just to try it but I am not keen to put my tincture in scrambled eggs because it cost so much and includes alcohol for dissolving the vomit.

[patrickamory]

In my mind it falls into the same class as black truffles, or perhaps huitlacoche. I'd definitely try it.

[thayes1c]

There are a couple of recipes in Dave Wondrich's Punch that involve ambergris. I think I'd try that before eggs and amber, but if you're buying I'm game!

[Broken English]

I can't find the video of Heston's Feasts where he makes this dish, but this is the guests reaction to his "Ambergris and Eggs" dish...

[Mjx]

Mmm, puke 'n' eggs? No thanks.

C'mon, what are your thoughts on Birds nest soup?

Actually, evidence suggests that most of it is expelled as fecal matter. Regardless of which end it comes from, you could argue that it's something entirely different by the time that it's floated about long enough to be desirable.

The use of ambergris in food and as medicine goes way back (e.g. Ancient Chinese, Egyptians, Romans; Dumas mentions its pharmaceutical use in his Encyclopedia), so there's no novelty involved, and pretentiousness probably accounts for nearly all its sale and use in food these days. Still, I'm all for its increased use in cooking and any other damn thing, since it can only obtained from live, free-roaming whales, and the demand can therefore only be met by preserving these suckers

I'd be interested in experimenting with it, although probably only in perfumery (one of my other interests), since it's really all about the scent, there's no indication it has much to offer on the flavour front.

[GlorifiedRice]

Does it smell like the MUSK perfumes?

[Shalmanese]

Ambergris was a lot cheaper when we had a whaling industry since we would cut them out of whales all the time. Now that whaling is illegal, we can only find the occasional lump washed up on the beach.

[Mjx]

Ambergris was a lot cheaper when we had a whaling industry since we would cut them out of whales all the time. Now that whaling is illegal, we can only find the occasional lump washed up on the beach.

Nope. That is literally killing the goose that lays the golden eggs.

When it's first expelled (let alone cut) from a whale, the muck is not ambergris, and is unusable as such. It has too flaat about and weather a hell of a long time before it stops being whale shit and becomes ambergris.

There used to be more ambergris found because there used to be more whales about to expel it.