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.
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.
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.
In the Republic, they have carrageen; which is a seaweed in the Irish Sea. It's used as a natural thickener and ingredient in foodstuffs like Carrageen Moss Pudding:
You can buy packaged nori and eat is as a snack. Also, Onigiri is wrapped in nori, and the Japanese developed a special technique to keep it separated from the rice (so it stays crispy) until you open the package.
Also Japanese people regularly eat mozuku, mekabu, and include seaweed in just about everything in the cuisine at least through dashi but also in many other forms. Seaweed is and always has been huge in Japanese cuisine.
Seaweed is one of those incredibly delicious items[1] that for some strange reason isn't more popular. I'd love it if it became more common, and more cuisines (outside Japan) incorporated it into their existing dishes.
I'm imagining like an Indian curry with seaweed mixed in, or an Italian pasta with seaweed mixed in (in addition to existing ingredients).....
My mostly-uninformed hypothesis is that seaweed’s relative lack of popularity outside of East Asia stems from the industrialization timeline of Asia vs eg Europe. People in Europe could and did farm seaweed, but with the technology of the mid 19th century it was not possible to do so in a mechanized way, while they did have the technology to produce grains, get wild fish, and farm animals in a mechanized way. The double whammy is that as populations grew and the amount of available foraged/small-scale-farmed seaweed per person decreased, seaweed culturally lost relevance and importance in people’s diets.
Because Asia industrialized later, they had access to eg plastics and efficient diesel engine boats to make farming seaweed easier. So they could avoid or reduce going through a period where seaweed lost relevance.
In Portugal, you can get fish soups and açorda variations (a kind of breadcrumbs soaked in broth and seasoned with olive oil and garlic) based dishes, with seaweeds.
Just watch survival shows like Alone or Life Below Zero, the fact that people ate things in their environment to survive, and that the things that didn't kill them and helped them survive were continued...is not news, it should actually be considered more an ongoing assumption that they did versus astonishment that they did. Nevertheless, aside from that slight rant, it is good to see scientific techniques and analysis used and those practices honed and more knowledge built about how humans have existed and lived.
We have a small specialty cut flower farm and also grow plants for fun. I like to take people around and just start eating all the herbs and leaves and berries and bits, off of all sorts of plants. "That's edible?" "How hungry are you?"
Around Baltic sea there are lots of "cup-stones" ie large stones with lots of tiny cups painstakingly drilled in.
Historians all agree that these are for "religious" purposes collecting blood from sacrificed beings. I say they they are fools, because most valuable commodity thousands of years ago was salt.
Another purpose was drying seaweed, because you can mildly high, probably from nicotine, because drying seaweed smells like fermenting snuff at Swedish Tobacco.
Here in Maine, there is at least one company pushing seaweed really hard. They are getting all of our lobster fishers to invest into it as a diversification since global warming is going to kill the lobster business. I have a friend who used to work for them even, and you can see them on Youtube talking about their business and products https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhpGNuWRQTE
Even if you don't buy some of the marketing wankery that CEO spouts, ground up seaweed and kelp are just straight up a better version of salt. It's salty, a little umami, and utterly delicious.
They are growing millions of pounds of the stuff and I think they are the biggest distributor in the US right now. Really awesome seeing locals do good things with our local businesses. I have a lot of connections to lobster fishers, and I want them to have a bright future.
I expect it to be a really cheap and plentiful food additive at some point, maybe a good source of MSG or something.
Now, it is served in avantgarde restaurants: e.g. by the Spanish Michelin star chef, Angel León. He is known as “chef del mar”, making novel dishes with the plants from the ocean in his restaurant, Aponiente:
https://www.aponiente.com/en/
Makes a lot of sense. It's packed with vitamins and minerals, is presumably a decent way to get salt, and is captive/passive/non-attacking prey!
For Bay Area people, there are companies that teach seaweed foraging: what types to look for, where to look, healthy versus "on the toilet all day", etc. Always nice to have another excuse to go to the beach, especially at unusual hours (such as before dawn to catch a low tide).
Anecdotally, I once worked with a guy who told me his wife was so hooked on seaweed is healthy she ate too much of it over time and the iodine destroyed her thyroid.
Related: Not a seaweed, but sea fennel (also samphire and official name crithnum maritimum) is a plant that grows on rocks by the sea and is edible (actually nutritious and quite tasty as salad).
Maybe it's a dumb question, but how do we know these biomarkers weren't from eating fish that are the seaweed?
If the biomarkers are able to remain detectable for thousands of years without breaking down, perhaps they're also able to accumulate in fish?
I don't know anything about it so my idea is probably wrong, but I'm surprised the article doesn't mention it since it seems like an obvious thing to wonder.
I've thought about harvesting and eating seaweed which is basically everywhere near my home village. I've never heard of anyone eating it and I've been wondering why. How would I go about figuring out if a particular species of seaweed is edible or not (Google doesn't seem to help me in this)?
>analyzed samples of preserved dental plaque from the remains of 74 early humans unearthed at 28 European archaeological sites. Some of the teeth were around 2,000 years old, while others were more than 8,000 years old
Is it normal to refer to people of this time period as "early humans"?
Maybe they are intending to extrapolate backwards, but 8 kya is still a far cry from the 300 kya origin of Homo sapiens...
Is a fact that early Europeans ate sea urchins. We still do the same.
Therefore, early Europeans ate also the many different red, brown, and green algae that came in each urchin stomach. This predigested small pieces is what gives the urchins its special flavor. You can't ate one, and not the other.
This does not mean that they would eat directly the same algae raw. They are a cocktail of chemicals. not easy to eat in any significant amount without processing.
I can buy the idea of people eating the water lily starchy but acrid rhizomes as an emergency food in winter. Everything else is poisonous if I'm not wrong. They have narcotic properties, so another possibility is that they would chew is as a primitive painkiller for tooth decay. Red algae have a lot of chemicals also that could act as primitive cures.
Modern research techniques are wonderful, but if the humans lack of the ability to include instinct, observation, logical thinking and link facts; their results will try to run wild into full gallop. They can be more a trap than a solution if not filtered by common sense.
Not seaweed but in Turkey we still eat marsh samphire (Salicornia europaea), barilla plant (Salsola soda), and rock samphire (Crithmum). These grow in the tidal marshes on the sea. Very salty and delicious. It is not a rare thing either, in Izmir every other fish restaurant will serve these in season.
There's a theory named the "kelp highway hypothesis," which describes how the first people to make it to America might have taken a coastal route (instead an inland route via the land bridge). By following the massive coastal kelp beds, these hunter gatherers would have been able to sustain themselves with kelp itself when no other food was available.
[+] [-] HeckFeck|2 years ago|reply
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.
[+] [-] AlecSchueler|2 years ago|reply
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.
[+] [-] pstuart|2 years ago|reply
Apparently when prepared right it tastes like bacon.
[+] [-] KaiserPro|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] adolph|2 years ago|reply
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-...
[+] [-] cmrdporcupine|2 years ago|reply
Actually an export product, too. https://www.dal.ca/news/2017/08/03/nova-scotia-s-best-kept-s...
[+] [-] deaddodo|2 years ago|reply
https://www.atlasobscura.com/foods/carrageen-moss-pudding
[+] [-] tecleandor|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] monooso|2 years ago|reply
[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laverbread
[+] [-] Renaud|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mattpallissard|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tomrod|2 years ago|reply
I also really enjoy most seaweeds I've tried. Great food generally. I'll have to see if we can get something of laverbread locally.
[+] [-] dghughes|2 years ago|reply
I think one of the reasons for people not liking it is western diets tend not to like rubbery textures in food.
[+] [-] danw1979|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|2 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] kinlan|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gimbap007|2 years ago|reply
https://marutaka-nori.co.jp/en/nori1.html#:~:text=The%20hist....
[+] [-] jansan|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] zubiaur|2 years ago|reply
https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chondracanthus_chamissoi
[+] [-] layer8|2 years ago|reply
Also, wakame as a salad or in miso soup.
[+] [-] chris-orgmenta|2 years ago|reply
'Sea grape', also in (South East) Asia, is quite delicious in salads. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caulerpa_lentillifera
[+] [-] presentation|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] aaron695|2 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] winter_blue|2 years ago|reply
I'm imagining like an Indian curry with seaweed mixed in, or an Italian pasta with seaweed mixed in (in addition to existing ingredients).....
[1] if you buy it from a good brand, so YMMV.
[+] [-] opportune|2 years ago|reply
Because Asia industrialized later, they had access to eg plastics and efficient diesel engine boats to make farming seaweed easier. So they could avoid or reduce going through a period where seaweed lost relevance.
[+] [-] bpicolo|2 years ago|reply
All the rage at Italian/Japanese fusion joints (and honestly in Japan too - Japan loves pasta)
[+] [-] RandallBrown|2 years ago|reply
Seaweed is one of the few foods that will nearly ruin a dish for me. I just really don't like the flavor or the smell.
[+] [-] ahzhou|2 years ago|reply
If you live near the coast, you can easily forage your own too.
[+] [-] pjmlp|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] farnsworth|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Freedom2|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|2 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] dpflan|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Dowwie|2 years ago|reply
Including seaweed in one's diet may have worked for people but living exclusively on seaweed seems to have problems.
[+] [-] efields|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] timonoko|2 years ago|reply
Historians all agree that these are for "religious" purposes collecting blood from sacrificed beings. I say they they are fools, because most valuable commodity thousands of years ago was salt.
Another purpose was drying seaweed, because you can mildly high, probably from nicotine, because drying seaweed smells like fermenting snuff at Swedish Tobacco.
[+] [-] eftychis|2 years ago|reply
Is the article supposed to be surprising or just keeping us updated on the oldest findings? It seems it thinks the former.
[+] [-] mrguyorama|2 years ago|reply
Even if you don't buy some of the marketing wankery that CEO spouts, ground up seaweed and kelp are just straight up a better version of salt. It's salty, a little umami, and utterly delicious.
They are growing millions of pounds of the stuff and I think they are the biggest distributor in the US right now. Really awesome seeing locals do good things with our local businesses. I have a lot of connections to lobster fishers, and I want them to have a bright future.
I expect it to be a really cheap and plentiful food additive at some point, maybe a good source of MSG or something.
[+] [-] mjul|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kaycebasques|2 years ago|reply
For Bay Area people, there are companies that teach seaweed foraging: what types to look for, where to look, healthy versus "on the toilet all day", etc. Always nice to have another excuse to go to the beach, especially at unusual hours (such as before dawn to catch a low tide).
[+] [-] anigbrowl|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jackfoxy|2 years ago|reply
All things in moderation.
[+] [-] nologic01|2 years ago|reply
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crithmum
[+] [-] crazygringo|2 years ago|reply
If the biomarkers are able to remain detectable for thousands of years without breaking down, perhaps they're also able to accumulate in fish?
I don't know anything about it so my idea is probably wrong, but I'm surprised the article doesn't mention it since it seems like an obvious thing to wonder.
[+] [-] riffraff|2 years ago|reply
I'm pretty sure I had some other sea plants in Italian recipes too, it's not very common but not unseen.
[+] [-] vjk800|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] anon84873628|2 years ago|reply
Is it normal to refer to people of this time period as "early humans"?
Maybe they are intending to extrapolate backwards, but 8 kya is still a far cry from the 300 kya origin of Homo sapiens...
[+] [-] pvaldes|2 years ago|reply
Therefore, early Europeans ate also the many different red, brown, and green algae that came in each urchin stomach. This predigested small pieces is what gives the urchins its special flavor. You can't ate one, and not the other.
This does not mean that they would eat directly the same algae raw. They are a cocktail of chemicals. not easy to eat in any significant amount without processing.
I can buy the idea of people eating the water lily starchy but acrid rhizomes as an emergency food in winter. Everything else is poisonous if I'm not wrong. They have narcotic properties, so another possibility is that they would chew is as a primitive painkiller for tooth decay. Red algae have a lot of chemicals also that could act as primitive cures.
Modern research techniques are wonderful, but if the humans lack of the ability to include instinct, observation, logical thinking and link facts; their results will try to run wild into full gallop. They can be more a trap than a solution if not filtered by common sense.
[+] [-] gorkempacaci|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rrrrrrrrrrrryan|2 years ago|reply
There's a theory named the "kelp highway hypothesis," which describes how the first people to make it to America might have taken a coastal route (instead an inland route via the land bridge). By following the massive coastal kelp beds, these hunter gatherers would have been able to sustain themselves with kelp itself when no other food was available.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coastal_migration_(Americas)#K...