Eating garden snails!!

I once watched a programme where Gordon Ramsay prepared and ate garden snails (escargot)and I have found lots of info on it by googling - My garden is FULL of snails and I have tried them in an Italian restaurant once and really enjoyed them.

My question is has anyone tried using their garden snails and if so was it succesful and have they lived to tell the tale? :D

 

"... and have they lived to tell the tale? "

Who, the snails?

My granny used to cook snails, but I never could bring myself to try them. Ick.

When you trow them in the hot water (alive) they HISS, it's enough to make your skin crawl, and next thing you know, you are removing all the traps from the garden, trowing away the blue pellets, and paying a 0,1percent of your salary to the Fund against Cruelty on Garden Snails.

Nope, I leave the snails to the birds and stay with steaks and bacon, thanks

lol

 

Hi Ivory
I don`t see why you couldn`t eat garden snails,a snails a snail after all. I have eaten snails and it depends on how they are cooked in a nice garlic sauce they`re not bad, it does help if your are slightly inebriated though :D

 

It's quite the thing here to eat garden snails, large and small. We (that is the Portuguese not me personally :rolleyes have snail-eating festivals and they are going on at the moment, just after our rain reason and before our summers without rain. You often see people with buckets or carrier bats scouring the roadsides for this free 'delicacy'. More power to them says I ....

An elderly neighbour of mine used to come over to visit and whilst talking to me would be going around my plants picking these little tiny white-shelled ones off the shrubs and popping them in her pocket to have as a snack later .....

As I understand, they throw them in boilding water with herbs and enjoy ..... puke! :eek:

 

"...it does help if your are slightly inebriated though"

Ah, see? :D

No, I am sure they are good, if well cooked. It's just me. I heard them goin the pot and hiss as a child and never got past it. I kill a lot of snails in the garden and always feel a bit bad about it, lol.

 

mumble mumble... I could open a snail restaurant...
jokes aside, yes, I have eaten snails and frogs, but not from my garden YET. Snails taste like nothing and they are very elastic. it all depends what you put together with them to make it a succesful dish. Frogs taste like muddy water, but I still prefer them to snails...
PS I know they sell some cream made out of the snail jelly ( perhaps anti-wrinkle or similar) but it is not that succesful

 

Apparently you need to either starve them for a few days or feed them on something like lettuce for a while just in case they've been eating some kind of poisonous plant recently to purge them.

 

Yes vegman is right i remember now, you have to keep them in a bucket or something,and starve them so they, to put it bluntly are empty inside.

 

I wonder if you purged them on garlic butter you could kill two birds with one stone ?

 

ramsey said to feed them carrots when your 'holding' them so that when their poo comes out orange you know that the have been purged of everything else they have eaten!!

 

Hmm so general concencus is it is not a good plan then:confused:?!!

I am going to give it a go, I have an abundance of the little critters in my garden and usually just collect them to throw them over the fence into the wood where they undoubtedly slither their slimy selves back a few weeks later so my plan is to eradicate them by eating them will kill two birds with one stone since I am on a mad money-saving exercise at the moment!

Apparently you have to starve them for two days and keep rinsing them, then you feed them for 5 days on lettuce, carrot and/or bran and water and then refrigerate to put them in a deep sleep before cooking them (sounds awful really and I have never killed so much as an ant in my life!!) I read that someone feeds them on herbs and wine so they are already 'marinated' LOL



I will let you know how I get on :D

 

I seem to recall that while you are purging them an idea is to feed them some herbs which will be absorbed into the flesh and make them more tasty

 

erghhh no i just couldnt, no matter how nicely they were prepared and to eat the minging filthy ones from my garden ewww bad enough when i see the cat playing one or my kids letting them crawl on there hands :eek:

 

escargots are lovely when prepared the right way... with lots of garlic/parsley butter... but I would never try and use the ones in my english garden!
back home (in france) they are a special type of snail used and they re massive! (well as far as snails are concerned - escargots de bourgogne), however if you are to use what we term "wild" escargots (as in from your garden and not a snail farm) then it is recommended you "purge" them for at least a fortnight to ensure you get rid of any potential toxins/poisons.....
Bon appetit!

 

I'm sure I read somewhere that mollusks (if that's how you spell it) can be cleansed out by feeding them oats....but don't quote me on it.:thumb: