Welcome to the summary page for FabulousFusionFood's Wild Food guide to Bladderwrack along with all the Bladderwrack containing recipes presented on this site, with 9 recipes in total.

This is a continuation of an entire series of pages that will, I hope, allow my visitors to better navigate this site. As well as displaying recipes by name, country and region of origin I am now planning a whole series of pages where recipes can be located by meal type and main ingredient. This page gives a listing of all the Cornish recipes added to this site.

These recipes, all contain Bladderwrack as a major wild food ingredient.

Bladderwrack, Fucus vesiculosis (also known as black tany, bladder fucus, blasentang, bladder wrack rockweed, cutweed, dyer's fucus, fucus, fucus tips, kelp-ware, lady wrack, meeriche, popweed, Quercus marina, rockweed, red fucus, sea-ware, seatang, sea wrack, rock wrack, sea oak) is a large brown alga (and a member of the Fucaceae family [bladderwrack]). It grows grows profusely in a wide variety of situations from exposed rocky shores to saline lagoons. Most common on sheltered rocky substrata subject to some degree of disturbance such as from tidal scour. This seaweed is on the coasts of the North Sea, the western Baltic Sea, and the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Though technically a brown alga it can vary in colour from olive green through reddish brown to almost black and typically about 40cm in length (though fronds can grow up to 1m long). It is characterized by the small gas–filled vesicles which occur in pairs one on either side of a central midrib running along the centre of the strap-like frond. Typically it grows gregariously, forming dense mats of long ribbons up to 1m long and 5cm across. Down the centre of each ribbon is a midrib, on either side of which are the air-filled bladders which keep the alga floating up from its rocky anchorages.

The seaweed is commonly used as a food in Japan (though less so in Europe and America), however interest in this plant is growing, as, being a thyroid stimulant it might could counter obesity by increasing the metabolic rate. It is also known to help women with abnormal menstrual cycling patterns and/or menstrual-related disease histories. Typically it is stored dried and makes a very nutritious tea as well as being used in soups (particularly Japanese-style noodle soups) and can be added to any soup or stew as a flavouring. Indeed, it is added as a flavouring to a number of European food products. Bladderwrack can also be rendered as a powder and used as a flavouring additive to soups and stews.

Bladderwrack can sometimes be confused with the related species Ascophyllum nodosum which is similarly common on the shores of the British Isles but this has air vesicles that are arranged in series along a frond which is not flattened and without a midrib. So, if the air vesicles (bladders) are paired then you have bladderwrack.

For other edible seaweed (sea vegetables), see the guide to edible seaweed

References:

[1]. David Evans Notes from field observations, tastings and cookery experiments.
[2]. Huxley, A. The New RHS Dictionary of Gardening. 1992
[3]. Tanaka, T. Tanaka's Cyclopaedia of Edible Plants of the World.
[4]. Lim T.K. Edible Medicinal And Non-Medicinal Plants, Vols 1–8.
[5]. Thomas, G. S. Perennial Garden Plants
[6]. Milner, E. Trees of Britain and Ireland
[7]. Rose, F. & O'Reilly, C. The Wild Flower Key (Revised Edition) – How to identify wild plants, trees and shrubs in Britain and Ireland
[8]. Streeter, D. & Garrard, I. The Wild Flowers of the British Isles
[9]. Clapham, A.R.; Tutin, T.G. & Moore, D.M. Flora of the British Isles
[10]. Phillips, R. Mushrooms
[10]. Phillips, R. Mushrooms
[11]. Jordan, P. & Wheeler, S. The Complete Book of Mushrooms: An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Edible Mushrooms
[12]. Bunker, F.; Brodie, J.A.; Maggs, C.A. & Bunker, A. Seaweeds of Britain and Ireland.
[13]. Facciola, S. Cornucopia — A Source Book of Edible Plants