Escargot part 1 - collect and cleanse

Zuiderzee

For the more adventurous of you, if you have garden snails - then after the next shower or watering, collect garden snails and put them in a good bucket or container.

By removing the snails you are removing a pest from the garden as well as its offspring and you will need to use less snail pellets etc so it has a double benefit.

You need to collect at least 20 or its simply not worth the trouble

Place them in a cool dark space and ensure the bucket or container is covered with a damp but breathable cover, a damp dishcloth is ideal.
Alternatively use a plastic cover with small holes punched or drilled through.
Put in a minute amount of water to keep them moist… clean the tub and the snails everyday of snail poo.

I have just collected some and they are being cleansed or purged over the week so I will update the blog then step by step for Escargot a la Boruguignonne

It is important to cleanse them as we do not know really what their diet has been

Some people just leave them for a week with no food but I find this does two things - firstly I find they loose body mass, and after waiting a week it seems a shame not to maximize return - secondly I think its cruel to starve them.

Feeding is easy, most people use a little cornmeal or polenta mixed with herbs, I put in fennel fronds and garlic leaves.

Another method is to collect them from your garden and feed them a carrot… when there poo turns orange they will be free of all toxins.

- Its not at all hard, without al the somewhat ridiculous fuss of an old Irish Times et al - including the au pair and the maid in 1963 !!!!

http://www.irishtimes.com/blogs/mega...m-your-garden/

Recipe to follow next weekend

Gloomtastic!

I've stuck this on my follow list. Never knew you could eat garden snails, thought they were specially bred. Can't wait to see the kids faces.......

rubadub

Snails go mad for beer. If you get a 2L bottle of coke you can cut the bottom off it and put it in the ground like a golf hole, then fill with beer and they will come from all around, go in the beer and drown. You can use old dregs of cans from a session.

For collecting snails live I would imagine you can get a 2L bottle and lay it on its side with some beer in it, then poke holes all over the top of bottle so it lets the smell of the beer out, but does not let the snails get in and drown.

I used to make homebrew and had a 2L bottle left out in the garden I had forgotten about, when I came out to it again it was covered in snails, I think they can smell it even through the pores in the bottle, or else a little had spilled on the side.

GastroBoy

rubadub wrote: »

Snails go mad for beer. If you get a 2L bottle of coke you can cut the bottom off it and put it in the ground like a golf hole, then fill with beer and they will come from all around, go in the beer and drown. You can use old dregs of cans from a session.

For collecting snails live I would imagine you can get a 2L bottle and lay it on its side with some beer in it, then poke holes all over the top of bottle so it lets the smell of the beer out, but does not let the snails get in and drown.

I used to make homebrew and had a 2L bottle left out in the garden I had forgotten about, when I came out to it again it was covered in snails, I think they can smell it even through the pores in the bottle, or else a little had spilled on the side.

I also have tried that method, but alas, when i got up the next morning i found my garden had also attracted several middle aged men, made quite a mess of my cabbage i can tell you.

pickarooney

How many people are going to look at an old homebrew bottle covered in snails and think "mmm, dinner!" ?

Zuiderzee

Droppings now about 90% orange, starting hemp seed purge tomorrow

Zuiderzee

GastroBoy wrote: »

I also have tried that method, but alas, when i got up the next morning i found my garden had also attracted several middle aged men, made quite a mess of my cabbage i can tell you.

Although you can see from my blog I make most of my own pest sprays etc for this persistent pest (homo ossified) mace or pepper spray are available from most garda centres

rubadub

Zuiderzee wrote: »

hemp seed purge tomorrow

Hemp seed can be got cheap in pet shops, in case you were paying over the odds in health shops.

Zuiderzee

rubadub wrote: »

Hemp seed can be got cheap in pet shops, in case you were paying over the odds in health shops.

Just went to my local dealer dude

Teyla Emmagan

I've seen Gordon Ramsay do this on 'The F Word'. He used snails from his own garden as well. I love escargot, but I think this would be a step too far from me. I'm not eating anything that's natural habitat is that greasy sycamore tree out the front of my house! Also, there's quite a lot of work involved in this...

Zuiderzee

Droppings about 90% orange now, starting hemp seed purge tomorrow.

Thing is, I have grown attached to the 21 poor wee things, I feed and wash them every day - thats the problem with this.
They are in their own way very cute

Shooting, fishing and foraging - not a problem, its impersonal, but this is going to be hard

LaChatteGitane

I once saw a reportage about the vineyard snails. In France they would feed them on thyme and other Provence herbs before they got cooked. I guess they would take on the flavour of the herbs that way. :cool:

DanWall

I read somewhere that garden snails can carry a paticularly nasty or fatal bug

Zuiderzee

Well, had to go back to work at short notice, so at 0600 this morning the snails got a last day reprieve - back at it again in two weeks

gjc

No matter how tough the recession gets this is one project I wont be doing but I will forward your thread. Best of luck whatever floats your boat.

Gloomtastic!

Just came back from Bull Island with about 200 of the slippery little things. The place is crawling with them - huge ones! The wet summer has some benefits I suppose.

In an tank now with a load of carrots. French Day next Friday!

gjc

How did you get on with the snail project did they make it to the table?

Gloomtastic!

gjc wrote: »

How did you get on with the snail project did they make it to the table?

I had them in a bucket for over a week feeding them carrot but still they were pooing brown stuff. Didn't want to risk it, and also I was a bit daunted by the thought of trying to gouge them out of their shells before cooking, so we now have an extra 100 snails roaming our garden! Sorry!

Kat1170

Gloomtastic! wrote: »

I had them in a bucket for over a week feeding them carrot but still they were pooing brown stuff. Didn't want to risk it, and also I was a bit daunted by the thought of trying to gouge them out of their shells before cooking, so we now have an extra 100 snails roaming our garden! Sorry!

You do that after they are cooked.

Gloomtastic!

Kat1170 wrote: »

Gloomtastic! wrote: »

I had them in a bucket for over a week feeding them carrot but still they were pooing brown stuff. Didn't want to risk it, and also I was a bit daunted by the thought of trying to gouge them out of their shells before cooking, so we now have an extra 100 snails roaming our garden! Sorry!

You do that after they are cooked.

This was the recipe I was looking at. It says before.....

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/snail_bourguignonne_67481

rubadub

Some TV chef was on eating small ones, I think in Italy. He was saying it was a better intro to snails, think they were less chewy or less nasty looking, I think there is far less of the bit that is in the shell.