[Sca-cooks] seaweed

[Stefan li Rous]

Ian of Oertha commented:

<<< Thanks, all for the seaweed recipes....>>>

  <<< Nice to know it's sort of period, if you have a Japanese  
persona. >>>

But as mentioned by others, many more cultures than just the Japanese  
ate it. I do wonder where the Mongols would have gotten it. But then  
they were on the way to invading Japan until they ran into a bunch of  
bad weather. So at times they did have access to seacoasts.

 From the seaweed-msg file I mentioned:

"Dulse in Ireland, according to Alan Davidson, was eaten
from ancient times onward and is recorded in the 7th century
Irish laws Corpus Iuris Hibernici."

"Samphire (Crithmum maritumum) has been eaten in he Southwest of England
from at least medieval times."

"In German it is called "meerfenchel", and in Italian "Herba di
San Pietra""

"What about Welsh Laver Bread? Seaweed loaf.
I was just in Cardiff for business and they sell it everywhere and
claim that it is one of the oldest food products of Wales."

You wanted another way to eat it besides in soup, how about this?  
Bake it up ahead of time and then slice some off for breakfast. I  
don't know if you are supposed to eat it with butter or kippers, though.

about dulse: "Eating it fresh is described as 'chewing on a salted  
rubber band.'. Hmmmm.

"From what I can remember from when I lived in Ireland, people didn't  
cook dulse, they cooked with carageen (Irish moss), which has a much  
less pronounced flavour. Dulse would be washed off, dried (and  
sometimes lightly roasted), and then eaten sorta like crisps. "

So Ian, what you got probably isn't dulse.

"Fried Dulse (Glenarm) Wash the dulse in sea water.  Heat butter in a  
pan and fry the dulse until it turns colour.

Stewed Dulse (Portaferry recipe 100 years old at least (in 1949))   
Wash freshly gathered dulse to remove sand and grit.  Put in a  
saucepan with milk, salt and pepper and stew till tender.  It take  
3-4 hours.  Use as a supper dish with oatcakes or brown bread."

Most of this is quoted from messages by other SCA-Cooks members, but  
in the interest of space I didn't try to name everyone this time. If  
folks think I should, email me.

Stefan
--------
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
    Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas           
StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****