Sea Snails and Garden Snails, anyone here eat these?

[City Bound]

I bought some sea snails (some call them welks) today and tried to cook them. I had no idea what I was doing. I ate a few and they didnt seem cooked enough. Then I read that there is a whole purging process that sea and land snails need to go through.

My questions are:

Do any of you eat these creatures and if you do how do you prepare them?
And also, I read that there are parasitres and toxins in sea and land snails (land snails more so)...what do you know about these dangers, and are they really that dangerous?

Thanks a lot.

[jtjf_1]

We use to go to the rice paddies and gather 4 5 gallon buckets of them. (the Japanese introduced them in my wife's village to feed the soldiers during the occupation and now they damage the rice paddies so farmers are happy to let us take them).

What we do is rinse them off real well then boil them with salt until foam comes out of the snails. Next break them out of their shells or pick them out. Then add your spices and cook.

My wife suggests putting them on satay sticks and bbq them.

I would give you cook times but we always cooked over a wood fire so i have no idea for other stoves.

Enjoy your feast

[silverbackMP]

I've ate some sea snail type of critters that you just throw in boiling water (Shabu Shabu) but each kind is different. I.E. Some oster/clam type critters you have to debeard (pull off the external mouth) and some you don't.

If it lives in the sea, I've ate it cooked and raw but have no idea of the names of almost any of them in English.

[City Bound]

JT, do you eat all the parts of the snail? I read that some people do not eat certain parts. I read also that they carry parrasites and and toxins, have you heard anything about this?
Have you ever eaten garden snails?

Wow, how do you always cook over a wood fire...with a wood stove or an open fire?
It sounds like you have an interesting life. Do you still live in asia?

Thanks.

[City Bound]

Silver back, are you from a country outside of america? Have you ever eaten garden snails?

[silverbackMP]

Originally Posted by City Bound

Silver back, are you from a country outside of america? Have you ever eaten garden snails?

Nope, lived in Korea for five years (I'm back now...need to change my location).

I don't know if I've ate garden snails or not--could have. My wife is Korean so if she eats it, I've eaten it. I've ate enough crazy stuff that I could definitely pass the fear factor food portion. Raw crabs, kimcheed raw crab, sea cucumbers, shelled creatures of every make and model,eels, giant sea worms, fish that don't look like "normal" fish. The "fish" markets in Korea are like visiting an aquarium dedicated to alien lifeforms.

[City Bound]

Originally Posted by silverbackMP

The "fish" markets in Korea are like visiting an aquarium dedicated to alien lifeforms.

Hahah funny. That is how I feel when I go exploring in China Town. I actually got the sea snails I bought in an asian market.
Raw crab sounds a little risky. Did you think so? Have you ever eaten insects? I want to try insects.

I dated a Korean woman for a while and I loved the little I learned about Korean culture from her. KImchee is good.

[Tabitha]

When I lived in Europe, every couple of years some people would go all over the countryside and pick up snails for sale. Like they pick up tin cans here.
Tthey sold by the pound and were left alone for a couple of years to recuperate and grow again. I have seen piles of them, but never felt the urge to eat them.Some of the French put them in a box with some salt, it caused them to slime up and clean themselves and also brine themselves. I thought it was cruelty to animals. My kids picked them and tried to sell them to some French people, who did not want them. They had them in cans.

[KIT.S]

We've eaten nearly everything we could find at the beach. There is a lot more selection in Alaska than on the beach in Oregon. Sea snails are good but can become tough with cooking. If they're small, we ate them whole. If they were large, we removed the stomach. Never had any problem with toxins, etc. I know some snails are poisonous, but not in the cold water around here.
I've had escargo in restaurants, but have never found the type of land snails that the French eat in the wild. Would have no problem eating them, though.
The insects cooked and for sale in Thai street markets were deep fried. They were merely crunchy, without a lot of flavor, but the sauce they put on them was Wonderful! When I was a kid, my dad found canned crickets and bees, and we tried those.
His policy was "Try everything twice. The first time it might not have been cooked correctly."
Kit

[fishhead]

I remember reading about a CA company that was raising snails to can.

We've got snails in some of our lakes that are as large as a $.50 piece.

[oregon woodsmok]

My ducks eat snails and I eat the ducks. Does that count?

With garden nails, you gather them up and keep them in a box with cornmeal for a few days. That cleans them out.

I've eaten abalone. That's a sea snail. You only eat the foot and it has to be tenderized before cooking. I haven't seen an abalone for years. They've probably been hunted to extinction; wouldn't surprise me.

[City Bound]

Funny Woodsnok...I guess ducks count.

[fishhead]

Originally Posted by oregon woodsmok

My ducks eat snails and I eat the ducks. Does that count?

With garden nails, you gather them up and keep them in a box with cornmeal for a few days. That cleans them out.

I've eaten abalone. That's a sea snail. You only eat the foot and it has to be tenderized before cooking. I haven't seen an abalone for years. They've probably been hunted to extinction; wouldn't surprise me.

Some companies in CA are raising abalone.

http://www.abalonefarm.com/

[phrogpharmer]

We have a farmer in our area who is raising apple snails for out of state ethnic food markets.
They grow pretty fast in his warm water and they eat any type of plant material. When they reach market size he cuts back on the feed for a week or two and just gives them a small amount of herbs/spices, they clean off each others shells and get nice and shiny and take on the flavor of the herbs or spice.
I think he is doing pretty well at it because he keeps a real low profile and doesn't reveal much about his operation.
A local chef prepared some of the garlic fed snails several years ago and they were ok.

[Danaus29]

I just haven't been that hungry yet. I would give them a try if someone who knew how to cook them offered me some.

But this thread brought back memories of when I was little and we had a lot of really huge garden snails. I gathered up a whole bunch and showed them to my grandpa and asked him if they were the kind of snails people eat. He said he didn't know but it I wanted my hide tanned I should take them in the kitchen and ask Grandma if she wanted to cook them. We both laughed so hard we had tears in our eyes. (Grandma didn't like any wild food and fried fish only because Grandpa liked it so much. She never once spanked any of us either, she threatened but that was enough for us to straighten up and behave)

[Ken Scharabok]

I visited with cousins in Eastern Croatia in 2001. Predominately Eastern European foods and cooking. Spent a day in Zagreb on way back and went to the open air seafood market. I couldn't name about half of what they were selling.

In easly September I'm going back for another week. This time visiting on the Adratic Coast with one of the cousins I met in 2001. They have promised me exposure to all types of seafood - particular occupi, which they catch themselves somehow. Really looking forward to it.

On the way back I'm hoping to send a day in France visiting a penpal. Oh yeah, will request snales (escargo?).

This is a groiner from about the fourth grade. One snale asked another what they really wanted in life. Reply was a fast car with large S's painted on it. Asked way, reply was they wanted to hear, "Look at that S-car-go".

[whodunit]

Don't they put snails in corn meal for awhile, so they eat that instead of whatever they normally eat?

[Grandmotherbear]

My understanding is you shouldn't eat molluscs within 30 days of a red tide- takes that long to purge the toxins. Can't find my Joy of Cooking but they had recipes for periwinkles and coquinas. Did you try Google?

[poppy]

Originally Posted by City Bound

JT, do you eat all the parts of the snail?

I heard the tenderloin is best.

I know that snails are a delicacy for some people & I'm not a picky eater but I don't plan on eating any unless I get really hungry .