Garden Snail Risotto

It’s time. A week ago I collected my snails, and after five days of banqueting on the finest of Waitrose greens, plus an extra two on a starvation diet, my slimy pals are purged of all impurities and ready for the pot.

Awaiting Slaughter

The slaughter is made more difficult than expected because over the last week I’ve grown attached to the little fellas, humanising them somewhat by giving them names. In the picture above, Valentino Rossi can be seen clambering over a couple of the less dominant members of the family (middle right), while Chandler is the alert looking creature (top left) about to give Princess B a ride. What Princess B doesn’t realise, of course, is that this ride will surely be her last.

Boiled Alive

And into the pan they go. Reluctantly ignoring their silent snail screams, I boil them gently for ten minutes. Rather strangely, the water turns yellow, but I can’t find any reference to this on the Internet - I’m hoping it’s not some kind of toxic gastropod secretion, but only history will tell. Cooking time over, I’m able to extract the fleshy morsels from their homes using a corkscrew.

De-Shelled

I’ll admit that at the moment they don’t look too appetising, especially the ones that seem to have some kind of vibrant green slime adorning their nicely plump exteriors. I can solve this, however, by sautéing them for a couple of minutes in butter and finely sliced garlic after a quick wash. In the picture below, this process is documented in the rear saucepan, while the foreground wok bears all the hallmarks of a wild mushroom risotto about 14 minutes into its alloted cooking time.

cooking

A few short minutes later, and everything is ready. I’ve added the snails and some Parmesan to the risotto, and we’re ready to eat.

Yummy

It’s not bad. The snails actually taste like the ones I’ve had in professional restaurants (i.e. like a slightly rubbery, garlicky version of yes, you guessed it, chicken), and they go well with the risotto. It’s a success.

Would I do it again? Well, there’s a lot of work involved. You need to stalk the snails under cover of darkness, keep them fed for the best part of a week (they got through nearly £2 worth of salad), clean death row regularly (you don’t want them to start snacking on their own poop if they get hungry), then lead them guiltily to the killing floor. This bit, although mildly traumatic, wasn’t nearly as hard as I expected, and I’m proud of the fact that I’ve hunted, slain and cooked my own dinner.

Next up, polar bear.

Or dog. I don’t like dogs much.

137 Comments so far
Leave a comment

Try the same recipe with slugs and let us know what it tastes like.

I thought i might be able to eat that. I was wrong. i don’t think i could, not after seeing the preparation anyway.
And yes - why don’t people eat slugs? Less hassle, surely?

And watch it - i like dogs. They are nice.
Cats - try cat instead.

I imagine people don’t eat slugs because they’re worried about possible brain damage.

I will never eat cat.

Hmm, that might out a bit of a downer on a meal, I guess. If you’re the picky type.

Dog stew is really yummy (somewhere between lamb and beef) I had it in a restaurant on the China Korea border. The off putting thing was the fried dogs paws on the table which I chose to not to try.
If you like weird food go to china (they will expect you to eat snake and donkey and insects but you can trump them with a jar of stilton and watch them recoil in horror)

I’m not sure I’m happy with you calling one of them Princess B….
although she is the prettiest…
the original Princess B (a vegetarian)

I had dog on a visit to Korea.

Rubbery.

No, really. Rubbery.

Are you going to catch your own polar bear? I remember reading somewhere that polar bears are the only animal to have evolved techniques especially for killing humans. Best of British.

I was fed dog on an island in the Philippines. The locals didnt like my sister, Lisa, and they liked a dog called Jaguar she had befriended even less. My mum spotted a lady with a baseball bat tempting him into her house with some food that morning.
My sister and mum knew exactly what was going on that evening at dinner, but Lisa joyously let me eat a good few mouthfuls before she told me what was going on.
Actually, it was nice, and very much like pork but a bit darker.
Poor Jaguar :(

i thought the discussion here was food, scary… not sexploits? :)

Eh? Sexploits?

Anyway. I still reckon snail is one thing I couldn’t eat, even though you’ve managed to lessen the horror somewhat by your description. The yellow water sounds a little off-putting.

Fraser, you seriously need a new crockery set. That plate’s design is rancid.

You’re not wrong. They’re ancient and rather horrid, and as soon as I’m not living in a flatshare environment I shall purchase a nice, plain white set.

I’ve had snail before, although have to admit that I’ve never prepped it myself. It is a bit like chewing on garlic butter innertubes. I think people opt for snails before slugs because snails live in a shell and can be removed from it, whereas slugs have a small shells inside them, if that makes sense.

If you do fell a polar bar, remember not to eat his liver since it has a lethal dose of vitamin a. (yeah even more than the 1000% RDA vitamin tablets you get from Holland and barrat).

A dog is interesting since it is a carnivore. Putting aside the sheeps brains and tripe they feed to pigs. Most red meat that we eat comes from omnivores.

But where to get pre-prepared dogmeat?

Ant: Battersea.

Fras,

I’m surprised you don’t like dogs, I’m trying to deduce whether I now have less respect for you?

Simon.

Snails and porridge. Two words that should never be uttered, never mind uttered, buttered and broiled together. Sorry, but bleh.

For your convenience, Battersea meat is already tenderised.

Robyn: Actually even if you don’t use snails, the porridge looks like quite a nice recipe.

I regularly make a congee which is rice based porridge. I have made it with chicken, monkfish, pork dumpling and put all the perishable greens in my fridge before I go away for a weekend.
It is lovely comfort food and you can experiment so freely with it. I’m sure a snail congee would be rather tasty also.

The porridge title is misleading anyway. It’s not a genuine porridge, but a risotto made with oats instead of rice. Having sampled said dish, I can vouch for the fact that it’s nothing like the traditional warming winter breakfast. It’s not at all ‘gloopy’.

Oh, I quite like the idea of snail readybrek.
Yes, it’s the gloopyness of congee that makes it so warmning.

This recipe is close enought to what I make.

do you kill them by boiling them or do you have to kill ‘em before boiling?

I killed them by dropping them directly into the boiling water.

damn thats gotta affect your karma!

Oooom, surely there is more karma with the honesty of DIY slaughter rather than a production line of constant death which releases the souls of a million animals. :-/

I have to agree with Bendigeidfran.
Yum, snails. I had them in France, mashed with God knows what into a vivid green paste and stuffed back into the shells from which they came. While the texture was… slightly disturbing, they didn’t taste bad.
Dog next!

Bear’s good - had it in a Russian restaurant in Helsinki. Texture of beef but with a quite a gamey flavour. They sell it in tins at Duty Free, but I’m not sure if you’re allowed to bring it into the UK. I don’t know what kind of bear it was either - Brown Bear maybe?

You should be fine with tinned meat going from one EU country to another.
Though bear is probably considered bushmeat since it is hunted in the wild.

You are not allowed to bring any meat from outside the EU.
I had a check when bringing in a some chorizo from spain and found this PdF

You can get all sorts of crazy meat at brixton, including bat if you so fancy. But this Observer article is enough to make me stick to chicken.

I’m from Burgundy, and the snails are a local delicassy. you should have put them covered them with salt (for 1/2 to 1 day)in order for them to lose some of the water before cooking them

My father’s from west Cork, which is renowned for it’s food, although i always found his eating tripe (sheep’s stomach lining, cooked in milk, usually served with cabbage and rashers [bacon for americans]) quite disgustingly old-school. Just because of the way it quivers…
That and cow tongue - which is good meat, but I hated openign the fridge to see three hwole blue cow tongue’s sticking out, like the fridge was trying to lick me.
And if you ever pass through Peru, try guinea pig. It’s a little fiddly but not without it’s charm. Good places serve it whole so you know it’s not cat. the only other odd ones I tried were predictable ones in africa - beyond warthog and crocodile, all the rest of the meats are fine no matter how unusual the animal.

Oh and I should have added: this section is fantastic. ood luck with your next experiment, they’re a surprisingly good read, and very well documented! :)

You shouldn’t worry about the yellowing of the water. Any snails I find on my beloved garden vegetables get stuck in a pot and then I pour boiling water over them. Guess what? The water always goes yellow. Just seems to be a by-product of boiling snails alive.

We have a slight influx of snails at the moment. Was clearing the front garden of rubbish (a luxury that comes of living with “Young Professionals”) and moved (tenderly) 12 snails to a safer place. They all went on holiday to the back garden. I suppose one advantage of eating garden snails is that they are ‘organic’ as opposed to the battery snails in France.

Still couldn’t eat them. They just look too cute. Those EYES!!!

Back to the slugs….the problem with them is put a bit of salt on them and they froth up and melt….not very appetising!

As for the yellowing of the water, put me in boiling water and it would soon turn yellow as I would p!ss myself!

I’ve got a couple of pet indoor leopard slugs which come out at night and clean up the odd bits of food which the cats leave on the carpet. They’re quite attractive. I didn’t know that stuff about meningitis though - I’ve sometimes found them on the kitchen surfaces, so now I’ll start wiping up after them.

I always wondered what my mums Parrot would taste like.

Had snail in West Africa working there about 10 years ago. Like the one’s that I’d had in restaurants before except this one was supersized - really supersized. The memory is making me gag. Also had fresh raw goats liver and onion in Khartoum about 2 months later. After a dozen cubes of that it became a challenge to keep it all down. Give me a small garden snail any day over that.

It seems that a few things went wrong in the pre-cooking phase, i.e your snails still had lots of crap in and around them.
But here is how to prepare snails properly(whatever you want to use them in afterwards):

*Feed your snails for 2 days(I give em dill for the taste), and nothing for 5-6 days.
*Wash your snails the first 2 or 3 evenings with cold water, it activates them and makes them empty their intestine and lose more drool.
*Put them in fast boiling water, and leave them 3 minutes after the water boils again.
*Take them out of their shells and remove their hepato-pancreas(the grimy small curly bit)
*Cook them in court bouillon @1h, then you can use them.

I like the idea of a risotto!! Good site

Good advice! Thanks.

Hmm… we have those plates…

Sorry Fraser. You’ve given us some truly amazing things before now, but this is minging. I like snails. It’s your gummy mixture and the green stuff you describe that knackers this fayre.

It reminds me of an old joke about the pissed bloke who spewed up on his dog.
In the morning he says, ‘I don’t remember eating that.’

Same thing, only with snails.

Bad boy. Must try harder.

It’s the oldest tradition in biology. Discover new forms of life, then eat them.

Although I am a Chinese, I wouldn’t eat a dog or a cat. I love em… but I have tried the Chinese donkey burger…. It’s delish! And deep fried maggots? Not quite sure what they are, but it’s tastes good. Snake… I love snake meat. Snake dumplings and deep fried snake are my favorites! Tortoise meat’s not good, it’s kinda like porky fish, but it costs a bomb and doesn’t have much meat. Horse meat, a little sourish, but it is not too bad.

Talk about weird food. I had raw (live) octopus sashimi in Korea. It’s chopped up live (sounds a bit savage), it curls up your chopsticks when you pick it up… bite and pull it off of your chopsticks. A little weird at first, cos it will wiggle in your mouth… but it taste really good.

I can be brave at eating what others created in a resturant…. but I would never try to eat a garden snail….. that’s scary to me. :-D

hehe snailies seem quite polarising.
There is a good scene in the Korean film “Old boy” where a guy eats a live octopus and the last tenticle wriggles around while hanging out of his mouth.
I thought it was just fabricated until we started doing business in Korea and it has become a bit of a macho dare for the boys when going out to eat after meetings.
No doubt about freshness eh.

It’s funny that we are squeamish about some animals or disgusted by the thought of others. I mean look at the monkfish have you seen it…it’s a munter of a fish and also looks too pathetic to kill. But oh how tasty a fish.
It’s all made of the same stuff really. atoms or something.

If i had to do extreme cooking, then I would go for roasted king tarantula egg omelette. It’s meant to be pretty disgusting but It would be very manly.

Surprised that most say they wouldnt eat cats or dogs.
All i can say to this is, ever been for a curry after a session in the pub!

Nice work. I like the wild food edge. ´Glad to see it can be done, although the cost of snail prep kinda takes the edge off it a bit.

When I saw you were planning this I got quite aroused and immediately went out for snail noodle soup at a swanky new joint in Saigon. Now, I´m in Andorra and I find myself aroused again. Snails it is tonight then. Also, I will be hunting for wild garlic tomorrow in the Pyrennes, maybe I´ll find some edible creatures that don´t move very quickly to. Hope so.

Robyn: Actually even if you don’t use snails, the porridge looks like quite a nice recipe.

::Runs away screaming::

i tried the meats in africa, which were all good, bar one…
well, i asked what our local chappy guide-type was eating, and he replied “giraffe”. hmm, i thought, aren’t we in the middle of a national park.. anyhoo, he asked if i wanted some, which i did. Tried it, horrible.. tasted of rotted fish. absolutely foul. Trying to be polite i decided not to vomit, and instead asked “hang on, i thought that you werent allowed to kill giraffes, how are you eating this?”
to which he answered “no, it’s ok, this one dropped dead a couple of miles from here”
hmmm.. i dont recommend old-aged/diseased giraffe meat to anyone..

try higher up the food chain..House sparrows and robins are a real hunters gastric delight. Big cardboard box, some string and a stick is all you need, oh and a garden with some bread on the lawn. Use your hunting skills to entice them in then pull away stick to snare. Need at least 7 to make a decent meal. Roast with vegetables from same garden and serve with a chilled Chardonney. Hmmmm sparrowy

What a discusting thing, but funny=)

I’ve cooked garden snails in the past & can thoroughly recommend them.
To get rid of the residual sliminess found after boiling them, toss them in a bowl of salt for a minute or two, then rinse them in cold water.

I tend to stay away from over garlicky sauces, as these overpower the taste of snail.

Instead, I make a red wine sauce. Saute in butter a finely chopped shallot with but one clove of chopped garlic; put in a glass or two of red wine and some chopped fresh herbs. Throw in the boiled snails, & bubble for a couple of minutes.

Season with freshly milled black pepper & salt, then serve in a bowl with crusty bread. Eat by themselves - you get a really good snail hit without the distraction of other ingredients.

20 snails make a starter, or 30+ for a main course (per person).

Not to be missed!

The one time I had snails before, they tasted like garlic rubber. Do yourself a favour and buy some mussels instead!
I did cook a cricket stir-fry for some friends a while ago. You can get them from places that sell live food for lizards, but you have to feed them up on lettuce for about a week to purge them of the horrible treated newspaper they feed them on. This also gives you chance to see which ones are a bit sickly. Then, collect the live ones, and kill them - easiest by just putting them in a bag in the freezer (I’m not too bothered about invertebrate cruelty, but this is supposedly the kindest way in any case) and use them like anything else (prawns, chicken) in a stir-fry.
They’re fucking horrible; slightly nutty but basically goo, and the ectoskeleton is one of those things that gets stuck between your teeth, like the husk from corn cobs. You can use grasshoppers instead but then you’re supposed to remove the heads and legs (the former because they taste nasty, the latter because they have little barbs) so it’s easier to use crickets.
Also, be warned if you’re going to have to sleep in the same room as them - they’re noisy little bastards. Not really worth the trouble, really.

I have no problem with snails, but who puts massive lumps of carrot in a risotto? Yuck.

It’s not carrot, it’s mushroom.

Lecker - lecker!!!!! Hier die Reaktion von einem Freund, dem ich den Link geschickt hatte…..

na schönen dank auch …. komme grad von ner wüsten betrinke i.d. letzten nacht (kiste bier + polnischen + russischen wodka) mit dickem schädel zurück u. hätte mich ebend fast übergeben ………….
hab selber spass!
ingo

(is mir übel…………….)

Well, after reading some of these posts I just cringed, especially the ones which mentioned putting the snails in salt before you kill them… That’s like letting a human marinate in sulphuric acid for a day or two! My grandma used to throw salt into the garden to prevent the snails from eating her veggie garden and I can tell you they ran like no snail had run before!

As a born and raised ‘alfacinha’ (that’s slang for someone who was born in Lisbon), I grew up learning about snacks and delicacies people in my country gobble up right before or instead of dinner. You can find exceptionally well prepared snails in just about every traditional tavern over here. Except, unlike the French, we actually try to improve the flavour of the little slimy buggers before we eat them…
If you ever want to try it again (which I doubt), follow these steps:

- 1st: Use the medium sized snails, not those huge ones we see in the picture and DON’T put them in salt… it does no significant good and just prolongs the trial of the tiny tubes of snot. Besides, you need the water they have inside them to cook them properly. And you don’t have to starve them either. Instead, put them inside a large bowl, sprinkle them with flour (yes, flour) and let them be for a day or two. This will make the snails eat the flour and shit all the grass and cabbage they’ve been eating for the last days and prevent the nasty flavour of it of getting mixed into the stew you’re about to eat. I mean, you’re already eating snot, so why add shit?

- 2nd: Wash them thoroughly until all the snot has come out (I don’t mean individually, just make sure the water comes out with no bubbles of –you guessed it – snot). Do this about ten minutes before you’re ready to put them inside the pan. It’ll give them time to come of their shells.

- 3rd: Cut up tons of garlic, a medium sized onion, put it in a large pan with olive oil and let it sizzle until the onion is transparent, then add two bay leaves and some tomato sauce (like what you use when you’re making pasta) and a chicken Knorr cube (trust me, it works). Oh, and a bit of bacon (not the kind you buy at the supermarket- the smoke-cured kind: get it at a good delicatessen).Throw in the unsuspecting snails in there and let it stew. The snails will let out all that water inside them and slowly cook in it. Just before you take it out of the fire, add some oregano and some chilli peppers.

- 4rth: They go along perfectly with beer and taste even better if you heat them up the day after. And don’t add any siding to it; it’s a delicacy, not something you mix with rice or mash potatoes.

Forget escargot- it’s pretentious and ridiculously expensive for a simple plate of garden pests! If you want to try large snails, have it like we have it here: grilled on a hot plate and served with a butter and garlic sauce.

Food habits are just a question of geography: we eat lamb’s testicles, octopus, chicken’s bowels and feet, pig’s snout, feet and ear. We eat cow’s stomach lining, brains and tongue. I guess the only thing we don’t eat is insects, people and pets (except if they’re rabbits). And some of it tastes really good…! I should know, ‘cause I’ve eaten it!
Oh, we also have normal food, in case you’re wondering…

Another masterpiece Fraser…

For your next venture into the gastronomic world, why don’t you head back out to the garden, perhaps to a pond?

Frogs legs should be a doddle for you now… maybe even toads legs if the former aren’t forthcoming?!

But those plates are hideous….

I have some pet giant land snails(illegal in USA) they would take a bit of eating as they are about 8 inches long but they just laid 200 eggs so I may have to start!

*Belgaifran: There is a good scene in the Korean film “Old boy” where a guy eats a live octopus and the last tenticle wriggles around while hanging out of his mouth.*

I just wanted to say that I think this film rocks! I totally freaked out on the octopus scene.

RE: Octopus, there’s a clip on Travel Sick (usually on Bravo or Ftn, a must see), where Grub Smith tries to find the most disgusting food in Korea, he ends up eating a live Octopus, which gets stuck to his face as he tries to eat it. One of the funniest things I’ve seen in a while

Click here for the clip

Crikey.

That’s all I have to say on that.

I live in Vietnam and snails are sold everywhere for streetfood, boiled and served with a lemongrass, chili dip (seems to be chick food only for some reason I’ve not fathomed). Though when people pick them out of the shells they only eat the first bit which is the muscle, not whats all coiled up throughout the shell as that is the guts & shit… which may be worth bearing in mind for next time.

That was morbidly fascinating…

about the dog…

I’ve heard there’s a Thai cookbook specializing on that ingredient

“100 ways to wok your dog”

thats the most disgusting thing eva omg thats sooo grouse im mean ewww n the poor snails imagine if some1 ate u huh how wud u like that

disgusting!

we eat lamb’s testicles, octopus, chicken’s bowels and feet, pig’s snout, feet and ear. We eat cow’s stomach lining, brains and tongue

This is called Walls sausages over here

If you need snails - come to my house just after its rained - the other night whilst have a sneaky fag just outside my backdoor i counted 14 snails all around me. yuck

When I was in China I had drunken prawns. These come to the table still alive in a covered bowl of rice spirit called ‘baijo’ After a few minutes they fall asleep. I ate several, but was very ill the next day……more likely due to the enormous amount of beer I drunk.

At a second gala dinner we had a centre piece on the table of half a live lobster. The attenna and eyes were moving around. I always thought that lobsters only went pinky orange when plunged in boiling water, as this was the colour of the lobster I suspect they had put it in water, but left the head out so it remains alive. They then took it away and bought it back in pieces deep fried….very nice, but a bit surreal

i have actually got a tank with garden snails in it and one of them has recently had eggs but as not many people get garden snails to keep as pets then i cant find much information on how to look after them can anyone help me please?

Now that we’ve discovered your passion, next time you drop by we’ll bring you in the rice region between Turin and Milan. They eat snails and frogs. Actually, fried frogs (which are a very traditional dish there, and I’ve tried a couple of times) are not too different from chicken wings.

yes incase you didnt actually realise i was asking for help thats not exactly helping me now is it but all the same thankyou for the information .

[...] From Alexander comes a link to someone who is pushing their culinary boundaries quite a bit farther than I am willing to go here at The Grown Diaries. This is not for the squeamish: Garden Snail Risotto. It’s time. A week ago I collected my snails, and after five days of banqueting on the finest of Waitrose greens, plus an extra two on a starvation diet, my slimy pals are purged of all impurities and ready for the pot. [...]

Will try that the recipe today. Plenty of snails about inthe yard. will feed them parsley for a few days first

Hello, everyone, I am interested in growing snails on a large scale but I do not know the best way to feed them. What feeds do they eat and where can I get the feeds. please help out!!! please send direct response to eseoku@yahoo.com
Thank you

“I imagine people don’t eat slugs because they’re worried about possible brain damage.”

Ya…or not. Meningitis can be found in snails as well. Giant African Land Snail for example(others may give parasites). The guy only got this because he ate them raw obviously. Cooking them first won’t lead to any problems.

To the story creator, I love snails but I won’t bitch at ya for cooking ‘em. At least you didn’t slaughter them for no reason :). I prefer apple snails than garden snails anyhow.

Thanks for the recipe !

dl your ace i have garden snails with babies apple snails and a giant african land snail

Heh, heh . . .my daughter just adopted a garden snail as a pet. Heck , why not? It’s in a jar right now - actually, I found this site while I was loking up proper care of them. Apparently, they’ll eat just about anything vegetable.

I had escargot once, wasn’t all that impressed. For “wild” food, I prefer quail, venison, gator and snake. I also like to catch and boil my own blue crabs - way better than lobster. Haven’t tried dog, but my hubby did while deployed with the Navy. Said he had it at a Greek ship’s barbecue, and ate before he knew what it was. Said it was actually pretty good, though.

I draw the line at eating the brains, or feet of any animal though. (How would you EVER get the feet really clean? Have you ever seen a live pig’s or chicken’s feet? I have. Not pretty.) You’ll get Mad Cow, or some variety of CFJ from eating brains. Here in the U.S. they have Mad Squirrel disease - folks in Appalachia got that. Who knew?

*shiver*

ur tight nd u just dumb as f**k

hi pet lover just to say i have snls from my garden so here are some tips i searched for finding and keeping them;

step 1:get a handful or two of snails

step 2:put them on a smooth surface and wait for a few to wake up(if they already have get more that havent woken)take the quickest few to wake up take as many as you like but make sure you have more than you want to keep.

step 3:put the others back and choose two you like out of the already out ones.

step 4:make a small obsticle course for them and let them go through it any that are too slow go to sleep or run away put back.

step 5:you should be left with much less and near the amount you want to keep(usually only 1 or 2 will remain lol)

step 6:if u still have too many race them find out wich ones are the fastest and hang them off a table by their foot (their head)and add other snails see wich ones are the strongest.

step 7:snails enjoy company so put them in a container and watch where they go, if they are going on top of each other or curving round each other this means they like each other.(if they are putting their heads together and rubbing feet they are mating lol and probably should be seperated unless many babies are wanted lol)

step 8:once you have sorted them into groups of the number you want race the groups and keep the fastest or if you want one that isnt greedy then give them food and see who eats the most and kick them off the team lol.

YOU HAVE NOW CHOSEN YOUR PERFECT SNAIL HERE ARE SOME CLEANING AND FEEDING DIRECTIONS.

cleaning:snails arent very hygenic animals so you dont need to bath them unless they get salt on them. But you will need to add soil to their home every week and remove any old soil. Put leaves and twigs in their tank or home to add a natural feel for them you will also need to have a lid on the tank or home because they will easily escape up the walls of a lidless tank.

their home:
their home will have to have a lid.

their home will have to have soil and twigs in the bottom.

if their tank is glass do not keep in direct sunlight as their heads will swell up and explode and the snail will die.(has happened to me before and lets just say it wasnt pretty.

make sure the leaves are not poisonous by only choosing leaves that healthy snails are eating in your garden or wherever you found them

take some leaves from where you found the snail as they will like to feel at home

ask before you take the leaves they may grow to nice flowers and mum and dad wont be happy with that lol.

make sure ur snails have a nice amount of room in their tank as they like to go far

let them out for walkies lol every so often

if u go on holiday leave them with someone you can trust to look after them and leave them with instructions.

FEEDING:do not feed them salt! they will shrivel and die.

you can feed them 1 or two cat biscuits if you have a cat.

but make sure their is no salt in it lol

feed it almost any easy to chew fruits or veg in small amounts but beware hungry snail bite and if you are ticklish this is dangerous lol
if it is chewing on you hands try giving it some no added salt meat or potatoe you can even give them milk or cheese as these are high in protein lol

give it fresh water evry time it empties or shits in it.

cucumber is my snails favourite.

i hope this information has been helpful

wow sos i wrote loads

errm dont mean to be rude but sum of that information is a bit sad nd also a bit bodged if you search it up youll find out why i only no cuz iv had garden snails for years and a giant african land snail for five months thanx x

u evil cow how culd u do dat?!

who the hell was that to

I’m keeping 2 snails as pets. Anyways the bad thing about snails is that they’re both male and female. Kinda sick dontchya think? Its like doing yourself.

how could u u creep thats cruelty to snail i hope u choke on them boiling the poor things live how could u

u should be ashamed !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You can’t even spell humane. How can you be expected to be taken seriously?

yeh they are hermaphrodites wich means they have both sexual organs but they cannot have sex wth themselves nto that sick really lol sorry about my spelling im a bit of a snail freak i didnt mean to but i changed my name from animal lover up the top to sam so im the same lol xx

eating snails!!!.. now ve seen it all!!!.. how disgustin!!!!.. i wouldnt do it for nothing… it seems there is a lack of food in this world.. thts y some people are resorting to extremely unappetising and nauseating stuff like that.. full marks for bravery though!!!!

must be thirty years since I last had snails, now just remove them every night from the garden. Neighbour must wonder why his garden has twice as many snails as anybody elses, as I don’t like to kill them just drop them on his lawn. Would have a few as pets but the wife hates them. Anyone wanting some? humanely posted with fresh veg.

Hey, I bet you’re a motorcycle race fan! Anyway, I’m planning on trying the snail myself here, since moving to Oregon I’ve stumbled into a treasue trove. I’ve had them in restraurants but figure I can do even better with fresh ones.

Don’t mind all the cruelty comments, coming from a bunch of poeple who are quite comfortable having other people do their killing for them and not knowing the details. That goes for you vegetable killing types too! If that boiling bothers people, they can put them in cold water then bring to boil, puts ‘em to sleep (works for lobsters anyway.

Brad

okkkkk…………..

[...] blogjam » Blog Archive » Garden Snail Risotto (tags: freaky) [...]

UGH!! You sick sick people!! I cannot believe you are actually having a discussion over DOG MEAT!! That’s disgusting! I mean I would NEVER eat a dog!! I have one as a pet for GODS SAKE!! You can’t eat house hold creatures! Id rather eat my own foot LMFAO!! Well maybe not! But i think u all are already brain damaged and dont need to eat slugs to get brain damage!! UGH!! SICKOOOOOOOSSSSSS!!!!!

hya, i think that all of this creature cookin is absoultely discusting and the thought that u wud actually do any of this is sick. i cannot believe somebody ate dog..or even cat. how would ya lyk it if someone turned round n said “oh why not try a human arm?” or summat?! would ya do that?! i dont think ya would.

and.. can i just say sumthing.. why dus every new meat that people try ALWAYS seem to taste like chicken.. ??

oooh, atlast we have had a good down poor. The snails came out yesterday, i got 30 of the lil beauties! just cleaning them out now, then will stick a carrot in, just like gordon ramsey!! mmmm, finger licking good!
i must say, there poo is rather discusting! euww

GOD!!! id neva be able to eat snails, or frogs legs!!! its absolutely horrible, i see frogs legs in pics and i just wanna spew :(

I am a commercial snail farmer and would like to suppy your restaurant on a regular basis if you would just make orders. Thanks foryour anticipated responce

i want to sell snails to willing restaurants. i am a commercial snail farmer. my phone no is 234-1-08054454133. thanks for anticipated responce

i want to try snails realy badly but i live in usa please give me a phone numbre to call

[...] Now - are you enjoying it? If so, you might want to further explore this avenue of free food, or even experiment with breeding your own (and feeding them herbs for new flavours). If so, check out this herticulture website. You can also find a great recipe (and blog) here. [...]

[...] mentioned Heston Blumenthal’s critically acclaimed snail porridge. Now here is a recipe for snail risotto. The sad thing in Melbourne is that the one person who cultivated snails locally does it no more. [...]

Cannot believe all these sick people.

Have two Giant African Landsnail pets, who are v. cute, though not as cute as my two dogs.

How can anyone know these creatures and eat them??

Yours,
happy to eat beef, chicken etc.,
A

I love snails. I don’t know why. I was looking on line to see if they could eat bananas. I never found out and I still haven’t. Someone please tell me iof snails can eat bananas. This is my e-mail address:racheltwighlightprincess@yahoo.com. Please e-mail me somebody

Dan is gonna have this too!

you eat your so stupid.Dogs are the best pets to have

good for you

Thaks for you advice I will try that tonite. At least you sound confident about what you are doing.
I am English and want to start a modest snail farm in the Philippines as excess banana leaves are every where. I will give your recipe to my eventual clients even print it on the bag labels
Thanks nice one.
See you in year in Marinduque Wet market maybe

Snails are so cute.
How could you kill them like that?
I have four as pets ;-; you must be really,really cold hearted..

sorry but i would never ever eat a snails because i have 2 Ginat African ones and about 9 garden ones in the garage, i would never in my life eat a snail, especialy if i had been looking after them for a few weeks getting ready to cook them, yuck

ane just got to ask, how do you boil a snails gently? its not possible to boil some thing and be gentle with it at the same time? still think its horrible

hey you with the giant african snail im with you. i like snails and would not want to eat them i have 1 garden snail which i raised from an egg [he/she because snails are male and female is very happy] and i would never eat him her. and im digusted with that peoples ewwww

i hate u soo much snail eater!
snail lover

ewwww i am disgusted u eat snail me and jordan[my snail which is sitting on my computer right now] are disgusted!
hpmmmmp!
snail lover

you mean you are a horrible person and who would even let u have a pet disgusting ick!!!!!!!!!!!!!

and i changed my name 2 snail lover but im jessica.

u eat it you horrible person i wish i could express how MAD I AM I HATE U!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i think to eat snails or slugs you need brain damage beforehand…

I agree, but i’m veggie so i think its wrong to eat any meat.

…this is worse… talking to a man and his wife in singapor who had just come from Maylasia. She said he’d been sick for three days after eating a soup with ’soft meatballs’. The soup wasn’t off but he found out the ‘meatballs’ were kitten bellies!!!! seem they scoop them out whole from nursing kittens and pop them in the broth! I think it was true, they seemed genuine. I’ve eaten croc’ bugs, frog legs and I love snails…. but kitten bellies?! would any of you try those?!

All you snail eaters out there discust me. HOW can you eat a snail? ESPECIALLY after becoming attached to them you sicko!!!
Cat and Dog stew? you people are worse then i thought !!!!!!!!!!!!
SNAILS ROCK!!!!!!! they are NOT for eating!!!

And do you realise that the bacteria inside a wild caught snail can actually give you MENINGITUS so think about THAT next time your about to eat one!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! its caused by the rat lung parasite

I haven’t tryed snails or slugs
befor but Im sure when I was a baby I went to France.Im sure my dad said he
tryed dog stew as well.He said it was very,very,very,very nice

I HATE!people who eat snails there sikos
and there sick!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Have any of you ever tryed hamster? {if so tell me what you think}
It’s actually quite delicious! You can get it in america….

YOU ARE SICK. YOU SHUD OV ATE THE SALAD.

NO FURTHER COMMENTS

[...] Blogjam.com: Garden Snail Risotto [...]

All you people are sick for eatin snails, dogs, cats, hamsters, How can you do that to any animal? Whatever to the saying mans best friend? I have four cats. Getting a dog soon. My husband wats a hamster. For you to do that to those animals is just wrong.
SICK A** PEOPLE!!!!

dear sir
We are Beijing Jinmengxuan Snail Breeding Co., Ltd., of Beijing chian, We breeding snails Escargot Helix aspersa more than 17years , from a small farm become the largest professional breeding snail’s farm of china.
we can offer the fresh snails in the four season , important?we breeding the snails in the room in winter, so we can offer enough alive snails in winter and in four season
Now we have already established wholesale snail station in tunisia, so customers can buy the alive snails from tunisia
this is our snails photos for your .
best regards
Mr. wang
Tel: 86-10-88807022
Email:snails8080@yahoo.com.cn

The SAS Survival guide says after starving them for a few days (or feeding them some herb/vegetable edible to humans) they should be put in a saltwater solution to clear out guts. If this wasn’t done it may explain the yellow color.

I ate some boiled ones years back without any of the proper preparation, most tasted very good, like Kentucky Fried Chicken, one tasted horrible, spat it out, I’m still alive.

all you people who eat dogs and cats are VERY VERY SICK PEOPLE!!! What the hell is wrong with you!You look into those eyes of those animals and they are the most precious creatures ever, and for you to eat them , you shouldnt call yourself a human , call yourself a sick sick person wjo belongs in hell!!! May god decide your future , and hope you all burn in hell!!!

I recently did pretty much the same as you, eating some snails from my garden:

http://green-change.com/2009/01/12/backyard-escargot/

Glad to see I’m not the only person who thought this idea was worth a try :-). I don’t think I’ll be doing it again anytime soon, though. Too much hassle for something that wasn’t particularly special.

slug is the life,how it just slides down your throut.Try it,you’ll see the light!!!(trust me)

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI

Leave a comment
Line and paragraph breaks automatic, e-mail address never displayed, HTML allowed:

<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>

Garden Snail Risotto

Search

Archives

Blogroll