We’ve just got back from a few days on the Pembrokeshire/Carmarthenshire border, and what a lovely time we had. Stunning coastline, brilliant weather, and one very good find on the Saundersfoot harbourside that I haven’t stopped thinking about since.
As you may know if you’ve followed my blog for a while, I studied history back at uni and have always been fascinated by the history of food and culture. I really don’t know why I don’t write more about it.
Yesterday, we visited the lovely little seaside town Saundersfoot. Since our last visit a couple of years ago, a small cluster of shops and eateries has popped up at the harbour. One caught my eye immediately. Harold O’ Vinegars is a seafood deli featuring a tank of live lobsters and a counter packed with delicious local seafood. They appeared to be doing a roaring trade in everything from sandwiches to full lobster platters but it was the little takeaway tubs that caught my eye. Ready to be filled with your choice of locally caught seafood, and ready to be doused in pepper and vinegar. I went for a mixed tub for £5: cockles, mussels, prawns, whelks and brown shrimp, all mixed together. A very traditional seaside snack, and one I really enjoy!
Sitting there in the sunshine with the seagulls wheeling overhead (on the lookout for leftovers!) and picking through the seafood with a little wooden fork, I thought about eating tubs of cockles and mussels as a child on holidays with my parents.
A snack older than the harbour itself
A bit of research later and I learned that people have been eating this exact snack, in the same way for a very long time. In fact, this is one of the oldest food traditions in Wales. There’s evidence that as far back as Roman times, shellfish were harvested along this coastline. It’s easy to see why: cockles, mussels and whelks were free for the taking at low tide. People didn’t need a boat or even a net, just something like a bucket and spade or rake to pick through the sand when the tide is out. Combine that with the fact that the tide in this area goes really far out thanks to the extreme tidal range of the Bristol Channel and the flat shallow slopes on the beaches here. Easy pickings!
By the nineteenth century, casual gathering of seafood had turned commercial. As the population of South Wales grew through the industrial revolution, cockling became a proper trade. Interestingly, it was almost entirely done by women who’d go out in all weather. They used wooden rakes and sieves and balanced a wooden bucket on their heads to carry their finds home. This picture below shows one with a padded ‘cockle hat‘ to make it more comfortable! Cockles were then sold at markets or door to door.
Whelks and brown shrimp have their own history too. They were sold alongside cockles and mussels at seaside stalls and outside London pubs, measured out by the pint. It’s not much of a stretch from those pint glasses to a £5 tub on a harbourside counter in Saundersfoot. Different packaging, same shellfish, same coastline, same thing: eating whats local, close to where it’s gathered.
Why pepper and vinegar?
Aside from tasting good, it’s actually a practical pairing. Cooked shellfish doesn’t last long, especially without refrigeration so the acidity in vinegar was used to keep it tasting fresh and safe a little longer. Also, just like vinegar on your fish and chips, it adds a sharp tang which works super well. Pepper adds warmth and I guess, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it. It tastes good and nobody’s found a reason to change it!
Harold O’ Vinegars, Saundersfoot
Harold’s is a new addition to the harbour, but it fits nicely into a much older tradition. It might be pairing seafood with champagne and upscale in appearance but ultimately, they’re selling fresh, local, ready to eat on the spot, which isn’t any different to what’s been happening for generations along this coastline. I love that!
