Snails

[scouser4life]

As in your traditional garden snail - are they editable? Got a bundle of 18 early on while moving flags. You no how it goes work = food = snail? Well are they editable and do they need cooking to be eaten?

 

[Ed]

Helix aspersa the common garden snail are indeed edible. You should feed them on some fresh clean greens for a few days to purge them of any nastyness they may have eaten prieviously (discard any that die ofcourse)... and can be steamed with a little butter and water and eaten

A few threads here may be of interest.
http://www.bushcraftuk.com/community/showthread.php?t=10716&highlight=snails
http://www.bushcraftuk.com/community/showthread.php?t=7831&highlight=snails
http://www.bushcraftuk.com/community/showthread.php?t=3928&highlight=snails


Ed

 

[gregorach]

I believe that what we now know as the common garden snail was actually introduced by the Romans specifically for culinary use.

 

[EdS]

purgethem on carrot - when the droppings turn orange they will be ok to eat.

 

[chickenofthewoods]

Or do it the Roman way:

Milk-Fed Snails - Cochleas Lacte Pastas

"Take snails and sponge them; pull them out of the shells by the membrane and place them for a day in a vessel with milk and salt. Renew the milk daily. Hourly clean the snails of all refuse, and when they are so fat that they can no longer retire [to their shells] fry them in oil and serve them with wine sauce. In a similar way they may be fed on a milk porridge".

Our common garden snail is known by the French as the 'petit gris'.

 

[locum76]

theres a recipe on this page for heston blumenthals snail porridge.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/database/snailporridge_74858.shtml

i've seen him on telly making it with slugs before.

 

[Ed]

purgethem on carrot - when the droppings turn orange they will be ok to eat.

Does this change the taste at all?


Ed

 

[chickenofthewoods]

No, but it stops them bumping into each other in the dark.

 

[Ed]

..... I was actually wondering if you could purge them on something more tasty to impart a subtle flavor to the meal.


Ed

 

[BushTucker]

The snails you eat in france nowadays actually decended from the good old British brown snail, they took a load of ours because they ran out.

 

[Ketchup]

Helix aspersa (petit gris, in gastronomic lingo) are not only edible, they're exquisite

The yellow banded Cepea nemoralis is good too, so the Italians say.

I've prepared them a few times: gather them and keep them in an onion bag in a moist place out of the sun. Give them (boiled) patato and other veggies to purge. celery is a nono, lily family (onions, leeks...) not wanted either. But they adore capsicum (paprika).

Traditionally, they are fed their last night with a powdering of flour (which they will clean right off). Just before cooking they are heavily sprinkeled with salt and a glass of vinegar. This makes them produce an enormous amount of foam and scum. Wash and cook them. I'm not sure if the last stage is really necessary, but that's the way the French used to do.
Serve with red wine sauce, shallots and bacon pieces.

 

[underground]

I'm looking forward to gathering snails when the weather warms up- I'll be following the advice given in Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall's 'A Cook On The Wild Side' book - on the programme he actually collected the snails from a garden in the middle of London somewhere....

We get prodigious numbers of slugs, they manage to find their way into the kitchen in the autumn too, which appals my wife and makes her scream in the night.

Are they actually edible? - I've often wondered since they seem similar to snails in many ways but then I've seen them eating dog muck aswell so i'm not so sure. Definitely a big issue with perception methinks.....

 

[Toddy]

My garden grows prodigious quantities of huge yellow banded snails and tiger slugs. Free to anyone who volunteers to come and take them away

Cheers,
Toddy

 

[underground]

Ugh... I think I'll just remember this for future reference should I find myself hungry with nothing but slugs to eat.... Slug Eating Link

 

[Ketchup]

Slugs as food?

Simple: feed them to the chicks, eat the chickens

 

[Wayland]

Nah. Feed em to your hedgehog.

Life's too short for eating slugs.

 

[Ed]

Leave the slugs well alone .... they can feed on all manor of things and absorb toxins that build up in their bodies ...... unlike snails that dont absorb these nasties and can be purged by clearing out there digestive system by feeding them fresh veg/greens.


Ed

 

[anthonyyy]

I heard something on BBC radio 4 yesterday that there are plans to make the "roman" snails a protected species.

 

[Wayland]

I heard something on BBC radio 4 yesterday that there are plans to make the "roman" snails a protected species.

As far as I am aware they already are.

We always had to let these fellows go at the end of the day.

Getting them all together did seem to inprove the breeding on site though...