Eating Snails

[QuakerBear]

Hi ho,

Quick question. Does anyone in the UK hunt/forrage for snails to eat? If so which ones, are they the big brown shelled ones?

Ta chaps.

[MKG]

As far as I know, you can eat any British snail - though whether you'd want to bother with the smaller ones is another thing. The big brown-shelled ones are the famous edible snail - there's no difference between what you find in your garden and what you might get in a French restaurant (except theirs have been starved and cleaned and gutted, which is absolutely necessary before you eat 'em). I've just read that if you colect them in the middle of winter when they're hibernating, then you can miss out on the starving bit - but I don't know about that.

[QuakerBear]

Thank you MKG, you confirmed what I though.

Where did you read this, I'd like to give them a go but don't know how long to starve them for or how to kill, clean or gut them.

Ta.

[MKG]

Here you go - keep an open mind and look between the lines Only one of these, for instance, mentions gutting, so maybe that's a fairy story.

http://www.farmingfriends.com/can-you-e ... en-snails/

http://www.france-property-and-informat ... istory.htm

http://www.heliciculture.co.uk/nov03.as ... iary021103

http://www.rirdc.gov.au/reports/NAP/00-188.htm

http://www.christopher-harris.co.uk/foodpage.htm

[old tree man]

HFW did a snail forage and what he did was feed his snails on fresh lettuce that he new was problem free for a week to clean them out.

Russ

[oldfella]

A friend here feeds his on rolled oats for four days and then lettuce for for three days before washing in salt water and rinceing them in clean water

[mrsflibble]

my mum uses lettuce.
I can't stand the taste of snails

[Hedgehogpie]

Be aware that the Roman Snail (Helix pomatia) referred to is now a protected species:

As of Monday 6th April 2008 five more species gained protection under the Wildlife and Countryside Act of 1981. Watervoles, angel sharks, Roman snail, short-snouted seahorse and spiny seahorse are all now protected from being killed, injured or taken from the wild. It also became an offence to possess or sell these creatures. Damaging, obstructing or disturbing their place of shelter either intentionally or recklessly will also result in action being taken.

(Extract from the Great British Wildlife website)

You can safely collect and eat the Common Snail though (Helix aspersa).

[Rod in Japan]

On a survival course once, we ate snails. We kept the snails in a plastic bag with breathing holes for about 24 hours and then washed them in fresh water. We put them in an empty Baked Bean tin with wild garlic and fresh water, and boiled them over a fire. They were very good - no bitterness or 'poisons'. In fact, they were as good as anything I had in France.

The preparations and recipes online seem to be taking things to an extreme, making it unlikely that most people will bother.

I've also eaten earthworms prepared in the same way which were bland, gritty and quite unpleasant, and grasshoppers prepared in the Japanese way which are very good indeed. I'm quite curious to try the various kinds of grubs that some people eat, although not at all anxious to eat Cambodian fried spiders.

[QuakerBear]

Thanks guys.

I'm gonna have to be careful in which ones I pick up.

I've eaten them before in restaurants and they just taste of whatever they've been cooked in/with so I was hoping to use them as free meat for rissottos and soups (I also thought it might be nice revenge for the way they attack my allotment).

[QuakerBear]

Oh, that's another thing, do you forage for them because they're slow, or do you hunt them because they're an animal not a plant.

[MKG]

I think it's actually more of a snafari

[QuakerBear]

Ooo, does that mean I have to wear a solar topi and ride on an elephant?

[MKG]

Of course - and don't forget the native beaters chasing the snails out of the undergrowth.

[QuakerBear]

See I knew Mr. QB had a job, I shall get him in his dhoti right away.