Can You Eat Penguin and How Does It Taste?

Penguins are technically okay to eat. Their meat is not toxic to humans, and many other types of birds are hunted for their meat.

However, all countries that conducted scientific expeditions in Antarctica signed a treaty in 1959 promising to preserve the population as much as possible.

If humans were to eat penguins, they would likely not find the flavor palatable. Penguins exist on a diet high in krill and not much else. The meat would be very oily and have a fishy flavor.

Do People Eat Penguin and Is It Safe?

There is no reason to believe that eating penguins wouldn’t be safe. If penguins were not endangered, not many would hunt them.

They live in parts of the world that are typically hard to access. And getting the meat back to sell would be so difficult the price would be unmanageable.

Does penguin taste like fish or bird?

Although there are no cultures currently eating penguins, we do have records of expeditions to Antarctica in the past.

In 1987, a team of Belgian explorers got stuck in the ice and had to spend winter in their camp. They soon began to run low on food.

As the food vanished, crew members began to die. They began to eat the meat of penguins and seals. Their records indicate that penguin meat was so bad that many refused to eat it.

One explorer described it as tasting like beef, codfish, and duck roasted in a pot with blood and cod liver oil used for the sauce.

Can You Eat Penguin Eggs?

Yes, they are suitable for human eating, and throughout history, explorers of the Antarctic have eaten them, but nobody would equate them to our typical chicken eggs.

But if you find yourself at the South Pole and need to find food, these would be a great survival tactic.

What color is penguin meat?

Because myoglobin, a protein, is present in large amounts in penguin flesh, it gives the meat a deep red color and a robust flavor.

Because fish, which has a lot of fatty acids, makes up the majority of penguins’ diet, their meat has a high fat content. They frequently have body fat levels from 30% up to 40%.

Can You Eat Penguin Raw?

If you were to eat penguins, it would not be advisable to eat them raw. Most meat from birds should be cooked to an internal temperature of 160 F to avoid food-borne illnesses.

The records we have from people who have eaten it described it as being so bad that cooking it would have been the only way to get it down.

How To Cook Penguin

There are as many ways to cook a penguin. Because of the amount of oil in the meat, frying may be the easiest method.

However, the explorers who ate them most likely roasted them on an open flame or broiled them in an oven like a duck or turkey.

Penguin Recipes

Because it is illegal to hunt or kill penguins by international law, there are not any recipes readily available for their meat.

However, if you needed to prepare a penguin for the table, any recipe for birds, such as turkey, duck, or chicken, would work.

Should You Eat Penguin?

There is no reason to think it would not be safe to eat penguin meat. It is technically edible by humans, and we have records from explorers who have done so.

It would not taste good, and people who ate them only did so to survive when they had no other food.

However, it is against international law to kill penguins because they are endangered.

Some varieties of penguins only have a few thousand left in the world. Killing penguins for food is considered immoral in many parts of the world.