L'Escargot???

[Snadger]

I have loads of huge snails in my lottie!

Anyone know how to prepare them for eating?

I'ts not only recipes I'm after but how to purge them and make them ready to eat?
Are there any special culinary breeds or will any snail do? Seems such a shame to waste them!

[rustylady]

I really couldn't eat snails. There must be a website that tells you how to prepare them - I think you put them on damp bran to purge them, but really not sure. I'm going to stick to giving mine flying lessons over the fence.

[Alison]

I seem to remember that there was an epidose of The F Word when Gordon Ramsey harvested snails out of his garden and ate them. Not convinced myself as the only time I've ever eaten them they just tasted of the garlic they were cooked in and seemed a bit of a phaff (or however you spell that!)

[Alice]

There was a recent thread Snadger, but can't find it. The theory seemed to be any snail will do, but the big brown ones are the best value. Wash them well over several days by spraying water on them. Feed them on carrots until you see the orange colour at the other end when you know they are well cleaned out. They are then ready for cooking. Enjoy !

[Waffler]

OK - here's what HF-W says on the matter:
Feed them on a one item, purgative diet (sliced carrot, or lettuce, for example) for 5 days, then starve them for 2 days. Although he does say, if you're in a hurry, purge for 3 days then skip the starvation.
They can be prepared in one of 2 ways, depending on the desired end result. If you want them still attached to the shell, but out of it, place the live snails in unsalted, fresh, cold water, so they come out of their shells, then gently heat. Salt the water (once they're 'asleep') and bring to the boil, simmering for 10 minutes. The other way involves shaking the live snails in a washing up bowl or similar, so they retract in to their shells. You then plunge them in to boiling water (or veg stock, or whatever you fancy). Bring back up to the boil and simmer for 10. Strain them off, then once they're cool enough to handle, remove the meat from the shell with a pin.

Recipes:
Garlic snails - Fry some garlic in a shed load of butter, add half a glass of wine and allow to bubble loads. Chuck in the snails and bubble for 2 mins. Add chopped parsley and serve with french bread.
Snail gratin - Do as above, but without the wine, and use shell-less snails. Put snails in ramekins and top with breadcrumbs and grill (personally, if I were doing this one, I'd fry off the breadcrumbs in yet more butter first; makes it richer and more crispy.)
Snail rissotto - pretty much chuck garlic-prepared shell-less snails in whatever your favourite basic rissotto recipe is.

My own idea: use in a paella, once again, prepared in garlic butter. Would be a fine substitute for mussels I reckon.

Happy snail hunting!!

[Snadger]

OK - here's what HF-W says on the matter:
Feed them on a one item, purgative diet (sliced carrot, or lettuce, for example) for 5 days, then starve them for 2 days. Although he does say, if you're in a hurry, purge for 3 days then skip the starvation.
They can be prepared in one of 2 ways, depending on the desired end result. If you want them still attached to the shell, but out of it, place the live snails in unsalted, fresh, cold water, so they come out of their shells, then gently heat. Salt the water (once they're 'asleep') and bring to the boil, simmering for 10 minutes. The other way involves shaking the live snails in a washing up bowl or similar, so they retract in to their shells. You then plunge them in to boiling water (or veg stock, or whatever you fancy). Bring back up to the boil and simmer for 10. Strain them off, then once they're cool enough to handle, remove the meat from the shell with a pin.

Recipes:
Garlic snails - Fry some garlic in a shed load of butter, add half a glass of wine and allow to bubble loads. Chuck in the snails and bubble for 2 mins. Add chopped parsley and serve with french bread.
Snail gratin - Do as above, but without the wine, and use shell-less snails. Put snails in ramekins and top with breadcrumbs and grill (personally, if I were doing this one, I'd fry off the breadcrumbs in yet more butter first; makes it richer and more crispy.)
Snail rissotto - pretty much chuck garlic-prepared shell-less snails in whatever your favourite basic rissotto recipe is.

My own idea: use in a paella, once again, prepared in garlic butter. Would be a fine substitute for mussels I reckon.

Happy snail hunting!!

Thanks Waffler...some good info there!

[Mrs Dobby]

Hi Snadger!

Mmm! Personally I've eaten snails (when visiting france a few years ago), and even Mr D has had whelks and winkles (sea faring version of a snail methinks), but I'm not sure I could convince him to eat the garden snails we could quite easily collect!

Good luck with giving it a go yourself though, kudos to you for being a brave food warrior and trying them! Are you going to be cooking them, or is another going to be preparing them for you?

[Snadger]

Cooking them?? Had a good look at one today, hoiked it out of its shell and if I hadn't just finished a pork pie would have eaten it raw, ah-la-HFW with a drop of soy sauce!