Successfully cultivated seaweed varieties that taste like bacon

Good news for people who are lazy to eat vegetables, are scientists at Oregon State University (OSU) who have successfully cultivated a rich, bright red nutrient algae that tastes like bacon when cooked.

Seaweed tastes like bacon

Dulse (Palmaria palmata) is a wild type of red algae that grows in the coastal areas of the North Atlantic and Pacific Ocean . After harvesting and drying, the algae are very valuable when used as fast food and cooking spices, commonly used along the Irish coast to increase the flavor of soups and stews.

The new red algae is rich in vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and proteins but was not originally created for humans.

Researchers at Oregon State University say the red algae have the same taste as salted pork when frying.(Photo: OSU / Langdon.)

'' The original goal was to create an abalone superfood, because high quality abalone is valuable, especially in Asia, ' ' Chris Langdon, who has perfected the algae with his colleagues. Oregon State University's Hatfield Marine Science Center for the past 15 years, explains.

"We can raise abalone with red algae in excess growth before," Langdon said. '' There are concerns about growing red algae for humans, but at first we only focused on using red algae as an abalone food. ''

When Chuck Toombs, a lecturer in Business School at Oregon State University, visited Langdon's research lab, he saw a business opportunity for his students.

'' Dulse is a superfood, has twice the nutritional value of kale, ' ' Toombs said. '' OSU has developed this algae to grow, opening up the potential for a new industry in Oregon. ''

Toombs and students quickly went to OSU's Food Improvement Center in Portland to buy algae. They try to find a way to turn this spice into a composition. But when the famous chef Jason Ball appeared, he said the focus should be on spices instead of inoculants.

"The team at the Food Improvement Center is looking for ways to create products from red algae, while Jason offers views from the perspective of culinary research, ' ' Gil Sylvia, Director of the Marine Experimental Station by OSU in Newport, explained. '' His views and other chefs are high quality fresh algae that are hard to find. They said that if we only supply algae, they will create the dish. ''

Regardless of whether red algae is like a composition or spice, researchers believe there is a lot of potential for using this algae.

"In Europe, they add algae powder to vitamins or food," Langdon said. ' ' Not many people are interested in using algae in fresh form. But this algae is great. When you fry, it tastes like bacon instead of seaweed. ''