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Early Europeans ate seaweed for thousands of years

smithsonianmag.com

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Re: Early Europeans ate seaweed for thousands of years

#71

Post by KaiserPro »

HeckFeck wrote: post #17

Some of us still do! In Northern Ireland, we have a lesser-known seaweed dish called Dulce. https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20180522-the-renaissance-... It's tricky to find it fresh, you usually only get it in small greengrocers or at the Auld Lammas fair. Used to be quite cheap for a bag. Very salty but quite edible and said to be nutrient-dense.

I'm not sure how local it is to east anglia and kent but https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samphire is still eaten. Its not /technically/ seaweed but its not far off.

Re: Early Europeans ate seaweed for thousands of years

#72

Post by bostonpete »

soco wrote: post #48
adrian_b wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The most important benefit might have been the high content of iodine, which is usually insufficient in terrestrial food. Obviously they did not have iodized salt, like us, to provide the required iodine. They might have noticed that eating a little amount of seaweed will prevent illness. For omega-3 fatty acids, they had much better food sources in bone marrow or in fish (the multicellular algae have very low conten…

Which makes me think that seaweed was staple food at some time right? We wouldn't have evolved to need more iodine than we can get in our environment otherwise...

That seems like a leap -- there's other foods that can provide sufficient iodine (e.g. fish, eggs, milk)...

Re: Early Europeans ate seaweed for thousands of years

#73

Post by dieselgate »

Renaud wrote: post #22
monooso wrote: post #4

We still eat laverbread [1], a gelatinous paste made from seaweed, in parts of Wales. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laverbread

Visited a friend in Swansea last year and tried laverbread mixed with oats and pan-dried, and it was delicious!

Was it a sweet or savory dish? Seaweed just seems so umami to me but could imagine it being sweetened

Re: Early Europeans ate seaweed for thousands of years

#76

Post by slfnflctd »

adasdasdas wrote: post #63

Seeweed is ok, but I'm a huge fan of kelp. Any broth-like soup with kelp will instantly taste better

I've eaten a wide variety of weird food over the years. I recently tried a kelp burger and it was better than expected. I also felt pretty good after eating it. Would eat again.

Re: Early Europeans ate seaweed for thousands of years

#78

Post by AlecSchueler »

HeckFeck wrote: post #17

Some of us still do! In Northern Ireland, we have a lesser-known seaweed dish called Dulce. https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20180522-the-renaissance-... It's tricky to find it fresh, you usually only get it in small greengrocers or at the Auld Lammas fair. Used to be quite cheap for a bag. Very salty but quite edible and said to be nutrient-dense.

Haha, I clicked on comment to be the token Northern Irishman bringing this up, but you beat me to it!

I didn't know seaweed wasn't a common food until I moved to the Netherlands and started enquiring about the local seaweed, only to be met with blank looks or people pointing me to the sushi nori at Albert Heijn.

I've been here for years and I still don't understand how such a seafaring nation with such an intimate connection with the coast line could lack a seaweed culture.

Until I saw this article I was starting to think seaweed was unique to rockier island coastlines, but I guess it just comes down to taste/fashion?

After all, you can sail the seven seas as pillage the world of all its spices, but nothing compares to a broodje kaas! Have heard the theory that it's part of Calvinistic protestantism to avoid strong flavours, but then I'd expect to see more seaweed etc in the South.

Re: Early Europeans ate seaweed for thousands of years

#79

Post by AlecSchueler »

tecleandor wrote: post #25
HeckFeck wrote: post #17

Some of us still do! In Northern Ireland, we have a lesser-known seaweed dish called Dulce. https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20180522-the-renaissance-... It's tricky to find it fresh, you usually only get it in small greengrocers or at the Auld Lammas fair. Used to be quite cheap for a bag. Very salty but quite edible and said to be nutrient-dense.

Kind of funny it's salty but it's called dulce/dulse (Spanish for 'sweet'). I'd love to know the pronunciation for 'Duileasg'

Note that phonetically dulce in NI would be pronounced "dulis."
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