Laver (seaweed)

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Laver (seaweed)

Laver is an edible

Eating

In general terms, eating is the process of consuming food to provide for the nutritional needs of an animal, particularly their food energy requirements and to growth....
seaweed

Seaweed

Seaweed is a loose colloquial term encompassing macroscopic, multicellular, benthos ocean algae. The term includes some members of the rhodophyta, phycophyta and green algae....
that has a high mineral salt content, particularly iodine

Iodine

Iodine , is a chemical element that has the symbol I and atomic number 53. Naturally-occurring iodine is a single isotope with 74 neutrons....
and iron

Iron

Iron is a chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. Iron is a Group 8 element and period 4 element. Iron is lustrous and silvery in color....
. It is used for making laverbread, a traditional Welsh dish. Laver is common around the west coast of Britain

Great Britain

Great Britain is an island lying to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the List of islands by area, and the largest in Europe. With a population of 58.9 million people it is List of islands by population....
and east coast of Ireland

Ireland

Ireland is the List of islands by area in Europe, and the twentieth-largest island in the world. It lies to the north-west of continental Europe and is surrounded by hundreds of islands and islet....
along the Irish Sea

Irish Sea

The Irish Sea also known as the Mann Sea or Manx Sea, separates the islands of Ireland and Great Britain. It is connected to the Celtic Sea portion of the Atlantic Ocean by St George's Channel between Republic of Ireland and Wales, and to the north by the North Channel between Northern Ireland and Scotland which forms part of...
. Laver is unique among seaweeds because it is only one cell thick. It is smooth and fine, often clinging to rocks. The principal variety is purple laver

Porphyra

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Encyclopedia

Laver is an edible

Eating

In general terms, eating is the process of consuming food to provide for the nutritional needs of an animal, particularly their food energy requirements and to growth....
seaweed

Seaweed

Iodine

Iodine , is a chemical element that has the symbol I and atomic number 53. Naturally-occurring iodine is a single isotope with 74 neutrons....
and iron

Iron

Great Britain

Ireland

Irish Sea

Porphyra

Porphyra is a foliose red algal genus of Laver , comprising approximately 70 species. It grows in the intertidal, typically between the upper intertidal to the splash zone....
(Porphyra laciniata/Porphyra umbilicalis). This tends to be a brownish colour, but boils down to a dark green pulp when prepared. The high iodine content gives the seaweed a distinctive flavour in common with olive

Olive

The Olive is a species of small tree in the family Oleaceae, native to the coastal areas of the eastern Mediterranean region, from Lebanon, Syria and the maritime parts of Turkey and northern Iran at the south end of the Caspian Sea....
s and oyster

Oyster

The common name oyster is used for a number of different groups of bivalve mollusks, most of which live in marine habitats or brackish water....
s.

Ulva lactuca

Ulva lactuca

Ulva lactuca Linnaeus, a green alga in the Division Chlorophyta, is the type species of the genus Sea Lettuce, also known by the common name sea lettuce....
, also known as Sea lettuce

Sea lettuce

The sea lettuces comprise the genus Ulva, a group of edible green algae widely distributed along the coasts of the world's oceans.The many species of sea lettuce are a popular food in many of the places where they grow, including Scandinavia, Great Britain, Ireland, China, and Japan ....
, is occasionally eaten as green laver, which is regarded as inferior to the purple laver.

Laver is sometimes also known as "slake".

Cultivation

Laver cultivation as food is thought to be very ancient, though the first mention was in Camden’s Britannica in the early 17th century. It is plucked from the rocks and given a preliminary rinse in clear water. The collected laver is repeatedly washed to remove sand and boiled for hours until it becomes a stiff green mush. In this state the laver can be preserved for about a week. Typically during the 18th century the mush was packed into a crock

Crock (dishware)

A crock is a pottery container sometimes used for food and water, synonymous with the word pot, and sometimes used for chemicals. Derivative terms include crockery and crock-pot....
and sold as "Potted laver".

Cultivation of laver is typically associated with Wales

Wales

native_name = Cymru|conventional_long_name = Wales|common_name = Wales|image_flag = Flag of Wales 2.svg|national_motto = ...
, and is still gathered off the Pembroke

Pembroke

Pembroke is a name used for the following:...
coast, although similar farming methods are used in west coast of Scotland

Scotland

conventional_long_name = ScotlandAlba|common_name= Scotland|image_flag = Flag of Scotland.svg|flag_width = 130px...
.

Laver can be eaten cold as a salad

Salad

Salad is a mixture of cold or hot foods, usually including vegetables and/or fruits, often with a dressing, occasionally nuts or croutons, and sometimes with the addition of meat, fish, pasta, cheese, eggs, or whole grains....
with lamb or mutton. A simple preparation is to heat the laver and to add butter and the juice of a lemon

Lemon

The lemon is the common name for Citrus limon. The reproductive tissue surrounds the seed of the angiosperm lemon tree. The lemon is used for culinary and nonculinary purposes throughout the world....
or Seville orange

Bitter orange

The name "bitter orange" refers to a citrus tree and its fruit. Many varieties of bitter oranges are used for their essential oil, which is used in perfume and as a flavoring....
. Laver can be heated and served with boiled bacon

Bacon

Bacon is a cut of meat taken from the sides, belly, or back of a pig, then Curing , Smoking , or both. Meat from other animals, such as beef, Lamb and mutton, chicken, goat, or turkey , may also be cut, cured, or otherwise prepared to resemble bacon....
. It is used to make the Welsh dish known as laverbread, which can be eaten with or without oatmeal.

Laverbread

Laverbread is a traditional Welsh

Wales

native_name = Cymru|conventional_long_name = Wales|common_name = Wales|image_flag = Flag of Wales 2.svg|national_motto = ...
delicacy made from laver. Laver is often associated with Penclawdd

Penclawdd

Penclawdd is a village which is situated in the north of the Gower peninsula in Swansea, Wales. It falls within the Penclawdd It is one of the larger villages on the Gower peninsula....
and its cockles, being used traditionally in the Welsh diet and is still eaten widely across Wales in the form of laverbread. To make laverbread, the seaweed is boiled for several hours then minced or puree

Purée

Pur?e and mash are general terms for food, usually vegetables or legumes, that have been ground, pressed, and/or strainer to the consistency of a soft paste or thick liquid....
d. The gelatinous paste that results can then be sold as it is, or rolled in oatmeal

Oatmeal

Oatmeal is a product of ground oat groats or a porridge made from this product . The term, 'oatmeal' can refer also to other products made from oat groats, such as steel-cut oats, crushed oats, and rolled oats....
.

Laverbread is traditionally eaten fried with bacon and cockle

Cockle

Cockle may refer to:* Cockle * Lolium temulentum* Berwick cockles, a confectionery from Scotland* The phrase 'warm the cockles of one's heart' refers to the Ventricle s of the heart ...
s for breakfast. It can also be used to make a sauce

Sauce

In cooking, a sauce is liquid or sometimes semi-solid food served on or used in preparing other foods. Sauces are not normally consumed by themselves; they add flavor, moisture, and visual appeal to another dish....
to accompany lamb, crab, monkfish

Monkfish

Monkfish is the English name of a number of types of fish in the northwest Atlantic, most notably the species of the anglerfish genus Lophius and the angelshark genus Squatina....
, etc, and to make laver soup (Welsh: Cawl Lafwr). Richard Burton

Richard Burton

Richard Burton, Order of the British Empire was a multi award-winning Wales actor. He was at one time the highest-paid actor in Hollywood....
has been attributed as describing laverbread as "Welshman's caviar

Caviar

Caviar is the Food processing, salted roe of certain species of fish, most notably the sturgeon and the salmon . It is commercially marketed worldwide as a delicacy and is eaten as a garnish or a spread; for example, with hors d'?uvres....
".

Swansea Market

Swansea Market

Swansea Market situated in the heart of Swansea city centre is the largest indoor market in Wales. The market is covered by a steel arched portal frame roof clad in steel and glass....
has several stalls selling only laverbread and cockles from the nearby Gower peninsula

Gower Peninsula

The Gower Peninsula is a peninsula on the south coast of Wales, on the north side of the Bristol Channel in the southwest of the Historic counties of Wales of Glamorgan....
. The source of the seaweed used to make laverbread was historically the Gower coastline. There are still small producers of Gower laverbread, though it is now mainly along the Pembroke

Pembroke

Pembroke is a name used for the following:...
coast.

In addition to Wales, laverbread is eaten across the Bristol Channel

Bristol Channel

The Bristol Channel is a major inlet in the island of Great Britain, separating South Wales from Devon and Somerset in South West England, and extending from the lower Severn Estuary of the River Severn to that part of the North Atlantic Ocean known as the Celtic Sea ....
in North Devon

North Devon

North Devon is a Non-metropolitan district in Devon, England. Its council is based in Barnstaple. Other towns and villages in the North Devon district include Braunton, Fremington, Devon, Ilfracombe, Instow, South Molton, Lynton and Lynmouth....
, especially around the Exmoor

Exmoor

Exmoor is a National Parks of England and Wales situated on the Bristol Channel coast of South West England England. The park straddles two counties, with 71% of the park located in Somerset and 29% located in Devon....
coast around Lynmouth

Lynmouth

Lynmouth is a village in Devon, England, on the north edge of Exmoor.The village straddles the confluence of the West Lyn River and East Lyn River rivers, in a gorge below Lynton, to which it is connected by the Lynton and Lynmouth Cliff Railway....
and Combe Martin

Combe Martin

Combe Martin is a village in Devon, England....
.

Laver is highly nutritious because of its high proportions of protein

Protein

Proteins are organic compounds made of amino acids arranged in a linear chain and joined together by peptide bonds between the carboxyl and amino groups of adjacent amino acid Residue ....
, iron

Iron

Iron is a chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. Iron is a Group 8 element and period 4 element. Iron is lustrous and silvery in color....
, and especially iodine

Iodine

Iodine , is a chemical element that has the symbol I and atomic number 53. Naturally-occurring iodine is a single isotope with 74 neutrons....
. It also contains high levels of vitamin

Vitamin

A vitamin is an organic compound required as a nutrient in tiny amounts by an organism. A compound is called a vitamin when it cannot be biosynthesis in sufficient quantities by an organism, and must be obtained from the diet....
s B2, A

Vitamin A

Vitamin A, a bi-polar molecule formed with bi-polar covalent bonds between carbon and hydrogen, is linked to a family of similarly shaped molecules, the retinoids, which complete the remainder of the vitamin sequence....
, D

Vitamin D

Vitamin D is a group of fat-soluble prohormones, the two major forms of which are vitamin D2 and vitamin D3 . The term vitamin D also refers to metabolites and other analogues of these substances....
and C

Vitamin C

Vitamin C or ascorbic acid is an essential nutrient for humans, a large number of simian species, a small number of other mammalian species , a few species of birds, and some fish....
.

Laver (seaweed)

Cultivation

Laverbread

See also

Bibliography

External links