Boiled Gooseneck Barnacles With Aioli

By Susan Herrmann Loomis

Updated October 10, 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

  • or to save this recipe.

  • Subscriber benefit: Give recipes to anyone

    As a subscriber, you have 10 gift recipes to give each month. Anyone can view them - even nonsubscribers. Learn more.

    Subscribe

  • Share this recipe

  • Print this recipe

    or to print this recipe.

Advertisement

Ingredients

Yield:4 appetizer servings

  • 1 pound gooseneck barnacles, rinsed

  • 12 cups water

  • 2 bay leaves

  • 2 tablespoons kosher salt

  • ½ medium-size onion

  • ½ lemon

  • 6 curly green lettuce leaves, rinsed and dried

  • 1 lemon cut in four wedges for garnish

  • Aioli (see recipe)

Ingredient Substitution Guide

Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Rinse barnacles; pat dry.

  2. 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).

  3. Step 3

    Drain barnacles and cover with ice until they cool.

  4. 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.

Private Notes

Leave a Private Comment on this recipe and see it here.

Ratings

0 user ratings
Your rating

or to rate this recipe.

Have you cooked this?

or to mark this recipe as cooked.

Comments

Jason Chiu

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.

Jason Chiu

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.

Private comments are only visible to you.

Recipe Tags

or to save this recipe.