Live data from Hacker News

Early Europeans ate seaweed for thousands of years

smithsonianmag.com

171–180 of 268 posts

Re: Early Europeans ate seaweed for thousands of years

#171

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.

On the other side of the Irish Sea there's a seaweed dish in Wales called laverbread, I guess there's something about that sea that makes particularly edible seaweed.

Re: Early Europeans ate seaweed for thousands of years

#175

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.

While dulse (which comes from the Gaelic duileasg) grows in cold-water pockets of the North Atlantic and Pacific from Canada to Scotland, “it’s as Irish as potatoes,” according to chef, writer and director of Slow Food Northern Ireland, Paula McIntyre. [0]

Given potatoes are part of the post-Columbian exchange, dulse might be more Irish than potatoes.

https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20180522-the-renaissance-...

Re: Early Europeans ate seaweed for thousands of years

#176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think our ancestors had the luxury of being vegan.

Our ancestors didn’t abuse animals on the scale we do now.

Ancient cheeses might have abused a larger variety of species given regional variations in prokaryotes.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9792889/

Re: Early Europeans ate seaweed for thousands of years

#177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's news for the "modernized" people, that scoff at offal, weird mushrooms and "unusual" foods. Only a few peoples stopped consuming traditional foods, as one might expect.

It's the consequence of the food industry becoming hyperindustrialized in which uncommon ingredients and "off-cuts" no longer fit with the goal of pursuing economy of scale. Ultraprocessed food is efficient to produce and distribute and formulated to specifically target innate human cravings (high sugar/sodium/carb/fat) in ways that were not possible before. This is a trend that started in the U.S. and gradually spre…

> It's the consequence of the food industry becoming hyperindustrialized in which uncommon ingredients and "off-cuts" no longer fit with the goal of pursuing economy of scale. Ultraprocessed food is efficient to produce and distribute and formulated to specifically target innate human cravings (high sugar/sodium/carb/fat) in ways that were not possible before.

Hyperindustrialization has done the exact opposite! The middle class can only afford prime rib and tenderloin because more than half the weight of the cow gets processed into gelatin, burgers, pet food, and stew meat (A friend and I split a whole cow from a local butcher but my stats are based on grass fed). The price of off cuts is entirely demand driven: i.e. flank cuts that are popular in Latin American cuisine are dirt cheap in New England but really expensive in California. Stuff like offal absolutely dominates pet food inputs.

Re: Early Europeans ate seaweed for thousands of years

#178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Cheese will save us all. Except vegans, of course.

I don't think our ancestors had the luxury of being vegan.

By the standards of modern "meatlovers" they might as well have been, given just how rarely they had meat.

Re: Early Europeans ate seaweed for thousands of years

#179

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.

[deleted]

Re: Early Europeans ate seaweed for thousands of years

#180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's news for the "modernized" people, that scoff at offal, weird mushrooms and "unusual" foods. Only a few peoples stopped consuming traditional foods, as one might expect.

I've tried tripe a few times and times and I can chew it, swallow it, sure, but its just so foreign to me that I don't seek it out any more.

Clearly capitalism is the reason you don't like eating intestines.
Post reply on HN