Food from the Wild

Seaweed

Carragheen Chrondus crispus

Changeable in appearance, carragheen varies from having a stalk of 15cm 6in) to almost none at all, from having a wide, flat and much divided frond to being narrow and scarcely branched, and from being a dark red to being green when exposed to a lot of sun. It is found in abundance on all types of shore and is widely distributed. Commercially, carragheen is used as a basis for ice-cream, pastries, cough mixtures and toothpaste. In 1919 a record harvest of 2,000 wet tons was taken from the coast of Brittany for these purposes.

Carragheen is eaten by local populations on the east coast of the USA and Canada, on the west coast of Europe and in Ireland-usually in the form of a mould. The seaweed is collected, washed, laid out in the sun, and sprinkled occasionally with salt water until it is dry. Then it can be kept until required or used fresh. Very poor people used to boil carragheen in water which was then strained and left to set. The resulting jelly was eaten cold. However, it is more appetising if some flavouring is added.

Dulse Rhodymenia palmata

Variable in shape and size, from 10-35cm (4-14in), dulse resembles an irregular-shaped hand for its small pieces grow like fingers from a broad, central palm. Dark red in colour with purple overtones, it is found on the middle to lower shore growing from an anchoring disc which may be attached to rocks or other seaweeds such as Fucus and Laminaria. Widely distributed on all types of beach, its age may be ascertained by the size of the holdfast disc, which increases in thickness each year.

For eating, the younger the seaweed the better the taste, but even then it is likely to be tough and the flavour salty. Popularly known as dulse in England and Scotland, dillesk in Ireland and sol in Iceland where it was a regular item of commerce which was traded between the inhabitants of the coast and the people of the interior between the twelfth and nineteenth centuries.

It has been eaten in various ways; washed, dried and made into small rolls to be used as a 'chew' like tobacco or chewing-gum; uncooked as a salad; boiled in milk or oil of citron-a dish some have pronounced delicious; and cooked as a vegetable to be eaten with dried fish, butter and potatoes. It has also been used as a flavouring for soups, and, in times of famine, has been baked into bread. It is also an essential part of the diet of certain sheep, notably North Ronaldsay, a breed indigenous to the Orkneys. In Norway dulse is called son-söll or sheep's weed.

Laver Porphyra umbilicalis

A large, lobed, irregular-shaped, thin and membraneous seaweed, in colour laver is a dark, purplish red becoming almost black when dry and greenish brown when old. Widely distributed, it grows on rocks and stones at all levels on exposed beaches, especially where the rocks are covered with sand. On these the weed appears to be growing in the sand. There are two other species of Porphyra with which P. umbilicalis may be confused but since they are all edible and can be cooked in the same way, this will not matter.

Laver, which is rich in iodine, is at its best between late autumn and spring and is the seaweed most commonly eaten in Britain. Even today, laver cakes are often eaten for breakfast in Wales. It may also be served as an accompaniment to roast mutton. Potted laver used to be sold at Fortnum and Mason and was eaten for health reasons in eighteenth-century Bath.

Laver is prepared by first steeping it in water for 3-4 hours, then boiling it until tender. After this the water should be strained off and the laver beaten to a pulp. This can be made into soup, dressed with oil and vinegar for salad, reheated with salt, pepper, butter and cream for a vegetable or made into laver cakes and served with bacon for breakfast.

Sea Lettuce Ulva lactuca

Sea lettuce is broad, flat, irregular-shaped, membraneous and translucent seaweed up to 46cm (1 8in) long. Watery green in colour, it grows in bunches and is common on most rocky shores during July and August. Similar to laver, it may be cooked and served in all the same ways although the results are less good. It was thought to cure scrofula for which it was eaten during the eighteenth century in England. It was also sold in the markets of Peking and Canton as a fever-reducing medicine.

Sweet Tangle Laminaria saccharina

Browny-yellow, sweet tangle has flat fronds from 20-243cm (8in-8ft) in length and up to 30cm (1 ft) wide, and attaches itself to small stones and rocks from the middle shore downwards. Sweet tangle is one of the most prolific seaweeds, found on almost any kind of shore, but particularly sandy ones with rock pools. It is known as the Poor Man's Weather Glass owing to the fact that a frond hung up will become soft and limp at the approach of rain, and dry and brittle in fine spells.

The whole frond is also coated with a whitish efflorescence which is sweet to the taste, hence its scientific name of saccharina and its common name of sugar wrack-although it bears no relation to the wrack, Fucacia family. Both horses and humans are said to enjoy sugar wrack. There is evidence that the young stalks with their sweet, peanuttish flavour were eaten throughout Europe.

According to Greville, writing in 1830, it used to be sold by fishermen in the streets of Edinburgh to the cry of 'Buy dulse and tangle' and according to V. J. Chapman in Seaweeds and their Uses, a seaweed bread of sweet tangle and carragheen called 'Pain des Algues' used to be made on the coast of America. It took the form of a jelly. In Norway during World War I I the Germans erected two bakeries to make bread from the desalinated algae.

The Japanese make a substance called kan-hoa which they add to soups, vegetables and boiled rice. The weed is washed, hung out until almost dry, then rolled up and put in presses to dry further. Finally it is shredded with a sharp knife and laid out in the open until the surface is dry but still contains enough moisture to keep it pliable for at least a year. The Commander Islanders in the Behring Sea eat L. Bongardina, a relative of sweet tangle. First it is cooked, then minced, mixed with pepper, salt, onion, tomatoes and flour, and finally fried.