Red Dulse

Red Dulse, or Dillisk—Rhodymeniapalmata (Harvey's Atlas, Pl . XLI. Figs. 189 and 190). Another Seaweed, mostly eaten uncooked as a salad, no doubt with benefit to the general health.
At first sight, Harvey's Synopsis of British Seaweeds tells us, it will scarcely be supposed that the specimens selected for the illustration of this species belong to the same plant; and yet these figures by no means exhibit the extreme of variation; for there are varieties more simple than the one, and more finely divided than the other.
When such varieties are seen in a dried state in the herbarium, they appear so different that one may anticipate much difficulty in tracing the limits of the species. But on the shore, the collector experiences no such difficulty. If he has once seen and tasted a piece of Dulse, the characters, irrespective of form, are too well marked to allow of his puzzling himself with mere variations in outline; and, what is very remarkable, the broad and the slightly divided varieties may often be found growing side by side with the finely cut narrow ones.
In Ireland and Scotland, this plant is much used by the poor, as a relish with their food. It is commonly dried in its unwashed state, and eaten raw, the flavour being brought out by long chewing. On many parts of the west coast of Ireland, it forms the only addition to potatoes in the meals of the poorest class. The variety which grows on mussel-shells between tide-marks is preferred, being less tough than the other forms; and the minute mussel-shells and other small shell-fish which adhere to its folds are nowise unpleasing to the consumers of this simple luxury, who rather seem to enjoy the additional gout imparted by the crunched mussels. In the Mediterranean, this plant is used in a cooked form, entering into ragouts and made dishes; and it forms a chief ingredient in one of the soups recommended, under the name of St. Patrick's Soup, by M. Soyer to the Irish peasantry.


Wholesome fare: a sanitary cookbook, comprising the laws of food and the practice of cookery and embodying the best British and continental receipts with hints and useful suggestions for the sedentary, the sick, and the convalescent,Edmund S. Delamere, Ellen J. Delamere Crosby Lockwood, 1878, p.680.