My Mum used to love it, when we visited my gran in Leigh on sea , if she could have a paper cup of cockles to enjoy as she looked out over the water. I remembered that last week, when I called on my 90 year old neighbour. "I had a lovely treat for lunch - my daughter brought me a jar of cockles. I enjoyed them with bread and butter". It hadn't occured to me that people outside of Essex ate them in jars. I've only ever known people buying them fresh, by the sea
He grimaced and said not at all. Chewy, slimy things, rubbery...like eating snails. I said "Barbara gets hers in a jar from Morrisons. And it is such a charming little jar."
He looked at me sternly. "Ang, a fancy jar is no justification whatsoever for buying Snot-in-a-Pot!"
Well that retort definitely concluded our discussion of Molly Malone's Molluscs.
[RIP Sinead]
I shall ignore Bob. I buy them from the fishmonger on the market and I'm a Lincolnshire Lass. I ate them with bread and butter from childhood, like your friend. I tried the bottled ones just once.
ReplyDeleteSeaside visits were for prawns bought with the heads and tails still on. Pulling the bits off made the treat last longer.
I would imagine that fresh ones taste very different to bottled ones. Is it a generational thing though - I don't know of any friends under 50 who like cockles!
DeleteI'm with Bob!
ReplyDelete👍☺️
Delete'Snot in a shell' has been the family name for oysters. Lesley
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DeleteOur name for the taste of oysters is "snot in sea water". As you can guess, we don't much like them! Love FD xx
DeleteMy Dads last Army posting was in Colchester, and any sunny weekend we went to Clacton or Walton . And had cockles. And every weekend that we went, without fail, I would spend the evening vomiting . One particular Sunday morning I was admitted to hospital and put on a drip - I was about 10- and a very overworked junior Doctor , having taken my history , asked me why on earth was I eating cockles when I clearly had a serious allergy to shellfish ……..
ReplyDeleteSo I too would mow side with Bob -
But the jar is very pretty xx
What an awful way to find out about your allergy. But at least now you know, you an avoid them (And God bless the NHS)
DeleteI am with Bob. I never liked cockles. My mum likes jellied eels, gives me the creeps just thinking about it!
ReplyDeleteI did eat smoked eels at a posh wedding once. They were OK (ish) but I don't fancy jellied ones
DeleteMy father, back in the late 1950s beginning of the 60s, used to bring back little packets of smoked eel from Fortnums and Mason (he worked near there for a while) as a treat for my mother because she missed them so much. It was quite a common food in the Netherlands where she grew up. Of course we loved them then becauseshe did. I don't know about now!
DeleteI am sure that your Dutch heritage (like Bob's Belgian background) had given you a wider "eating experience" in childhood.
DeleteI'm with Bob on Cockles!
ReplyDeleteWe're of very mixed opinions in my family.
My mum ate Shrimps, Prawns, Crab and Lobster, but nothing she called 'slimy'!
Dad loved any seafood, and we spent many happy hours picking Winkles off the rocks at low tide, taking them home to be cleaned and boiled, then Dad would flick the hard disc off with a pin, and hook the flesh out!
I eat Shrimps, Prawns, Crab, Lobster and Mussels, son eats Crab and Prawns, daughter-in-law will eat any seafood, including Squid and Octopus (yuck) but not Whelks, and our grandson loves Mussels, which he's been eating since he was twelve months old, my husband doesn't eat shellfish at all!
I live (and always have) just a few miles from Parkgate in Cheshire, and as a child ate lots of locally caught Brown Shrimps, and could snap, top and tail them like an expert by the time I was six years old!
Now our Shrimps come from Morecambe Bay, but they're almost as good as our local ones were, and our local fishmonger sells them still in their 'jackets'!
A dish of fresh Brown Shrimps, and a plate of brown bread and best butter is a thing of wonder!
Fresh brown shrimps are delicious I agree . But no octopus for me either ! Thanks for sharing all these memories
DeleteMaybe you can buy jars of cockles for your neighbor and she can eat the contents and give you the jars! :D
ReplyDeleteI must NOT collect any more empty glass jars....
DeleteMany Many years ago we went cockling on one of the Norfolk beaches. Only need the tide being out and a rake and bucket to put them in.
ReplyDeleteWe often had them for Saturday tea time with bread and butter. That was when every town had a fishmonger. Haven't eaten them for years - I shall check the supermarket
Sadly there are Norfolk beaches now which would be too polluted to be safe I think.
DeleteI'm with Bob but he can have any mussels that come my way, too!
ReplyDeleteSo glad you got to keep the sweet jar!
Hugs!
I have no idea what I will do with it!
DeleteWe tired cockles and mussels at the seaside once when I was a child. We all gagged but the dog loved them! JanF
ReplyDeleteI hope the dog was OK afterwards
DeleteI'm allergic to mussels and the one time I tried oysters, I wasn't well after (CBC is allergic to oysters too) so I've avoided all of the shell-based things just in case!
ReplyDeleteBobs comment really made me laugh. My grandmother lived in London but use to visit us in Colchester. We use to take her to Mersea Island for oysters, cockles etc. The thought still makes me shudder.
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