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Cod Head Terrine & Carrageen Tea

We promised you the recipes of the cod head terrine and the carrageen tea that we offered at our official launch in October 2019. So here you go!

The cod head terrine that @NiallSabongi so beautifully re-imagined was originally a recipes from 1702 written by Mrs Jane Bury as part of the Townley Hall Papers. It can be found in the National Library Ireland under the reference Ms 9563. The two images you see here is the handwritten recipe which reads as follows:

"To boyle a cod's head When the watter boyles put ye fish having put in a hand full of salt and a pint of vingear in the watter you boyle it in. Let it not boyle too fast, 3 quarters of an hour will boyle it, if it be a piece of cod boyle the pease with it and when they are hard cut it in thin slices flower it & fry it till it browns. Then take up ye fish & draine it very well from the water and lay it in ye Dish then take a little wine, whole pepers, mace and cloves some horse Radish scraped. Two anchovies a shallot small cut, a pint of oysters, a pint of cockles with the liquor of the oysters and let them stew till they are almost dry, then put them to your butter very thick drawn pour all over your fish with a lemon slicet and the peas all laid in the dish and soe it and some fried oysters."

Niall tried a few variations on this until he was satisfied with the following recipe:

Cod Head Terrine

Ingredients

3 cod heads
2 leaves of Gelatine
1/2 teaspoon chopped Tarragon
some parsley & Chives
1/2 teaspoon ground White Pepper
Salt
3 Tablespoons Wholegrain Mustard

Method

Place the cod heads into a large pot of salted water
Bring to the boil. Turn down to a simmer for approx. 30 mins until meat comes from bone
Remove the heads and reduce the liquid by half
When slightly cooled, pick the meat from the cod heads, being careful to avoid any small bones, gills or eyeballs
Measure 500ml of the reduced stock and add the bloomed gelatine. Add to the meat along with the herbs and seasoning
Place into a lined tray and press in the fridge overnight

To Serve

Portion with a very sharp knife and serve with toasted bread & pickles.

Carrageen Tea

Carrageen or Irish Moss (Irish Gaeilge carraigín meaning 'little rock') is traditionally used as a remedy for coughs and colds and as a thickener in milk products such as desert puddings. The red alga Chondrus crispsus can be found all around the Irish shore on rocks from the middle intertidal zone into the subtidal zone.

We found quite a few variations on the tea and the pudding alike in the historical sources. Here we'll give you the best and most straight forward recipe with the right measures for a good tea consistency from the Wild Irish Seaweed website by the Talty Family. Note: You can make more tea all at once if you like as it keeps for a couple of days and even longer if you keep it chilled.