Dulse, also red algae or Lappentang is a pretty and tasty red algae that grows along the northern coasts of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

The use of dulse seaweed as food was first mentioned in writing 1400 years ago by an Irish monk. Today, lobe kelp is harvested and eaten primarily in Ireland, Iceland, and the Atlantic coasts of Canada and the United States. Lappentang has become increasingly popular since the books of Anthony William. These strips are not suitable for the blender - rather use the flakes.

Lappentang at a glance

Lappentang in use

What does dulse taste like? What does dulse smell like?

Lappentang tastes salty (the white secretions are salt!) and slightly nutty.

Our ragweed is not dried bone-hard, as is customary in Ireland, but only enough to preserve it. (One customer described it as "tobacco moist.") This keeps the seaweed tender and ready to be nibbled right out of the bag.

Sometimes dulse smells a bit more strongly of the sea, sometimes less so. As a minimally processed natural product, the algae is subject to natural variations. If you want to minimize the smell, you can simply store the dulse for a bit with the bag open. Below we write more about how to store the alga.

How can I eat dulse?

First of all, there is no need to wash dulse. In fact, we prefer it 'dry', straight from the bag.

The longish leaves of dulse can be peeled off and torn into thin, smaller pieces. Dulse can be enjoyed as a snack. Try a thin strip at first.

The mixture of fruit and lobe dulse is unusual but delicious, e.g. as a wrapping for a dried apricot and a walnut. Dried fruit and nuts can be substituted as desired. Dates, almonds, Brazil nuts, raisins ... whatever you have at home.

You can also fry dulse in a pan to make crispy chips.

Dulse tastes good in salads as well as with potatoes and pasta. In soups and similar dishes, dulse enhances the flavor of the other ingredients.

Lobe dulse is also suitable as an ingredient in baking, e.g. for a hearty bread. This is similar to the so-called Laver bread, a Wallisian specialty prepared with nori. In Iceland, people eat butter with laver. In Ireland, dulse used to be served with beer.

More recipes can be found here: https://brunnen.eichenhain.com/tag/dulse/

How do I store dulse?

Dulse should not be stored in the refrigerator. There are two ways to store dulse, depending on what you want to achieve with it:

- If you want to keep it "fresh" as it comes out of the bag, then you can store it just like that in the bag. It will dry out very slowly because the bag is not quite as airtight after opening as it was when it came in. So it will keep at least according to the best before date and actually forever, because it will dry out more and more.

- If you want to dry the dulse a little more (and thus, for example, reduce the smell), you can loosen the algae (the strands stick together) and store with the bag open. It will dry quite quickly and is then actually practically indefinitely durable.

Tip: Seaweed dries quickly. However, you can refresh the sea vegetable very easily: Moisten the dulse with a plant sprayer or simply sprinkle it a bit with water. Then shake them in a bag to distribute the water evenly and let them stand for at least 20 minutes.

How much iodine is in the algae?

It is very difficult to give an exact figure for the iodine content per 100g because it can vary extremely. Our dulse is a wild harvested natural product. The amount of iodine depends on the place of harvest, the time of harvest, the season, environmental factors, etc. The drying, storage and preparation of dulse also affects the iodine content.

By the way, here we have written something about iodine loss during cooking: https://brunnen.eichenhain.com/wieviel-jod-verlieren-algen-beim-kochen/

And, if you still want a number, there the study talks about 97 micrograms of iodine per gram of dry dulse.

What else should I know about algae and lobe kelp?

Lobe kelp is a natural product. Depending on the time of harvest (season), it will have a different color or texture. Sometimes it will be very tender and salty, sometimes more bite-like. Every now and then you will find (larger) shellfish among the leaves.

White spots on the rag kelp that look like mold are just sea salt.

The kelp dries out over time. And in the process, salt is secreted. The salt looks like mold, but it is not. When we started with seaweed, we asked the same question. We turned to Manus, our algae harvester with umpteen years of experience. He explained everything to us - and now we pass this knowledge on to you.

You can also easily test it yourself by placing a strip in water. The strip will no longer have a white coating after absorbing the water. With mold, there would still be a coating. But not with salt. In addition, mold stinks.

If you taste the rag kelp, you will notice that it tastes quite salty. Because it is so salty and well dried (but not so dried that it is no longer tender), we have had fewer cases of mold in now over 10 years than you could count on one hand.

p.s. On a product picture you can see the good Manus harvesting. :-)