Snails

[Geoff Dann]

Right. I've just cut down all the ivy and virginia creeper in my postcard-sized back garden to make more light for growing veg and I've got about 150 snails that had been hiding in cracks in the walls. I am going to try eating them. I dumped them in a container with some cabbage to purge them but I just found this:

http://eatinggardensnails.blogspot.com/2009/03/collecting-preparing-snails.html

The French used to collect them in autumn, when dormant and already naturally purged and safe inside their shells, in the autumn. This is a good shortcut, avoiding the need to fatten up and dry out by purging.

Can anyone confirm this? Are they safe to eat without purging because it is winter and they are dormant? Only the little ones have woken up so far.

 

[copper_head]

I wouldn't take the risk, purge on 'safe' greens then starve for 3-4 days, add garlic and enjoy !

 

[JonathanD]

It's true, prior to overwintering, they are naturally purged.

 

[Geoff Dann]

It's true, prior to overwintering, they are naturally purged.

Have you tried it yourself?

 

[JonathanD]

No, but it wouldn't worry me. I've had to study hibernating creatures at length and know that they have to empty their digestive tracts of anything and everything prior to becoming dormant.

 

[Reaps72]

The rule I have heard of is a 4days of feeding clean veggies then 3day starvation!

Apparently feeding carrots celery & soft green herbs like chive Tarragon parsley helps improve their flavour!

 

[Harvestman]

I'll second John's opinion. Hibernating creatures with food in their gut are likely to get ice forming in the gut, killing them. So overwintering snails are pre-purged as a survival mechanism. (Studied overwintering survival and freeze-avoidance for my PhD)

 

[tomongoose]

it all depends on the weather it has been so mild recently I would not trust them to be purged as I have seen a few of them out and about. better safe than sorry as they can carry various parasites and e coli

 

[Geoff Dann]

it all depends on the weather it has been so mild recently I would not trust them to be purged as I have seen a few of them out and about. better safe than sorry as they can carry various parasites and e coli

All these were definitely hibernating. They were all stuck together and rammed into tiny crevices. I was imagining I was an aye-aye as I was trying to extract them from their holes with one finger.

Parasites and E.coli would both surely be killed by proper cooking, wouldn't they?

 

[Robbi]

i thought you purged snails with bread

 

[hedgerowpete]

I have eaten snails without being purge with no effects.
many years ago we had a weekend away with the theme being how to survive on a log. so the idea is you find a good log and try to live off it for three days that also includes the area of 3metres around it. ( when i was very younge and stupid myself and friend would have these ideas to liven up our bush craft weekends)

with snails its a case of how much water do you have? we boiled ours and needed three changes of water so you can keep the floating material away from the snail and you need some form of long pin to remove them from the shell. DONT DRY SHELL, COOK THEM they taste disscussting that way.

One other way is a snail snot kebab, remove as many snails as you like and install them on a wire or thin stick, hang near to you fire as the bottom ones are cooked eat them and the othese side down to the bottom, you can also top refill you kebab stick, it is one of the most gross things ever to see and taste but it does work.

can i point out that this is the only weekend in my life i was glad to go back to work and eat at the building site canteen

 

[wabbiter]

i usually purge with carrot when everything that comes out of them is orange they're purged. then in the freezer overnight then straight into boiling water for 10 minutes, then take out of shells and do what you want with them. i usually fry them with garlic and bacon.deeeeelish......................mack

 

[Gotte]

I'm no expert (how many of my threads start like that), but I would have thought that unpurged, so long as cooked properly, the heat would kill any nasties (though how unpurged snails would taste as opposed to purged snails is another matter I know nothing about).
Of course assumption can be a dangerous thing...

 

[JonathanD]

The problem is not so much the bacteria within, because as you say, it gets killed off with cooking. The problem with unpurged snails is if they have been eating some plant that is poisonous to us and it is still in their gut. Cooking won't remove that danger.

 

[xylaria]

I thought snails were purged because they are so important in life cycle of so many different parasites. Isn't eosinophilology the science of studing small worm things that eat mammels after been a lavae in a snail? Liver flukes, strongyliodes and a host of other things that make you go "uckk"

 

[JonathanD]

Purging won't get rid of those things though. Purging just gets rid of the food and food waste they've eaten.

 

[xylaria]

Purging won't get rid of those things though. Purging just gets rid of the food and food waste they've eaten.

so always cook them.

 

[Lurch]

I boiled up some winter snails, looked like green soup. Couldn't face 'em tbh.
I'd be purging.

 

[JonathanD]

so always cook them.

Absolutely.

I boiled up some winter snails, looked like green soup. Couldn't face 'em tbh.
I'd be purging.

They secrete extra squishy gooey funk during the Winter months to protect themselves from frost. Niiice!

 

[bigegg]

I recommend cooking them in lots of chilli and garlic -
if you use enough, they taste just like chilli and garlic