Snails preparation and usage

[Blasfemo]

Hey all

First real post yay

So my question is how many of you have ever tried snails? and what methods of preparation did you used?

Were i am there are several gourmets options on how to eat big brown snails (Helix pomatia) but i try to catch and cook the white little ones, the first challenge i was faced was how to get rid of the slime they release.

I have used 3 different ways to do this

1) put them in a container with a piece of hard bread and a little flour on the bottom, in a 5 to 10 days time they will be clean and ready to prepare.

2) if you have salt at your disposal and little water you might want to get them in a container with some water and salt and this will speed the process also but this might take some time and might also kill some of the snail before they get in the water.

3) if you have vinegar or other acid, lemon for example, you might wash the the snails with some acid and several waters and they will progressively lose the slime but it will take some time and a lot of water to get them at a edible point.

Now second challenge was how to prepare them, boiling is the way i went so far normally with one onion,, oregano and salt in a slow fire. They will slowly some out and you can use a needle or a toothpick to get them out of the shell.

Also doing all this is a survival or limited situation might be tricky, several problems arise, depending on how prepared you are. Any ideas how to improvise in that case?

[Alaskan Survivalist]

I wished I could help but you just told me more about snails than I ever knew. I have had them in resturants smothered in butter and liked them. What doesn't taste good smothered in butter? Never mind that, where do you find enough snails to make a meal out of them?

[Blasfemo]

well here in the peninsula in some spots you can get 2, 4 6 kilos of snails in a morning if there is a mist and and you wake up early... i was thinking its everywhere like this... they reproduce a lot, and i have thought a lot of times, "if **** hits the fence snails is easy way to get some food... there are some marine ones i have tried but in this post i was hoping we stick with terrestrial ones since they are more easy to catch and consume\preserve.

[Alaskan Survivalist]

Will you define "some spots" better?

[Blasfemo]

next to riverside terrains or were a lot of Taraxacum officinale is available they tend to stick in groups in the stalks you just need to pick them up, or, in the sides of the road were vegetation stays short but provides enough cover and some foliage for feeding, if there is a lot of humidity in early morning is the best time to catch them at least this is what i was thought and i can catch a lot of them in a good day...

[rwc1969]

I found a bunch of larger woodland? shelled snails the other day. they were all hanging at the tops of some unknown plant that was next to some mustard. It's the only plant they were on and they were on many of them. I've never seen them like that before. I think Canadian Guerilla ate some, but I was hesitant.

[Rick]

Soooooo, you smoked but didn't inhale?

[Blasfemo]

I found a bunch of larger woodland? shelled snails the other day. they were all hanging at the tops of some unknown plant that was next to some mustard. It's the only plant they were on and they were on many of them. I've never seen them like that before. I think Canadian Guerilla ate some, but I was hesitant.

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This is the ones i see most having that "community plant" behaviour, i love it because its much easy to get a lot of them, once you see the plant your sure to get lots of them....

[Ken]

These are the most common snails up my way. Periwinkles.

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You find 'em all over the tidal rocks on the ocean shoreline. When I was a kid, we'd pick 'em by the bucketfull. Today, you need a license to get them.

Prep is simple. Rinse them out in a pan of cold water. Change the water and boil them with a dash of salt. When done, remove the little plastic-like "cap" over the top and pick out the winkle with a hairpin. Great with drawn butter!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_periwinkle

[Rick]

Thanks Melissa.

[Blasfemo]

I know that ones we call that "Burriés" and i had lots of that now i moved away from the sea, we prepare it with:

1 Spoon of olive oil
1 onion cut in half
salt
Piri piri
oregano

Boil and the rest if the same.

We have two species here one is a no go because it can get you a disease that i dont know the name will edit the post with that info once i find the english name for it.