Snails for quick food

[milius2]

I was just wondering. There are tons of snails in woods i visit, loads of Helix pomatia. Are they any good for quick food? Like cooking them in embers..? Has anyone tried this?

 

[JonathanD]

Good thread here....

http://www.bushcraftuk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=60222&highlight=snails

.. and yes, you can cook them in embers.

 

[DavidJT]

Not that quick if you do it the French way, which involves "cleansing" them in a bucket of fresh leaves for a couple of days.

 

[Melonfish]

i was going to say, be careful where you pick your snails, if they're eating poisonous plants or mushrooms then your technically eating a small poison bomb.
hence the clensing.

 

[milius2]

Well then. I need to collect some this weekend and see what comes out. Thanks

 

[xylaria]

I heard some were they empty their elimentary canal before going into stasis for the winter, so you can creep up on them when they are sleeping. It is the part they play in the life cycle of brain eating parasites puts me off trying them.

 

[andybysea]

Its the fact they are snails that puts me off eating them,why oh why when foods a plenty would anyone eat a snail! the nearest ive got to eating one was to try limpet,never again.

 

[BunnyMazonas]

I can't comment on personal experience, but over in the village my parents live in in Spain, a hard rain is generally followed by large groups of locals out hunting for the baby snails, which they pop whole into paellas etc.

To be fair, I can't vouch for this being for taste, or if it is just an economical way to deal with a pest that managed to devour my mum's entire veg patch in a single post-rainy afternoon!

 

[milius2]

Too late in the year now, they're hiding. Well. Need to research more on the brain eating parasites before anything else.

 

[Evilgoblin]

I was just wondering. There are tons of snails in woods i visit, loads of Helix pomatia. Are they any good for quick food? Like cooking them in embers..? Has anyone tried this?

From the Wiki Entry on distribution

# Great Britain: in the west and south England[2] southern areas on chalk. Its common name in the UK is Roman snail as was introduced to the by the Romans during the Roman period (AD 43-410). In England only (not the rest of the UK) the Roman snail is a protected species under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, making it illegal to kill, injure, collect or sell them.[4]

Full article here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helix_pomatia

 

[Evilgoblin]

FTR I know the original poster is in Lithuania just wanted to warn the UK mob.

 

[EdS]

winter is a good time to collect snails - they purge their digestive tract before hibernating.

 

[BarryG]

I heard some were they empty their elimentary canal before going into stasis for the winter, so you can creep up on them when they are sleeping. It is the part they play in the life cycle of brain eating parasites puts me off trying them.

sigh...go on then, whats this brain eating parasite?

 

[rik_uk3]

Snails are OK but have no real 'food' value unless you smother them in a nice garlic butter to up the fat/food content so really not great as a wild food. As with things like cockles you would need to eat a couple of kilo a day to get any food value from them.

 

[TeeDee]

sigh...go on then, whats this brain eating parasite?

May be this one , seen footage and it looks very odd indeed. The parasite moves to the eye stalks to attract birds to eat the snail ( and continue the life cycle of parasite and babys ) , the eye stalks pulsate with the parasite inside.

http://people.smu.edu/eheise/Leucochloridium_paradoxum.htm

 

[woodspirits]

May be this one , seen footage and it looks very odd indeed. The parasite moves to the eye stalks to attract birds to eat the snail ( and continue the life cycle of parasite and babys ) , the eye stalks pulsate with the parasite inside.

http://people.smu.edu/eheise/Leucochloridium_paradoxum.htm

well thats clinched it for me, id rather eat my arm!

 

[John Fenna]

Snails rate alongside limpets in my list of gourmet treats......
Right at the bottom!:tapedshut

 

[Bushwhacker]

I think you might be doing something wrong out there if you need to resort to eating snails.

 

[lipase]

Where's a good place to look for hibernating snails? Do they prefer dry places?