Title: Boiled Sea-Slugs Part 2
Categories: Amerind Fish
Yield: 1 Servings

(Cooking sea-slugs)

When they are all in, she carries her basket of sea-slugs up the beach and takes it into the house. Then she takes a large low steaming box and pours some fresh water into it. When it is half full, she takes the basket of sea-slugs and pours them into the water in the box. She leaves them there for two nights with the water over them. They are ready to be boiled.

The man takes the kettle for boiling sea-slugs and pours water into it until it is half full. He puts it over the fire; and when the kettle for boiling sea-slugs is on the fire with the sea-slugs in it, he goes into the woods and breaks off hemlock-branches. He carries these back and puts them down where the sea-slugs are boiling in the kettle. After he has done so, he takes the low steaming-box in which the sea-slugs are, and places it by the side of the fire, and also the tongs. When the water begins to boil, his wife takes one of the sea-slugs and squeezes the body so that the liquid comes out from the inside.

Then she puts it in the boiling water. Her husband stirs it with the tongs. The woman squeezes out the whole number of sea-slugs; and when they are all in the kettle, the man continues to stir them. When the water begins to boil, the man picks up handfuls of dirt from the floor of the house and throws it into the boiling water. Then it stops boiling over, for the water of the sea-slugs almost always boils over, and only the dirt from the floor of the house stops the boiling-over.

The man tries to take hold of one of them with the tongs; and when he succeeds in taking one, it is done. The skin gets rough when it is done. The (sea-slugs) are slippery when they are raw, and he can not get hold of them with his tongs. When they are done, he takes off the fire the kettle for cooking sea-slugs. He takes a large dish and puts it by the side of the kettle. He pours some water into it; and when it is more than half full of water, he takes the tongs, lifts up the sea-slugs, and puts them into the dish for washing the boiled slugs. As soon as they are all in, the man sits down by its side and washes them, they being stiff.

previous

next