Does anyone eat the snails from their garden

[threebikesmcginty]

The article said it was the Scots that used to keep them in salt as a winter food. A handful of slugs, a turnip and a glass of vintage Bucky - what could be nicer on a cold winter evening.

or breakfast even!

 

[palinurus]

If Ms P finds that out the snails around here won't stand a chance.

 

[Chuffy]

Right! After spending a week eating carrot, five of my finest specimens were given a new home with no food for two days. This morning I popped them in the fridge (they go into semi-hibernation which means you don't get any accusing eyeballs glaring at you when they go into the boiling water) before cooking them after I got home.

Cooking was easy. I dropped them in boiling (unsalted) water for about fifteen minutes. The water turned green, but there wasn't the foam and foulness that some sites talked about. Having boiled them and rinsed them thoroughly with cold water I hoicked them out of their shells (very easy) gave them a good rub to shift any remaining slime (really not as bad as it sounds) and fried them with some sliced onion and a splash of Wagamama stir-fry sauce.

I can safely report that snails taste of onion and Wagamama stir-fry sauce and nothing else. They were very tender, not chewy at all. In fact they didn't really have much of a texture at all. I was expecting them to firm up and be a bit like prawns, texture-wise, but they were almost invisible in the mouth with very little substance. Nothing nasty either, which was a relief because I don't like slithery food.

The remaining bucket load (there must be a hundred or so in there...) will be cooked en-masse as soon as I get round to it. I believe that the par-cooked snails can be frozen, so I'll do that. Sadly Baggy showed no interest and I am too much of a good husband to slip any into her food without telling her.... I'll probably have to invite Andy round for a snail-fest, possibly with bacon and sage a la Pottymouth Ramsay.

So, snails. Eat them, they're fine..

 

[Abitrary]

Most people would imagine snails to be an acquired taste, but unless you acquire that taste as a child like the meditteraneans, then don't bother. And I actually don't believe british people when they say they love snails.

Being able to stomach them and actually enjoying them are different things. The only pleasure british people get out of eating snails is to show off and make other british people eat them in order to look hard. Typical hooligan behaviour which the snail eating cultures scorn us for.

 

[Crankarm]

The slimy gets have decimated my vegetable patch, so death to all the slime-mongers, I say.

The little feckers have decimated my bedding plants. Hear them squeal in salt or drown in beer .

I'll eat the feckers raw.

Shell shocked .

 

[Proto]

My parents neighbour in France suggests starving them for a week and then feeding them on bread, parsley and garlic to improve the flavour

Cut out the middle man and just eat the bread, parsley and garlic.

 

[summerdays]

The remaining bucket load (there must be a hundred or so in there...) will be cooked en-masse as soon as I get round to it. I believe that the par-cooked snails can be frozen, so I'll do that. Sadly Baggy showed no interest and I am too much of a good husband to slip any into her food without telling her.... I'll probably have to invite Andy round for a snail-fest, possibly with bacon and sage a la Pottymouth Ramsay.

So, snails. Eat them, they're fine..

Aren't you supplying some kind of refreshments to those on the Exmouth Exodus

 

[XmisterIS]

An article in The Times today said that garden snails are not just edible, but reckoned to taste better than their cousins that are farmed for the table. I suppose even snail farming ends up like battery farming.

The article suggested keeping them for a week or so on lettuce to detox them of any nasties and then dropping them into boiling water to kill and cook them. Slugs can be preserved with salt and kept for the winter.

Does anyone do this?

 

[summerdays]

Are they expecting a large French contingent?

There is no need to tell them what it is... it will be dark (wet) and they will be hungry... they will eat anything

 

[Chuffy]

There is no need to tell them what it is... it will be dark (wet) and they will be hungry... they will eat anything

Heh...

 

[ArDee]

I am sure that I read that the common garden snail was introduced to Britain by the Romans who ate them.

I understood this to be the case as well, we have a book on Roman cooking somewhere in doors I'll see if I can find it.

If I remember rightly, there's a recipe for milk feed snails in it where you feed them lettuce for a week then milk for 24 hours before cooking. If I find it I’ll post the recipe for the more adventurous.

 

[TheDoctor]

Aren't you supplying some kind of refreshments to those on the Exmouth Exodus

I'm suddenly very pleased not to be going...

 

[GrahamG]

Aren't you supplying some kind of refreshments to those on the Exmouth Exodus

:Puke:

 

[Chuffy]

Bogey vol-au-vent anyone?

 

[User482]

You should borrow a couple of chickens Fnaar. Watching them work death and decimation on a load of slugs always brings a warm glow to my heart

Seconded. Occasionally, my two hens will grab each end of a slug, and proceed to stretch it until it splits in the middle. I find watching this immensely satisfying.