The eye-stalks actually invert when they are withdrawn – just like a rubber glove being pulled back inside itself. The ability to turn your eyes inside out is not something I aspire to, but it is an amazing adaptation to protect their eyes and is a great space saver. Land snails have two pairs of tentacles, with eyes on the tips of the longest pair. The first sign of movement from a snail is usually the emergence of the head followed by a tentative extending eye-stalk or ‘tentacle’. Nevertheless, this foreign pest is still a fascinating creature in it own right. Unfortunately the local species which shares our appreciation for the plants we grow is an introduced snail the Garden Snail Cornu aspersum is from Europe. Set them on a baking sheet and dry them in a hot oven.Even with a drought upon us, most of us still have healthy populations of snails in our gardens. Add the shells and cook for approximately 3 minutes. Boil a pot of 4 cups of water with 2 tablespoons of baking soda. Now you’re ready to work your culinary magic on your snails. Pour off the water and rinse the snails until they are rid of the boiled-off mucus, which looks like curdled egg.Place the snail meat in the pot with the boiling water-vinegar mixture for 3 minutes.Prepare a pot with the following ratio: three-fourths water and one-fourth distilled white vinegar.There may be mucus involved in the last step. When the snails are cool, use toothpicks, tweezers, or a small fork (such as a crab fork) to pull the meat out of the shells.Drain the pot and place the snails in a colander, rinsing them under cold running water.Once the water is roiling and, again, wearing gloves, drop the snails into the pot.Fill a pot with water and plenty of salt.Rinse the snails until the water is mostly clean.Mix the snails in the water and clean them by hand two or three at a time.Discard any floating snails they’re dead. Using gloves, drop the snails into a container of water. Known as “ parboiling,” this preparation process rids your snails of the dirt and the mucus they’re so famous for. Photo Credit: Sarah Kelemen Gerber / Flickr / CC BY 2.0īefore you cook your snails, you must cook them. The French eat about 40,000 metric tons of snails each year. Without Food: You can also give them no food (only water) in a process called “starving.” This ensures that the snails have no poo in their systems.Īfter 7 to 10 days of purging, prepare to cook snails. With Food: This involves feeding them a strict diet of greens then cornmeal or oatmeal to turn their poo white or even cleaned carrots and herbs to turn their poo orange, a Gordon Ramsay tip. After you have placed your catch in a container, start the purging process. Purging involves cleansing the snail’s digestive tract to replace the toxins that could be lurking there. Any pathogens that may live in their digestive systems.
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