ANCESTRAL EATING: Seafood, pt.4

We've had the good and the bad of seafood. Now it's time for some delicious recipes

Welcome back to ANCESTRAL EATING. Over the past couple of weeks I’ve been talking about seafood as part of an ancestral diet. Three weeks ago I talked about how many of the groups Weston Price studied in Nutrition and Physical Degeneration achieved perfect health through the consumption of large amounts of seafood. Then I sounded a cautionary note with a detailed discussion of why it might not be best to add too much seafood to your diet, and especially not farmed seafood like salmon. I had initially thought the following instalment would a series of recipes, but I decided that I needed to talk a little bit more about the problems associated with seafood consumption, especially microplastics, so I did that. Now, finally, I’m going to give you some delicious recipes to try out.

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Hold on. Before I give you some recipes, I’m actually going to talk a little bit about a couple of new archaeology papers that shed more light on how our Neolithic ancestors consumed seafood.

The first is a paper out of Spain which shows that Neolithic farmers and pastoralists settled in the area around Cadiz about 6,000 years ago and consumed large quantities of shellfish all year round.

Evidence from the site excavated suggests they consumed most of their shellfish in the colder months, from about November to April. It’s during these months that shellfish are at their largest, apparently because of their reproductive cycles.

An overview of the complicated data set involved in the second paper, which provides evidence of significant seafood consumption in Neolithic Denmark

The second paper is about Neolithic Denmark. Skeletal remains reveal the area experienced a series of repeated population turnovers, as hunter-gatherer peoples were replaced by agriculturalists and then by new groups bearing significant levels of steppe ancestry. My friend Stone Age Herbalist has written about the paper in detail over on his Stack. What’s interesting about it, in the present context, is that it shows how important seafood was to the ancient populations under study. As sea levels rose, archaeological remains show that the early hunter-gatherers shifted more and more of their diet from land animals to shellfish, sea fish and seaweed. This diet rich in seafood appears to have supported a sizeable population, and when the new groups of agriculturalists and descendants of steppe peoples came in, they too appear to have continued eating seafood in large quantities.

The TL;DR of this is that seafood is 100% lindy. But if you’ve been paying attention, you’ll know that already.

Anyway, without further ado, let’s get to cooking.

Fisherman’s Eggs

Not to be confused with the eggs laid by fishermen, this is a delicious, nutritious and very easy recipe that features in my cookbook Raw Egg Nationalism in Theory and Practice. It combines my signature foodstuff (sardines… I mean, eggs) with fish, tomatoes, onions and garlic. Sounds good, right?

This recipe makes enough for two people, but you could easily it this all on your own, especially if you’re a big boy or you’re on a bulk. This will take less than half an hour to make.

Fisherman’s eggs can be eaten on their own, but they’re also great with crisp thin slices of white or brown toast for dipping and spreading.

• Tin of sardines, in tomato sauce or olive oil

• Butter or olive oil

• 2 whole eggs

• ½ red onion, diced

• 1 large tomato, seeded and diced

• 2 cloves of garlic, minced

• ½ tbsp Kalamata olives, finely chopped

• Handful of fresh parsley, chopped

• Salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 350F.

Heat the butter or olive oil in an ovenproof pan on a medium heat. Add the onions and soften them for a few minutes, keeping them moving with a spoon or spatula to prevent them from browning.

Add the tomatoes, garlic and olives and cook for a further 3 or 4 minutes. Add the sardines and break them up with a fork.

Mix the contents of the pan together well and season. Continue to cook for five minutes.

Crack the eggs on top of the mixture and bake in the oven for 8-10 minutes, until the egg whites have set. Garnish with the parsley.