Seaweeds in Traditional Nordic Cuisine

Although it would be expected that populations along the long coastlines of the Nordic countries use seaweeds as food, only Iceland has a historical record of using them in the human diet. In the age when Icelandic sagas were written, dating almost a thousand years back, a particular kind of red seaweed, dulse (Palmaria palmata, called søl in old Norse) was used as a snack, in soups, and in the classical Icelandic sour-milk product skyr. In particular, dried dulse with white spots on the surface (presumably exuded glutamate) was highly prized. Wild sources of dulse are still harvested in Iceland and enter a number of traditional and novel food products.