6 full lessons
Written in plain language, illustrated, and kept as a reference afterward.
In the kitchen · cooking with seaweed
Cooking With Seaweed
Buying, rinsing, rehydrating, seasoning, preserving, and cooking seaweed as an ingredient rather than a novelty, with Jules's own recipes at the center.
Six lessons on cooking seaweed well: what to buy and how to store it, rinsing, rehydrating, and blanching with real times, how salt and umami behave when seaweed is doing the seasoning, Jules's own recipes in her words, preserving with pickles, salts, and flakes, and how to serve it to somebody who thinks they will not like it.
$95 once, or $95 on Driftline. Add $60 and Jules reads and grades one real piece of work, passing at 80 percent. Review is optional. Nothing here is accredited or carries credit.
Take this class
Pay once, and it is yours to come back to. Pick how you want to take it.
On your own
The whole class, the practice work, and the knowledge checks. No pass score, no graded work, no certificate gate.
With Jules reading your work
Everything above, plus one real piece of work, "One seaweed dish, written so someone else could cook it", that Jules reads and grades against a rubric you can see before you start. You pass at 80 percent, and you can rewrite and send it back as many times as you need. This is optional, and it is not accredited and carries no continuing education credit.
Already taking this class? You can add review later and pay only the $60 difference.
12 contact hours
Measured per lesson, with written outcomes, so your time is recorded honestly.
No-pressure checks
Clear answers and explanations, unlimited tries, and nothing sent to a gradebook.
Region aware
Rules are shown by state with the source and the date we checked it.
The complete course
Lesson 1 · 1.5 h
Buying and Storing Seaweed
- · Tell apart fresh, salted, frozen, and dried seaweed and store each correctly
- · Read a seaweed label for species, origin, and salt
- · Choose the right form of a seaweed for the dish you intend to make
Lesson 2 · 2 h
Rinsing, Rehydrating, and Blanching
- · Rinse and rehydrate seaweed without losing texture
- · Blanch kelp and know what the color change tells you
- · Judge readiness by taste and feel rather than by a timer alone
Lesson 3 · 2 h
Salt, Umami, and Balance
- · Adjust seasoning for the salt a seaweed already carries
- · Use acid and fat to balance a savory seaweed dish
- · Explain in plain words what seaweed contributes to flavor
Lesson 4 · 3 h
Jules's Recipes, Step by Step
- · Cook a seaweed dish start to finish without improvising the safety parts
- · Recognize the common failure points in each recipe before they happen
- · Adapt a recipe to the seaweed you can actually get
Lesson 5 · 2 h
Preserving: Pickles, Salts, and Flakes
- · Make a refrigerator pickle and store it honestly
- · Dry and flake seaweed so it stays dry
- · State plainly which preservations are safe at home and which need tested process authority
Lesson 6 · 1.5 h
Serving People Who Have Never Tried It
- · Plan a first tasting that works for a skeptical eater
- · Answer iodine, salt, and allergen questions accurately and without health claims
- · Describe a seaweed dish in words that invite rather than explain away
What this course covers where you live
We say plainly how well each part of the country is covered, rather than implying the whole country is written to the same depth.
- West Coast: sourced and ready
- Alaska: partly sourced
- Northeast: partly sourced
- Mid-Atlantic and Southeast: partly sourced
- Gulf: partly sourced
- Great Lakes and inland: partly sourced
- Hawaii and the Pacific islands: partly sourced
Cooking, cooling, and holding rules come from the Food Code
The federal Food Code is the model most states adopt for retail and food service. It carries the cooking temperatures, the cooling times, and the holding rules that apply the moment you cook for other people. Your state's adopted version is the one that binds you.
FDA Food Code · checked 2026-09-19Home canning of low-acid foods needs a tested process
Refrigerator pickles are simple and safe when kept cold and eaten within a few weeks. Shelf-stable canning is a different thing entirely, and low-acid foods need a tested process. Use published, tested processes rather than adapting one.
USDA Complete Guide to Home Canning · checked 2026-09-19Cooking ideas for US farmed seaweed, from a public program
The UConn seaweed program publishes free cooking material for US farmed seaweeds, including preparation basics for sugar kelp and other species. It is a good, free starting point for anyone building a seaweed menu.
UConn Seaweed Hub · checked 2026-09-19
If you want Jules to read your work
Everyone gets the same lessons, practice work, and knowledge checks. For $60 more you also get one real assignment that Jules reads and grades. You can see exactly how it is judged before you start, you pass at 80 percent, and you can rewrite and send it back as many times as you need. This is optional, and it is still not accredited and carries no continuing education credit.
The assignment
One seaweed dish, written so someone else could cook it
Cook one dish using a seaweed you can actually buy or harvest where you live, then write it up honestly.
Choose one seaweed available where you live. Cook one dish with it, then write the dish up so another cook could repeat it: the species and where it came from, how you rinsed, soaked, or blanched it and for how long, the seasoning decisions and why, and what you would change next time. Say plainly what went wrong the first time if anything did. Name your source for any food-safety step, such as drying, salting, or pickling.
How it is graded
The seaweed is identified and sourced · 25 points
The species is named, and where it came from is stated, including whether it was bought or harvested.
Preparation is specific enough to repeat · 25 points
Soaking, rinsing, or blanching times and ratios are written down, not described vaguely.
Seasoning judgment is explained · 25 points
You say why the dish is balanced the way it is, in terms of salt, acid, fat, and the seaweed's own flavor.
Safety steps are cited · 25 points
Any drying, salting, pickling, or storage step points to published guidance you name.
100 points in total. You pass at 80. Jules grades what you worked out, not your formatting or your word count.
Where it can take you
Take the safety and handling class first if you cook for other people. If you want to harvest your own, Responsible Wild Harvest covers seasons, limits, and permission.
This course does not carry accreditation, credit, or continuing education units, and completing it does not count toward any outside credential. It is written to the structure a continuing education standard expects, with measured hours, written outcomes, and a completion record you can keep.