Mussels are the food
of kings; limpets are the
food of peasants.
Old Irish saying
There is evidence from ancient kitchen middens, or large rubbish heaps, around the city of Cork, of a thriving trade in oysters going back to the Stone Age, and the many oyster fairs held throughout the country celebrate a ritual going back to Ireland’s earliest settlers. Mussels have similarly been collected for food since ancient times, and the Murphy’s International Mussel Fair, held annually in Bantry Bay, celebrates the seafood’s long history. Although plentiful in Ireland, mussels are highly regarded in France, especially in the north-west, an area which has long links with Ireland. This is no better demonstrated than at the French Festival, held in July, which celebrates the long cultural links between Dun Laoghaire and Brest in France.
In 1734, a woman known as Molly Malone was buried in St John’s Churchyard, south-east of Dublin, at Blackrock. This is said to be the Molly of the famous rhyme, who wheeled her wheelbarrow through Dublin’s broad and narrow streets, selling cockles and mussels, ‘alive, alive-oh’. At the bottom of Grafton Street in Dublin, there is a statue of the voluptuous Molly, together with her well-stocked barrow.
Some of the best mussels in the whole of Ireland are found on the wild coasts of the west of the island, and these are now commercially packaged and exported around the world. The people of County Kildare swear by their local mussels, which come from Bannow Bay, and they buy them by weight in the local markets.
Ireland’s coastal waters provide ideal conditions in which clams thrive. To the west of Ireland are the deeps of the Atlantic Ocean, and to the east are the shallower waters of the Irish Sea. Around ten types of native clam are to be found in the seas around Ireland. Most of these are quite small, but the large hardshell clam has been introduced from its native North America into the waters around the south coast of Ireland. In Northern Ireland, the name for the soft-shelled clam – which is the largest of the local species found in Ireland – is Brallion. There are still many cocklers around Ireland’s sandy coasts, raking the flats for the sought-after clams and cockles.
The local fishermen around Derrynane harbour in County Kerry have an odd method of ensnaring the delicious razorfish, which bury themselves in the soft sand when the tide goes out. Razorfish have long, thin, sharp shells and usually have to be dug out of the sand with a pronged rake. In Derrynane, the locals sprinkle salt on the sand where small holes reveal the presence of razorfish. The intensity of the salt causes the shellfish to propel themselves out of their lairs, and they are caught as they leap into the air!
Ireland is famous for its oysters, and when Charles Dickens was writing about being ‘secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster’ in A Christmas Carol, they were the fare of the Victorian poor. Some of Ireland’s best and most succulent small oysters come from the areas of Kilcolgan in County Galway, from Galway Bay itself, Kenmare, Clarinbridge off the west coast, and Strangford Lough. A Pacific variety, known as gigas, is also available. Although it is traditional to eat Irish oysters raw with a drop of lemon juice and a thick slice of soda bread, all washed down with a favourite Irish stout, they can be grilled, steamed or sautéed. St Patrick’s Day, 17 March, falls conveniently in the middle of the local oyster season. Although a usual serving would be about six to eight oysters per person, Casanova is reputed to have consumed 50 oysters every morning! Whether that confirms their aphrodisiac qualities, you can decide for yourself. Freshly smoked or canned smoked oysters are also on sale in some fishmongers.
Dublin Bay prawns are also known as the Norway lobster. The reddish-orange or pink prawn has a body around 20 cm (8 inches) in length, with long, narrow, striped claws. Dublin Bay prawns do not change colour when cooked, unlike other crustaceans. This marine crustacean, the source of scampi, does not come from Dublin Bay at all, but is found in Atlantic waters. The name comes from the fact that the Dublin fishing fleet sailed into port with a quantity of these prawns mixed in with their catch. The fishermen would then distribute the prawns to itinerant street-vendors as they had no value in the fish markets, so the name came from the bay from where the street-vendors got their wares.
Lobsters are also a delicacy in Irish fish markets and are sold live and fresh, resplendent in their blue-black shells. Lobsters are quite expensive, however, which could be why the famous Irish lobster dish became known as Dublin Lawyer!
The shrimp found in the waters around Ireland are brown shrimp and are generally less than half the size of the smallest prawns. However, as with the prawns, shrimp are now highly valued in Ireland.
Although strictly speaking it should appear in the vegetables chapter, another Irish delicacy that feels more at home in a chapter about the sea is carragheen, the reddish seaweed which comes in two varieties: stack-house and sloke or slugane (Porphyra umbilicalis). Sloke is known as laver in Wales where they make the jellylike substance called laverbread. In the National Gallery in Dublin, there is evidence of the reverence that even the Irish aristocracy had for sloke, as one Georgian exhibit is a beautiful silver sloke pot with a long wooden handle. Another variety of this edible seaweed is called by its Latin name, Porphyra purpurae, which means ‘purple giant’. When cooked, this red-tinged seaweed turns a greenish colour. It is often used as a vegetable, or can be added fresh to salads. Sloke is usually sold already boiled for several hours, when it turns out as a dark-green mush. It is then usually cooked again in milk, then pressed to remove as much moisture as possible, making it somewhat like well-cooked spinach. After this, it is finely chopped, mixed or coated with oatmeal, and fried with bacon or in bacon fat until golden brown on both sides.
All seaweeds contain gelatinous agar-agar, a thickening agent used as a substitute for gelatine by vegetarians. Seaweeds will keep for years if dried and bleached, and are said to ease indigestion and aid sleep. Some seaweeds are used in Irish cooking for thickening fish stews and soups. They are usually bought dried, and must be washed and cleaned of grit before cooking. In County Donegal and on the shores of Ulster, another form of edible seaweed is known locally as dulse or dilisk, deriving its Latin name, Palmaria palmata, from its frond-like shape.