Has Hugh Fernley-Whittingstall gone too far?

[woodstock]

I was watching a cook on the wild side the other day and Hugh Fernley-Whittingstall was eating garden snails! He met up with a bloke who on a regular basis, eats them! They were collected, starved off for a couple of days to get rid of the faeces and bunged straight into boiling water!

30 mins ago he was eating woodlouse fritters on the tv!

I can't help but think hes running out of material...

you don't starve them you purge them giving them oats powdered milk ect for about 4 days along with clean water any that have ingested any toxins will die and should be removed and the common garden snail is perfectly good to eat

Ive considered eating snails, Ill get round to collecting them eventually.

Can you feed them on something good like chives or parsley to make them taste nice?

Its an experiment waiting to happen....

No need they taste delicious after purging with some garlic butter parsley and a splash of lime juice

 

[firecrest]

Do they need to be exponged in saltwater like the french do, or is this simply a method of cleaning them? I looked into eating snails a while back, I ate periwinkles off the beach and they were delicious and thought snails looked so similar they probably tasted the same.

 

[crazyclimber]

Like Spam I've only had them in garlic butter but in fairness they taste good. A little bit of willpower was required to eat the first mouthful admittedly but I've enjoyed oysters, mussels, squid, prawns, lobster etc before and none of them immediately look particularly appealing either when they're sliding or swimming or doing whatever they do (or maybe it's just we're not hungry enough!)

 

[jojo]

Another nice French site (in English) regarding the farming, preparation and consumption of snails Enjoy.....

 

[AndyW]

IIRC he also eat elvers (young eels) during that series, which is in for a bit of a dig these days as eels are quite scarce in many of our rivers and waterways. Gordon Ramsey got a slating in the press when he did the same in 'The F word' in June.

A bit late to this but...

I have the River Cottage Fish Book. He talks in their a lot about those species that are endangered and he talks at length about Eels.

They are on his at risk list and it's considered best to avoid them.

Snails, never tried them but I'll probably get around to one day

Andy

 

[BOD]

Never had land snails in my life (at least not to my knowledge) but have had river snails and mangrove snails like these.

Funny how I can put these in my mouth but not the land snails.

Could be cos my first land 'snail-ly' memories are the Giant African Land Snail

 

[scanker]

A bit late to this but...

I have the River Cottage Fish Book. He talks in their a lot about those species that are endangered and he talks at length about Eels.

They are on his at risk list and it's considered best to avoid them.

Snails, never tried them but I'll probably get around to one day

Andy

I think he did eat elvers in ACOTWS, but as I stated in an earlier post, it was 11 or so years ago. It's possible they weren't as endangered/scarce then as they are now, but I don't know.

 

[brancho]

Britain exports snails to France.
I have eaten snails in a resteraunt as you have to try these things once. I will not pay for them again (they were not specuial) but would eat them again if nessecary.

 

[fishfish]

I think "A cook on the wild side" was the first series of television shows he made. It was certainly a few years before he made the River Cottage shows. So, as opposed to running out of material, I probably think he had to dumb down the material for main stream TV.

when i worked in france the locals would go out in the vinyards and collect them to eat , they were the same as our garden snails , in cyprus i saw them for sale in the markets , i saw them cooked on the bbq there too! just chucked a few handfulls on the bbq and the squeeked and popped like popcorn!
I met HFW last year when i asked him about the woodlice fritters he said it was "an aquired taste , which i will never aquire!"

 

[Wayland]

Now the Romans, they 'ad the best idea fer eatin' snails.

They used to breed em on little islands with only one type of herb on 'em.

So yer could 'ave yer garlic snail, yer mint snail or yer anythin' yer fancy snail.

Put em in a saucer o salty milk t' fatten em up an' Apicius is yer uncle like.

 

[fishfish]

now that is a bpilliant ide! all the oned down my allotment must taste of beetroot and cabbage!