Discovering Snails

Food that is shunned in one era might be highly prized in another, and vice versa. Early European colonists in America almost starved before eating the lobsters all around them, and even then they were considered disgusting, used only for feeding prisoners and servants and baiting fishhooks. Only about a hundred years ago did lobster become prized as a delicacy, until today it drives an industry worth $280 million in America alone.

People today have similarly strange attitudes towards snails. If you have ever eaten in a fancy restaurant, you may have seen escargot (ess-car-GO) on the menu. It tastes great -- usually served in melted butter and parsley -- it commands a high price in expensive restaurants, where it is shipped in from France at great cost. Yet it is nothing more than snails – the same brown snails that Irish people find in their backyards and try to eliminate.

The common snails seen in Irish gardens are the same species as restaurant snails, and are perfectly edible – you are not likely to see the few bad-tasting or endangered species. In fact, that's how they came to be on these islands; the Romans ate and raised snails, and exported them everywhere -- and since snails don’t make milk, pollinate flowers or make much useful manure, they were presumably raised to be eaten. To this day, a few people here in Ireland raise them in their homes or gardens for profit or food, and they are about the lowest-maintenance livestock – if that’s the word – that you can keep.

Snails love to crawl up wet walls and can often be seen in large numbers after a rain – in the day, or when it’s drier, they wedge themselves in crevices and hide in their shells. Take some children with you, and gathering them will be as fun as finding Easter eggs.

Even snails raised in the safest environments would need to be starved for at least two or three days, and these days there is a particular danger they may have eaten poison or pesticides, so keep them at home and feed them for a while until anything bad has passed out of their system. I keep mine in a plastic tub with air holes for a few weeks, and each day I clean out the tub and give them slices of organic carrot until their poo turns orange. Don’t give them any food in the last few days before cooking them.

To cook snails, wash them and place them to one side and boil some water. Snails don’t have much of a brain stem, but if you are concerned about their feeling pain you can place them in the refrigerator while the water boils, and they will go to sleep.

I toss them in the boiling water for about ten minutes, pour them into a strainer, run them under cold water, and with a skewer, fish them out of the shell. Cut away the gall, the last piece to come out of the shell.

The traditional way to cook snails is in butter, and garlic is a common way to spice up the recipe. One popular approach is to prepare 60g of butter, two crushed cloves of garlic, seven ml of lemon juice, 100g of snails, 10 ml of chopped parsley and 10 ml of finely grated cheese.

Melt the butter in a small pan, add the garlic and lemon and simmer for about three minutes. Add the de-shelled and washed snails, and heat slowly for five minutes. Dump the contents in a bowl, sprinkle the parsley and cheese on top, and place the bowl in the oven until the cheese starts to turn brown.

Alternately, I like to fry a few slivers of finely-sliced rashers (bacon) in a pan and fry for a few minutes until they are lightly done. Then I toss in a heap of de-shelled snails, stir and cook for about ten more minutes. I add some spices and finely-chopped scallions about five minutes in, a big colander of washed parsley right before the end and sautee the lot for a minute or so, stirring. 

Finally, I glaze the pan with lemon juice. I then serve them over finely diced salad with avocados. You, of course, can experiment with whatever way you like best.