Seashore food

[timtom1]

Hi, in a few survival books I have it does cover seashore grub a little but doesn't go into detail about what food is available and cooking times etc to make it safe as I know some of the worst poisons come from sea food.

I know that you can eat Limpets and razor clamps but I am not sure how long they should be cooked in embers for? I think you can boil them for 10 mins?

 

[sxmolloy]

Hi Timtom

According to Food For Free by by Richard Mabey Limpets should be boiled until the meat leaves the shell. They can be very tough though, and may need considerable further boiling or baking.

There is no mention of Razor Clams though. Infact the whole section on seafood is not as vast as the rest of the sections on other wild food.

Maybe a north west sea food day is in order?

ATB....Stu

 

[Forest]

Limpets are easy survival food, - I've never been out run by one yet !
The trick is to catch them by surprise otherwise they tighten down on the rock.

Cook them upside down in the embers, until they shrink in free from the shell and then rip off the little black ball containing the organs, disgard it and eat the yellowy 'foot'. They have the texture of wine gums and taste like salty mussels, but an easy source of protein
Limpets also have good resistance to polutants, unlike Mussells which offer the easiest way to get sea food poisoning,.


Good luck
Forest

 

[ilan]

As been said limpets are one of the safer foods they graze on the rocks whilst most of the other shell fish are filter feeders and can get a problem if they have been filtering the poisonous algies or sewage discharges so best avoided unles you can keep them for a day or two in clean salt water or you know the sea water was un poluted .dont think you can "cook "out the contamination

 

[Tengu]

Are there any good guides to sea and seashore foods out there?

Im saying this because its a vast resource, it practicaly chucks food at you.

If I was ever in an extreeme long term survival situation Id head for the coast. I can understand how people such as the seal folk lived entirley off the sea and seldom left their remote island homes.

 

[chickenofthewoods]

The only thing I've found so far relates to US seashore foods, and is half basic guide, half recipe book. But there are enough similarities between species for it to still be of possible interest. It's a pdf file - so if you want to view/print it, look here:

http://www.asudoit.com/pdfs/sea_food_foraging_recipes.pdf#search

 

[Tor helge]

Poeople up her mostly live by the coast, but earlier it was not common to eat shellfish.
This could because the mussels very often are poisonous. Not because of "pollution", but algaes in the sea blooming in various times of year.
It is impossible to see if a mussel is poisonous.
Nowadays one could search the web and see information about poisonous shellfish. There are several test stations along the entire coast.

Cooking don`t make the poisonous shellfish edible.

It`s said in a viking age text that a man owning a strip of seashore with dulse, (palmaria palmata) "søl in norwegian", would never go hungry.
Dried dulse was used as food earlier.

Tor

 

[Galemys]

Timtom, here's a link to a great resource on seafood:
http://www.bushcraftuk.com/community/showthread.php?t=10520&highlight=seafood
I saw it once for sale here in Holland for 45 euro which was a bit too steep for me. But I did take a look inside the book and was impressed with the sheer volume and quality of information.
The book can be found a lot cheaper though:
http://www.bookfinder.com/search/?ac=sl&st=sl&qi=lSbfqnwyTmFjAW0.WHPx15nU4rw_6351393528_2:30:168

Hope this helps,

Tom

 

[dave k]

filter feeders are best gathered in autum and winter, as there is less algae blooms when it's cold, hence they are safer to eat.

I'm lucky in that I live near poole harbour - I've had razorclams, muscles, small clams and cockles that have been nice!

I think the government fisheries department has reports on where it is safe to colect seafood around the cost, but I don't have a link I'm afraid..

 

[bent-stick]

I used to live in Hunstanton on the Norfolk coast. I'd gather mussels and and paddle for cockles. The cockles were ok but I was advised to clean the mussels for a week in a bucket of clean water with a handful of sea salt and a tbsp flour. Change for clean every two days.

The real prizes were the stiffkey blues and we used to pick them up while we were canoeing in the mudflats around Cley.

Don't overlook the samphire either, that should be at it's peak for the next month.

 

[dave k]

I used to live in Hunstanton on the Norfolk coast. I'd gather mussels and and paddle for cockles. The cockles were ok but I was advised to clean the mussels for a week in a bucket of clean water with a handful of sea salt and a tbsp flour. Change for clean every two days.

The real prizes were the stiffkey blues and we used to pick them up while we were canoeing in the mudflats around Cley.

Don't overlook the samphire either, that should be at it's peak for the next month.

I've been told something similar with cockles - e.g. a bucket of water, handfull of salt and a handfull of porridge oats or similar.

I didn't do this with the razor clams that I had first time, and this probally explains why they were a bit gritty.

 

[sxmolloy]

I'm lucky in that I live near poole harbour

I used to go crab fishing there when on my hol's with my parents, great memories

 

[dave k]

I used to go crab fishing there when on my hol's with my parents, great memories

Yep - very nice area. Bit of a pain though that the average house price is over 300K

 

[locum76]

information is here...

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Environment/Water/15561/3710#anchor2

 

[hanzo]

Here in Hawaii, we eat most anything out of the ocean raw, marinated and raw, and cooked. Anything from fresh water we usually always cook well.

 

[timtom1]

sorry for the late replies guys, only just refound this post. I think it would be cleaner in North Wales, cheers I just ordered that book from amazon

I use to go crabbing a lot too

 

[dave038]

hey all. iv think if you just cook limpets in embers till they come free from the shell. guess its hard to say depens on heat of fire etc. dose any one know if the periwinkle is edible i have heard it is but havent seen anything in any book iv been able to get my hands on. cool site by the way!

 

[Feral]

The best way to do limpets is, clean them out of their shells then give them a good bash with something heavy and slice them thinly, a bit of oil in the pan cook them up, and they are great.