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Potted Woodlice

Potted Woodlice is a modern British recipe for a classic Victorian-inspired preserve of woodlice in lightly-spiced butter. The full recipe is presented here and I hope you enjoy this classic British version of: Potted Woodlice.

prep time

20 minutes

cook time

10 minutes

Total Time:

30 minutes

Additional Time:

(+30 minutes setting)

Serves:

1

Rating:

Tags : Spice RecipesBritish Recipes

Potting was largely a Victorian method for preserving meats and seafood by coating in butter and using the resultant product as a spread. As woodlice are crustaceans (related to prawns and crabs) that look a little like ammonites I decided to have a go and see how potting them would work. Now, I've eaten woodlice before, both simply fried and cooked in an omelette, so it was interesting to see how this twist on a classic Victorian recipe would work. You can collect woodlice from anywhere dark and slightly damp: such as under plant pots, in woodpiles and beneath rotten bark. I used to grab them between thumb and forefinger but that can get fiddly. These days I use one of those little battery-powdered keyboard vacuums to hoover them up. Try to select only the larger ones.

Ingredients:

25g of woodlice
50g of salted butter
pinch of finely-chopped lemon zest
pinch of freshly-grated of nutmeg
pinch of cayenne pepper
Twist of freshly-ground black pepper

Method:

Remove any grit and debris from the woodlice by shaking them in a sieve. Once clean, drop into salted boiling water and blanch for 2 minutes. Drain and set aside to cool.

Slowly melt the butter in a pan and add the lemon zest, nutmeg, cayenne pepper and black pepper followed by the woodlice. Pour the mixture into a small ramekin, allow to cool then and place in the refrigerator until set (30 mins).

Serve accompanied by toast.