# What was a kelp burger **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 3, 2020, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-a-kelp-burger/854954 "2020-06-03T00:33:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Arkcon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Arkcon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arkcon)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2020, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-a-kelp-burger/854954/1 "2020-06-03T00:33:08Z")
The kelp burger has been a joke food since perhaps the 1970’s – I can only guess I heard it then first, maybe on some variety show skit. Even as late as the 1990’s when the environmentalist offers Lisa and Marge kelp burgers, even vegetarian Lisa runs for the hills. Nowadays, the plant based burgers are so sophisticated, they’re not a joke anymore, so when i Google search for “kelp burger” I find good recipes. But what was the old-fashioned, awful, kelp burger made of? Not just kelp, it would have to have other ingredients and some sort of processing to make it all bind together into a burger shape. What I’m looking for here is old recipes people would have followed to make a “bad” burger, so I can see how they’ve improved. Who here ate “kelp burgers” and wished they hadn’t? And why? ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2020, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-a-kelp-burger/854954/2 "2020-06-03T01:20:15Z")
It was a joke. Comedians looked for the most vile, unacceptable, funny-named vegetable they could think of, and they arrived at kelp, aka seaweed. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2020, 11:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-a-kelp-burger/854954/3 "2020-06-03T11:30:33Z")
[There is a seaweed beer, Kelpie](https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2017/09/08/548680457/from-ocean-to-potion-kelp-finds-a-niche-in-the-craft-beer-market). It’s actually very good. I buy a six pack whenever it’s available. ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2020, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-a-kelp-burger/854954/4 "2020-06-03T12:49:40Z")
Seaweed is all the go among healthy eating types. It just looks so unappetising, so you can see why it would have been thought a joke. And those comics presumably wouldn’t have heard of[laverbread](http://allrecipes.co.uk/recipe/34245/welsh-laverbread.aspx). ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2020, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-a-kelp-burger/854954/5 "2020-06-03T14:52:23Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > [There is a seaweed beer, Kelpie](https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2017/09/08/548680457/from-ocean-to-potion-kelp-finds-a-niche-in-the-craft-beer-market). It’s actually very good. I buy a six pack whenever it’s available. How many do you drink before it begins to taste like beer? ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2020, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-a-kelp-burger/854954/6 "2020-06-03T15:09:50Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > How many do you drink before it begins to taste like beer? The first sip is delicious and it keeps getting better after that. If you did a blindfolded taste test you’d never guess it was made of seaweed. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2020, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-a-kelp-burger/854954/7 "2020-06-03T22:51:22Z")
One of the earliest, and most popular, episodes of “Spongebob Squarepants” featured Spongebob delivering a Diet Kelp. Nowadays, we also have kale and tofu to lampoon. ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2020, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-a-kelp-burger/854954/8 "2020-06-07T22:42:39Z")
Yeah, it’s a food that used to be viewed as suspicious/weird that only hippies ate. Like granola - which I guess is now avoided by many these days because carbs. The wheel turns.