Snail Experiment

[FeyWind]

With all the rain this spring, snails have become a real pest in our garden - we've got so many that even the chooks can't eat them all - part of the reason I bought broilers was so that I didn't have to waste so many weeds and snails. But the broilers are still to small..... which leaves a snail excess....... I hate waste...

So I looked up the recipes and techniques. In the deepest most secret manner I collected enough snails. I waited a couple of weeks feeding them dill. I hesitated for a couple of weeks then on Monday (when the hubby was out and couldn't see and all the kids were in bed) I cooked them up in salt water then in herbs.

I've caught, purged and cooked the snails.... the question is will my kids or husband notice them amongst the mushroom and veges in the pasta tonight? I've decided on a carbonara/boscaiola style pasta sauce and will be cooking it, adding the snails, garden broadbeans, mushroom and garden asparagus. Hopefully they will be too busy complaining about the asparagus to notice the other additions.

Hang in there for reactions...

[kellenw]

Fey,

You are an evil, evil woman! Love it! mwuhahahahaha.....

[GaryD]

Hi,

I've eaten snails and I'd eat a lot more of them if I could get them without having to pay through the neck for them.

If your old man or the kids stack on a turn about eating the snails, invite me for dinner and I'll take their punishment.

Gary

[FeyWind]

Dh just said you're most welcome to come and eat all you want.
He seemed more distraught about being told he was eating snails than the actual eating. I told him in mid meal and he did finish the food..... with a dirty look at me. My eldest (6 y.o.) didn't notice them when she ate them and didn't like being told about them either (after she'd eaten). Her words were "Don't tell me", not "don't cook them". My observant 4 y.o. was quizzing me through dinner about whether I had put mussels or octopus in the food - she didn't like it much, but seemed intrigued to be told what she had just eaten, almost as if she'd like to try them again. My 2 y.o. was in his own little world and hadn't eaten much of dinner anyway (normal for him).

So, not a big drama.... though I wonder if I will get questioned closely about the contents of dinners for a while.

If I cook them again, I think I will do them in a bigger batch. I processed about 4 dozen together which ends up being only a small amount of meat for a lot of effort - purging, rinsing, cooking twice. I do feel I've got my own back on the snails though (and on kids who complain about food). So maybe it is worth it

[GaryD]

Hi FeyWind,

Dh just said you're most welcome to come and eat all you want.
He seemed more distraught about being told he was eating snails than the actual eating.

Snails are vastly underrated food. If the French will bother to cook and eat something, it's generally good food......and they eat many thousands of tonnes of snails every year.

Most people react similarly when they are told that they are eating something that they might already have taken a position on.

My partner Jan had a very strong position on eating goat meat. She got her first taste of it, decades ago, in a "lamb" curry which she said was lovely. She subsequently proclaimed some barbecued "lamb" cutlets among the best she'd ever eaten.

Neither event interfered with her capacity to reject goat meat at every turn. To this day, she says she wouldn't eat it.....but she has .....and she probably will again.

Her brother used to comment on how he would never eat offal....but he did eat sheep's brains and never realised it......and became very indignant when he was told about it afterwards.

Keep digging up interesting things for them to eat.

Gary