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From: wfi@rti-sel.UUCP (William Ingogly)
Newsgroups: net.pets,net.garden,net.cooks
Subject: Re: raising snails
Message-ID: <506@rti-sel.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 28-Oct-85 09:41:06 EST
Article-I.D.: rti-sel.506
Posted: Mon Oct 28 09:41:06 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 30-Oct-85 05:40:54 EST
References: <5410@amdcad.UUCP>
Reply-To: wfi@rti-sel.UUCP (William Ingogly)
Organization: Research Triangle Institute, NC
Lines: 33
Xref: watmath net.pets:1241 net.garden:813 net.cooks:5237
Summary: 

In article <5410@amdcad.UUCP> phil@amdcad.UUCP (Phil Ngai) writes:

>There seem to be many snails around my house and this year, instead
>of trying to poison them I am going to collect them and eat them.
>Any advice on how to do this? I suppose I ought to feed them a known
>diet for a while to get all the bad stuff out. What is recommended?

Here's how my Sicilian relatives used to do it (my grandpa's name before
Ellis Island was Biagio Ingoglia; how much more authentic do you 
want? :-):

Put them in a container with moist leaves for a few days. Sprinkle 
occasionally with a little water to make sure they don't dry out. 
Feed them cornmeal to clean out their systems. When the day of reckoning 
comes, cull out the dead snails and put the live ones in a pot of 
salted water for a couple of hours before you're going to cook them. 
This will act as a laxative and clean out their systems. Rinse them 
WELL after this and dump them into a fresh pot of boiling water. They 
only cook for a few minutes; I can't remember the exact number of 
minutes, but I'm sure Joy of Cooking or some other readily accesible 
cookbook will have a recipe. You should be aware that snails can eat 
toxic plants without ill effect, so a purging period is NECESSARY. 
I would still feel uneasy eating wild snails due to pesticides, etc. 
Snails aren't long distance travelers, though, so you're probably safe 
eating them from your own back yard.

We served them with tiny forks, crusty Italian bread, and a delicious
sauce made of olive oil, vinegar, fresh mint and garlic. As a kid, I
thought the sauce was the best part. I don't have a recipe but it
shouldn't be too hard to duplicate.

Mamma mia!
                               -- Cheers, Bill Ingogly