The Ultimate Limpet Recipe - UK Coastal Foraging

What's the best way to cook limpets? Join me for a bit of outdoor cooking as I show you how to make this delicious Portuguese inspired Limpet recipe (Lapas).
#foraging #wildfood #coastalforaging
Food For Free - Richard Mabey
www.amazon.co.uk/Food-Free-Co...
The Forager's Calendar - John Wright
www.amazon.co.uk/Foragers-Cal...
Some amazing foraging channels:
Wild Food UK
/ wildfooduk1
Coastal Foraging With Craig Evans
/ @coastalforagingwithcr...
Vincent Petit (Amazing videos)
/ @vincentpetit2109

[@Rydonattelo]

Where I live in Scotland there is enough limpets that I could live as a wild man. If I ever do choose to finally go full off-grid then I could do this 👍🏽🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

[@wolverines3968]

Remember that they are filter feeders and the r rule

[@dritslem4711]

​@@wolverines3968They are not. They are snails and scrape food off rocks.

[@robokill387]

You're confusing them with barnacles.

[@anylogwotem373]

Another lovely video as always, thanks! :)

[@Fieldstudy_]

Glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for watching 😊

[@K9_crypto]

Great video 👍

[@Fieldstudy_]

Thankyou! Been working on a few more limpet recipes lately, might do another video soon

[@squeento]

In Hawaii we usually eat them raw. If they are large like a clam we cook it on the barbecue. Lovely video 🙏🤙🤙🤙

[@Fieldstudy_]

Definitely going to have to try them raw!

[@93bencomo]

Limpets are very popular in Canary Islands too, roasted with a typical sauce of coriander, garlic and olive oil called mojo. When I lived in Scotland a few years ago, I was surprised that there were so many of them and no one used them for cooking. In the Canaries, its capture is very restricted and regulated by overfishing.

[@Fieldstudy_]

Oooooh wonderful, I might have to make some mojo this week - it sounds fantastic!

[@TheArtisticGardener777]

I’m on the east coast of the US, and limpets don’t seem to “be a thing” here. Lol. The thing is, though, I’ve found them camping at the beach clinging to washed up dead horseshoe crabs. I gathered a bunch and cooked them on a piece of cedar wood I found over the campfire, and they were fabulous! Very nice, salty, seafood flavor! Now, when I go to the beach, I’m always checking for washed up dead horseshoe crabs😊

[@Fieldstudy_]

Oh cool! Sounds delicious - I bet you have plenty of other seafood to choose from though. Do the horseshoe crabs make good eating?

[@TheArtisticGardener777]

@@Fieldstudy_ ha ha! No, you wouldn’t want to eat the horseshoe crab…it’s alien looking and very prehistoric. But yes, we have lots of other wonderful seafood to forage for…clams, blue crab, oysters, fish, etc. we usually pair that with steak and cold beer!😊👍

[@Fieldstudy_]

Sounds perfect, blue crab and a few cold beers sounds like heaven to me 🦀

[@user-ft9tf5tw6l]

limpets aka opihi in Hawaii are super popular and expensive here. They are hard to get at and it's common to hear of people being swept out to sea in their search for them. So take care and don't turn you back to the ocean

[@allentheobold8133]

Need to try this. One question, do you eat the guts too? Saw some other videos saying to scrape it off

[@hurleycapetown8420]

Never tried a limpets but i love shellfish so sure i would enjoy them,im from Cape town its the cold atlantic so im sure i could find some.

[@Fieldstudy_]

Oh wow, there must be plenty of delicious shellfish near you! What’s your favourite thing to eat?

[@hurleycapetown8420]

@@Fieldstudy_ Mussels for sure,you can drive up the coast here to the fishing towns and get a pot of freshly caught and cooked mussels dirt cheap(Probably about £10-£15 for enough for 2-3 people) and they are delicious,great thing to do on a sunday with a bottle of wine,the wine is cheap and amazing too 😁

[@Fieldstudy_]

@@hurleycapetown8420 Sounds like a dream 👌🏻

[@MotoHikes]

I tried limpets once when I was park ranger in North Wales. I must have overcooked the hell out of them because it was like eating a car tire. Also the guts in the tip of the shell caught me off guard. Didn't eat it though, thankfully! Will have to give them another go using this method

[@Fieldstudy_]

Oh no! Yeah there is a really fine line between delicious and giving yourself jawache - very easy to overcook 🔥

[@robingraham6820]

I tried limpets a few years ago. Not a great success. Rubbery. Probably overcooked them. They also had a sandy, gritty texture, maybe I ate the guts too. I did survive, so will keep trying until I get it right. So much free forrage out there if my wife would let me.🥺

[@antoniacarlton8004]

Yum! Looks incredible. Do you know if there’s any dangers with water quality or seasonal difference with limpets? I’ve always worried about them taking on unwanted pollutants, especially as I live in Kent and there’s been some concerns about pollution. Also if they are safer when it’s colder? Maybe a silly question, I would love to try this! 😊

[@Fieldstudy_]

So unlike its bivalve cousins, the limpet gets its food by scraping algae off of the rocks rather than filtering it from seawater which makes it less likely to build up toxic algae if you have a bloom in your area in the summer months. However, with most shellfish I always stick to the old saying about months ending in 'R' and only eat them from autumn to around April. Better to be safe than sorry :) I'd advise to do some research on water quality near you as well, whilst the UK environment agency do monitor pollution in the water it tends to only be in the summer months for some reason. So the best thing to do is head over to the Surfers Against Sewage website and have a look on their interactive map. They do amazing work and monitor the water companies to alert the public when there has been a discharge of something nasty into the water www.sas.org.uk/map/

[@antoniacarlton8004]

@@Fieldstudy_ Hey :) Thank you for taking the time to reply! I feel a lot more confident trying limpets out now. Some very thoughtful and thorough advice/ information/ resources. Excited to give them a try for the first time.

[@jonfisher9214]

I forage a lot along the East Sussex coast and never had a problem with limpets. Periwinkles are another safer option as they graze algae too. You'll need a winkle picking pin. It's an art in itself to get them out of their shell.

[@antoniacarlton8004]

@@jonfisher9214 Hello Jon! Thank you for the advice and sharing your experience :) I am very excited to say that this afternoon I went on a limpet wild cooking time with myself, had my first limpets and they were absolutely lovely! I’d love to see if I can get the knack of the pin for the periwinkles! Happy foraging.

[@maxsootie10]

Are they tender

[@DevonBadman]

Where did you get the twig stove from? And, most importantly, can you make a cuppa on it?

[@Fieldstudy_]

The stove is called the Bushbox XL, super handy because it folds down flat! So you can make a brew anywhere you like 🫖☕️

[@geoffbenoy2052]

I can easily eat a bucket of them! Also raw these are delicious! But are you allowed to fetch them in the UK!?

[@Fieldstudy_]

Yeah! As far as I’m aware there is no issue with collecting limpets in the UK. Obviously sustainable foraging is the only way, limpets are slow growing so people shouldn’t just graze entire colonies off the rocks (but that goes without saying really) Thanks for watching and I hope you’re having a good week!

[@simeon24]

@@Fieldstudy_Hi, nice video. I want to disagree with you that sustainable harvesting is a given fact that goes without saying. Your video might reach new, enthusiastic audiences who don’t have any background in wild harvesting. Respectfully, if you are presenting the limpet as a food source, I think it is also your responsibility to articulate the slow growing nature of the limpet and best practices when it comes to harvest quantity. You’ve put yourself in the position to be able to inform them, so don’t leave it out. People don’t know what they don’t know. Thanks

[@jonwallace7015]

They are ok just boiled in wine

[@aabbushcraft]

Do you not remove the black sack from them ?

[@Fieldstudy_]

Personally I don’t remove it, but it’s all down to personal choice. In Portugal they eat the sack affectionately called the ‘liver’ much like you would with abalone. Obviously I would make sure you’re picking from a clean and unpolluted marine environment and make sure it’s cooked correctly. Part of me wonders if that is one of the reasons why they cook them upside down? Applying direct heat to the liver whilst not overcooking the muscle

[@aabbushcraft]

@@Fieldstudy_ Thank you for replying so quickly, I am going through your backlog of videos 👍

[@ruperttristanblythe7512]

What about the limpet?

[@fiveleavesleft6521]

Interesting, but I thought you were only supposed to eat the pad bit that clings to the rocks and discard the guts underneath?

[@Fieldstudy_]

The jury is out on that one, the general consensus when you read the literature in survival books is that you should only eat the foot and discard the guts. Which is sound advise! However, if you look at the cultures that still eat limpets many of them eat the whole thing. Just like with abalone the ‘liver’ is considered a delicacy. I think it all comes down to personal preference and you should be 100% sure that the place you are collecting the limpets is unpolluted and free to f toxic algae before considering eating it in its entirety ☺️

[@fiveleavesleft6521]

@@Fieldstudy_ Thanks man that's great to know. I've often shied away from eating them as I couldn't be bothered with the hassle of cleaning out the guts, but I'll definitely be looking to give them a go now! Subscribed.

[@Fieldstudy_]

To be fair the gut sack is pretty easy to pull off when it’s cooked, I’ve often wondered whether the Portuguese cook the limpets upside down like this so direct heat is applied to the guts to thoroughly cook them. Also, that way the meat doesn’t get direct heat applied to it so doesn’t toughen up and become chewy as quickly 🤷‍♂️

[@Lynt144]

What's your method of freeing them off the rocks?

[@Fieldstudy_]

Depends entirely on how prepared I am 😂 sometimes sneaking up and a quick tap with a rock is effective, but I’ve also had good success using a decorators knife or scraper

[@Rydonattelo]

I just use the heel of my boot. Like if you were back-heeling a football. Couple of them. 👍🏽

[@spacejihadist4246]

Another rock.

[@spacejihadist4246]

Another rock.

[@wolfenstein6676]

I''m watching your videos and I'm thinking, "Who does this bloke remind me of, his face is familiar?". Then it dawned on me, you look a lot like a young Colin Abrahall, the lead singer of legendary punk rock band, "GBH" :) . Type "Colin" "GBH" "punk" into your internet browser and hit the 'enter' key and you'll see yourself with spikey blonde hair :) .

[@Fieldstudy_]

Haha amazing! I actually had a similar haircut at one point in my teens, back in my leather jacket/ tartan trouser phase 😂

[@wolfenstein6676]

@@Fieldstudy_ haha! I'm guilty of wearing that same combo back in the day, mate :) .

[@ilovemalechickens]

Don't you remove the guts?