Boiled Gooseneck Barnacles With Aioli

Name: Boiled Gooseneck Barnacles With Aioli
Prep time: 4 min
Cook time: 4 min
Total time: 7 min
Yield: 4 appetizer servings
Ingredients: 1 pound gooseneck barnacles, rinsed; 12 cups water; 2 bay leaves; 2 tablespoons kosher salt; 1/2 medium-size onion; 1/2 lemon; 6 curly green lettuce leaves, rinsed and dried; 1 lemon cut in four wedges for garnish; Aioli (see recipe)

By Susan Herrmann Loomis

Updated Oct. 11, 2023

Total Time: 7 minutes
Prep Time: 4 minutes
Cook Time: 4 minutes
Rating: (0)
Comments: Read comments

What looks like a carpenter's thumb, feels like a rubber hose and is sweeter and more tender than spiny lobster? Why, gooseneck barnacles. They were long a delicacy to the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest who used to scrape them off rocks at great risk and reserve them for tribal elders. When this recipe appeared in The New York Times in 1987, a seafood company in Nanaimo, British Columbia, had started exporting the barnacles to Spain and Portugal to keep up with demand.

Featured in: A Delicacy Scraped From Pacific Rocks

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Ingredients

Yield:4 appetizer servings

1pound gooseneck barnacles, rinsed
12cups water
2bay leaves
2tablespoons kosher salt
½medium-size onion
½lemon
6curly green lettuce leaves, rinsed and dried
1lemon cut in four wedges for garnish
Aioli (see recipe)

Ingredient Substitution Guide

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Preparation

Step 1
Rinse barnacles; pat dry.
Step 2
Bring water to a boil with bay leaf, salt, onion and half lemon in a large saucepan over high heat. Add barnacles and stir. Reduce heat to medium high and cook until base of the barnacles turns a deep pink (no longer than 4 minutes).
Step 3
Drain barnacles and cover with ice until they cool.
Step 4
To serve barnacles, arrange on a platter lined with curly green lettuce leaves. Garnish platter with lemon wedges in a bowl of aioli. Serve immediately.

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Jason Chiu2 years ago

Four minutes is too long. Unless they are larger than your thumb, two minutes suffices per the San Francisco seafood seller. The key is to cook enough to separate the barnacle from the "rubber hose" but avoid overcooking the smaller ones.

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