Home | Cookbooks | Diary | Magic Menu | Surprise! | More ≡

Samphire

Fruit and Vegetables

Marsh Samphire is an edible glasswort, Salicornia stricta, found in salt marshes and on beaches, while Rock samphire is Crithmum maritimum, a coastal species with white flowers. Both produce slender, fleshy stems which are boiled in plain water and served as an accompanying vegetable with butter and salt, the diner removing the succulent fleshy parts from the woody stalks with their teeth.


Samphire Photo: Barry Dale


Samphire takes its name from the fisherman Saint Peter, and is referred to in King Lear: "Half-way down, Hangs one that gathers samphire; dreadful trade!"

Gerard's Herbal of 1597, and other sources, refer to it as pickled with oil and vinegar as an accompaniment for meat.

The huge pile of chalk dug to create the Channel Tunnel, deposited near the White cliffs of Dover is known as Samphire Hoe.

See:
Brancaster Salad
Pickled Samphire
Salad All-Sorts
Samphire



Bolton Market, 2013







MORE FROM Foods of England...
Cookbooks Diary Index Magic Menu Random Really English? Timeline Donate English Service Food Map of England Lost Foods Accompaniments Biscuits Breads Cakes and Scones Cheeses Classic Meals Curry Dishes Dairy Drinks Egg Dishes Fish Fruit Fruits & Vegetables Game & Offal Meat & Meat Dishes Pastries and Pies Pot Meals Poultry Preserves & Jams Puddings & Sweets Sauces and Spicery Sausages Scones Soups Sweets and Toffee About ... Bookshop

Email: editor@foodsofengland.co.uk


COPYRIGHT and ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: © Glyn Hughes 2022
BUILT WITH WHIMBERRY