Is it possible to eat garden snails if cooked?

[BigShot]

I would never eat slugs - especially as they do have a shell of sorts on the inside. Yuck!
I wouldn't expect parasites to be a problem in snails unless you're undercooking them though. I'm not one for eating them (despite what my previous post might suggest) but certainly I would be very careful to cook them through to be safe.

[bobleponge]

Only just seen this thread.
You certainly can eat snails from the garden, I have done so. Mme P also does the same thing (although, come to think of it, she did serve me eel when I had a monsterous hangover..).
I purged them on lettuce leaves, cooked them up in a garlic butter sauce and ate them. I love snails anyway (cooked, not in my bladdy garden) and there was no real difference in taste between them and restaurant ones. Scrummy scrummy.

[Hilary B]

Wandering onto the subject of Richard Mabey's book, one thing I tend to eat often in season is leaves of the Lime (Linden) tree. Beech leaves are good too, butonly edible for about a week. Lime trees will often produce a few young leaves right through to August. They make an interesting alternative to lettuce, and I especially like Linden sandwich.
2 slices of bread (thinly sliced wholemeal is nicest), butter one slice, cover fairly thickly with fresh-picked Linden leaves (I tend to aim for 3 leaves thick, maybe 4 where they overlap the most), sprinkle with your favourite salad dressing, cover with the other slice of bread, and enjoy!

[Jelliebabe]

anything that relies on being SMOTHERED in garlic to be edible can't be good! EWWWW. Was ruthlessly attacked by a slug the size of a horse yesterday YUK seriously we looked at each other screamed and ran away.... well he kind of cantered...

[Nick Blair]

In what way are slugs poisonous? I have read on wikipedia that humans are one of the predators of slugs. But wikipedia didn't say which slugs or who eats them.

[Nicos]

Here Nick- have a read of this!!


Health & Medical News - Man's brain infected by eating slugs - 20/10/2003

[chris]

I watched something on telly similar, some dude ate raw shellfish that he caught (can't remember the name, like small lobsters.. ling something) - turns out that that little critter had feasted on some water snail or something similar and ingested lung fluke, which the chap that ate it caught.. ew. no thanks! (on seafood, or slimeyfood :P)

[lindyloo]

i dont think i will be eating them antime soon,even if in a crisis situation- i am sure i would be able to forage greens and berries, roots, or even pinch a cabbage or egg if i had to, but to eat slugs, snails, worms,rats or cats, or horse, or any insect is just not going to happen! i even know how to milk a cow, and if i was desperately starving, i am going to do what i have to do to eat what i consider "proper" food!!! even if i had to go skip diving to do so, or raid a field or allotment. ( total honesty for you here- so please dont judge me)

i do remember hearing of a boy who lived in the woods near here with his family in the 60's/70's, who ate worms, as they had no food. i believe they came from poland originally and were probably very poor

[lindyloo]

just one more thing ie eating slugs- in my back garden, if i dont pick up the dog muck every day, i see big fat bloated slugs feasting off it the next day.. not something i would want to put in my body, cooked or otherwise.

[Hilary B]

I watched something on telly similar, some dude ate raw shellfish that he caught (can't remember the name, like small lobsters.. ling something) - turns out that that little critter had feasted on some water snail or something similar and ingested lung fluke, which the chap that ate it caught.. ew. no thanks! (on seafood, or slimeyfood :P)

Most potential problems of this sort are prevented by thorough cooking, but it would take more than that to get me eating snails!

[lindyloo]

umm me too- want to catogorically state i would not normally nick a cabbage or etc. as in my reply, but if it came to a survival situation i would try or do almost anything before eating a snail or slug, or any, what i consider a dirty feeder. ie my post- horses are not dirty feeder's but they are a supreme animal, and far too noble and sensitive to eat, they have served mankind in so many varied ways throughout history- they deserve better than to be slaughtered for food.

however,i have eaten frog legs many times growing up in states; they were bullfrogs- as big as chicken. i used to go out with my grandfather late at night, when in full moon , in a boat on a huge pond ( english would call it a large lake) where we would spear them with a harpoon type thing, when the white of thier throat shon in the moons glow as they called for a mate. then my grandmother would fry the legs and thighs up in an iron skillet on a huge old wood fueled range, just as you would southern fried chicken, which is just what it tasted like too- delicious! i wouldnt do it now, and the frogs were a specific, huge type of frog- i wont be going out to catch the garden pond variety!

although i like both hfg and ray mears, particularily rays program on alaska, i feel that some of the animals they eat are put in as a sort of shock/ novelty, and unless it is a true survival situation, it's probably un- necasary to resort to eating slugs and woodlice.

[Nicos]

What I find rather sad is that we are able to say 'I wouldn't eat that' ..when there are millions of peeps surviving on grubs and insects to add some sort of protein in their diet.
OK- not in the UK- but there are some very, very, undernourished peeps around who spend hours each day hunting for insects/grubs to eat.

Tis a sad old world at times isn't it?

(hmm...I know some Chinese peeps who have dried silk moth grubs posted over to them from China to eat! )

[lindyloo]

i agree with that nicos; we really dont appreciate how lucky we are to have a choice- thank heavens i have a choice, or i might starve to death!

[Hilary B]

I've eaten horse meat, (well Shetland pony) because I had a neighbur who bred pedigree Shetlands, and any colt not good enough to sell for a decent price went in the freezer at about 3years old, rather than risk it ending up in the 'care' of some idiot, as is all too likely with low-value pony colts. It was also economically more sensible to eat them than to sell them for less than the price of the equivalent in purchased meat, and none of us were well of at the time.

[Nick Blair]

Has anyone tryed snail salad?