Snail Farm anyone??

Mirtos

Ok. Having grown up in Greece, I'm used to cooking and eating snails as we eat them in lent when meat isn't allowed. Catch your snails (garden variety are fine) Feed them on prridge oats for a week or so, this will fatten them up, clean them out and give them a lovely creamy taste. After a week or more, they are ready - here are 2 of my favourite recipes:
1) Heat some olive oil in a pan with salt, add the snails and some cinnamon and nutmeg and fry for 5 mins. Pour over a generous glass of wine (white or red is fine) and simmer gently for 20 mins. Serve with crusty bread. Yum yum.
2)Snail Stifado. Put olive oil, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, bayleaves, piementos (if you have them), oregano, salt and blackpepper in a deep saucepan. Add onions (preferably small ones, peeled and whole, but larger ones cut in half are also fine) and snails. Pour in red wine to cover, put on lid and allow to simmer gently until onions are soft and translucent (at leat 1 hour). Top up with wine if the juice evaporates. DO NOT ADD WATER. Again, serve with crusty bread. Seriously delicious!Alternatively, just whack em in a pan with loads of butter and garlic and fry til tender.Hope that helps. I LOVE SNAILS!

Mirtos

One more thing - on the snail variety front, in my village, we eat ANY snails. as long as they aren't some kind of tropical, actively poisonous species your fine - Garden ones are certainly ok - I eat them regularly. Shells are either brown and mottled, or the small white ones. Sounds gross, but graveyards tend to attract snails - it's up to you whether you want to eat those ones though!!

zombiecazz

Mirtos wrote:

Ok. Having grown up in Greece, I'm used to cooking and eating snails as we eat them in lent when meat isn't allowed. Catch your snails (garden variety are fine) Feed them on prridge oats for a week or so, this will fatten them up, clean them out and give them a lovely creamy taste. After a week or more, they are ready - here are 2 of my favourite recipes:
1) Heat some olive oil in a pan with salt, add the snails and some cinnamon and nutmeg and fry for 5 mins. Pour over a generous glass of wine (white or red is fine) and simmer gently for 20 mins. Serve with crusty bread. Yum yum.
2)Snail Stifado. Put olive oil, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, bayleaves, piementos (if you have them), oregano, salt and blackpepper in a deep saucepan. Add onions (preferably small ones, peeled and whole, but larger ones cut in half are also fine) and snails. Pour in red wine to cover, put on lid and allow to simmer gently until onions are soft and translucent (at leat 1 hour). Top up with wine if the juice evaporates. DO NOT ADD WATER. Again, serve with crusty bread. Seriously delicious!Alternatively, just whack em in a pan with loads of butter and garlic and fry til tender.Hope that helps. I LOVE SNAILS!

I'm totally inspired.
Could you give me a few more details on exactly how you keep and feed them for a week. Like do you need to give them water? what do you keep them in? How uch do you need to feed them and how?

going to go snail hunting this afternoon.

KathrynPenguin

tim_n wrote:

Beer. They love it. Just stick a few trays down and check regularly. You'll get plenty of slugs too - just feed them to the birds!

I use beer to drown the !!!!!!s - as a money saver I must point out that if you ask in your local for some slops for the snails they are very obliging. OH used to bring home slops once a week!

Probably makes them taste nicer too....

Mirtos

zombiecazz wrote:

I'm totally inspired.
Could you give me a few more details on exactly how you keep and feed them for a week. Like do you need to give them water? what do you keep them in? How uch do you need to feed them and how?

going to go snail hunting this afternoon.

In my village, folks tend to keep them in mesh cages - a fine nylon/plastic net or fine weave chicken wire stuff built across a wire or wood frame. Give them a shallow tray of water and food, and make sure they can't eat anything but what you give them! Leaving them in their cage, ouside is best, so it's open to the elements and they are left in a fairly natural environment. Food quanity depends on how many snails you have! Scatter oatmeal on the floor of the cage - when it is noticeably depleted, top up! One thing though, when you cook, please make sure the pan is hot BEFORE YOU put them in, so it is at least quick! If you're making something that requires a low heat, drop them quickly in boiling water first!

black_pudding_2

You can actually eat slugs too.
You need to go through the same process of starvation (4-6 days) and rinsing

finc

black_pudding wrote:

You can actually eat slugs too.
You need to go through the same process of starvation (4-6 days) and rinsing

Ugghh

I'd rather eat my own foot _pale_

tanith

NO NO NO NO :eek:

Perish the thought

billy_the_kid_2

moggins wrote:

Yep you can eat the ones out of the garden although the ones normally eaten are Roman Snails I think? If they don't stop eating the contents of my garden then snails are all I will have to eat. I did have huge football sized cabbages until the snails got savaged them in one night, I was just on the verge of harvesting them too

We get large numbers of Roman snails here in Surrey, enormous b*****s.
Was definatley interested in trying them, had them in France before, yummy.

Other things to try and catch are freshwater crayfish (yabbies if Australian). We now have had our native crayfish population almost wiped out by the bigger Ameriacan variety. These must taste great too.

prettypennies

I must admit, I am tempted to try the snail stifado. My OH would have a fit! He thinks mussels and prawns are gross.

What is the texture of snails comparable to?