Snails and other strange things

Less slimy than either scallops or oysters.

Basically it's just like a huge roasted garlic, with a little more umami.

the lost lives of our innocent garden warriors
http://youtu.be/k_f4CfKKdnA

>>7917948
>garden warriors

pretty sure snails are pests that eat your plants, Anon

It tastes like garlic butter, salt and parsley. The texture is a little squishy and chewy. Somewhere between a clam and a booger.

>>7917926
delicious.

>>7917971
only if you're a brit. a lot of snails are banned in freedom land

>>7918018
>snails are banned

I... what?

Anyway the kind people eat, Helix Aspersa and Helix Pomatia, are common in both America and Europe and have been since the 1800s.

>>7918038
we're not allowed to buy or import snails and there's been a few snail killing initiatives in the past

>>7918038
the sale of snails is also illegal I'm pretty sure it is at least

>>7918074

no, they're not. Order them all the time at a place in Brooklyn

>>7918077
food grade snails are not illegal but it's very unlikely you'll be able to find more than 3 varieties of snails being sold
on a us website.

>>7918084
Helix Pomatia, Helix Lucorum, and Cornu Aspersa (formerly Helix Aspersa)

Coincidentally, these are the three most popular types for eating in France as well. They're pretty much the only three varieties that are big enough to be worth while and also aren't poisonous/bad for eating.

You can buy snails in restaurants easily and I've seen them for sale at my supermarket, although canned.

They are absolutely delicious but garlicy if prepared as they usually are.

>>7918104
yeah the us is very scared of live snails coming into the country. I should have been more specific I guess

>>7918104

Yeah, they're easy to find either canned or frozen. And I suspect that many if not most restaurants that serve snails are also using the frozen or canned variety, since that completely avoids any legal issues. It's only LIVE snails that are subject to bans or complicated import paperwork.

>>7918107
It depends on the region. the importation of live snails is illegal depending on the state. They're incredibly frustrating pests for citrus farmers especially.

Aspersa is the most common one you'll find. Pomatia is prized in France but is is endangered/restricted in many countries, and is difficult to find.

>>7918110
This. Canned is fine. Having live snails is really only of interest if your picking the bastards out of your own gardens and keeping them for eating.

in my state we have these helicopters with guns and they shoot the wild hog population down. hogs have a tendency to wander the streets and uproot our pipes even in the major cities. you can't go anywhere past dark without seeing a pack of them, so I can see why we also have certain snail bands in affect too

>>7918116
Texas, by any chance?

I have thousands of these garden snails all over my yard, every spring in California.

Can I eat CA backyard snails or do they have to be a certain type of snail?

>>7918118
your best off discerning what kind of snail they are first, and making sure they aren't eating anything toxic.

Snailing is like Mushrooming - you want to know what you're doing before you put anything into your mouth, otherwise it's a quick way to meet Joe Black

>>7918117
yep. last time I went to the movies around 6 of them were tearing up people's cars in the parking lot and uprooting shit as usual

>>7918116
Texas is basically Africa now

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>>7918130
>>7918140

We.... we ARE still talking about Hogs and not black people, right?

Because i've been on 4chan so long I can't even tell anymore

Anyway yeah, Hogs are a huge problem in Texas. IIRC there's a standing bounty on them.

don't snails have brain parasites and shit that will make your brain esplode inside your skull if you consume them?

>>7918184
snails don't even have brains

>>7918184

Some snails have parasites, sure. But given that you'd be cooking the snails before eating them I don't see why that matters.

>>7917926
It's kinda mushroom-y in texture, they soak up whatever you cook them with.

They're not bad, but not mind blowing.

>>7918184
It's extremely evident which snails have those parasites

>>7918160
hogs not nogs

>>7917939
Exactly just taste of herbs & garlic really good my son started eating them at like 5 years old ate them like candy

I tried snails two ways, one in the typical french recipe with garlic butter and herbs and the other in a sort of tomato-y stew. The second was disgusting the first was delicious.

According to my friend this is because anything cooked in garlic butter tastes delicious, I think he has a point.

They have no taste on their own and testure is like a softer gummy bear.

Where i live is was quite typical for grandmothers to cook them with toamato, onion and pine nuts.

>>7918898
>my wife´s son

>>7917926
Texture is a bit like calmari, firm, 'rubber bandy,' flavor is neutral -so butter, garlic and parsley. Go to the store and buy some and eat em FFS. And WTF is with this deluge of "hurr durr what does X taste like?" Threads. GO OUT AND EAT IT.

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>>7917926
I love snails.

>>7918994
if flavor is neutral why does it make amazing stock?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoPku_7_NGw

>>7918942
With my cream of the crop !!

>>7919105
Dunno. Never made snail stock. Want even aware that is a thing. I'd suppose (if you're not trolling), you'd get more flavor from the shells than the meat. Their flesh is pretty flavorless, at least the ones I've eaten, it's more about he 'sauce' (love escargots btw).

>>7919164
you realize that the butter you cook the snails with doesn't taste that good on its own, right? it's the snail flavoring it.

>>7919164
Mmm K. Took the bait. On another note: behold snail broth. Yet another 'fine food' from granddad: http://www.foodsofengland.co.uk/snailbroth.htm

>>7919176
I was not referring to an actual soup, I was referring to the liquid that appears in Escargots à la Bourguignonne

>>7919169
Butter has flavor. Garlic has flavor. Herbs have flavor. Wine has flavor. Snails, on their own, do not. If they did, they'd be served absent those things. You are being intentionally obtuse and and argumentative.

they're delicious, they taste like mushrooms with a texture very similar to mushrooms as well

My French instructor at culinary school (who also happened to be Pepin's son in law) basically described escargot by saying, "you can cook my shoe in a shit ton of butter, garlic, and parsley and it will taste good".

>>7919194
bullshit, are you claiming chicken also has no flavor?
try making snail escargot replacing the snail with a piece of tofu, it will have nowhere near as much taste

>>7919204
your french instructor was a terrible cook :)

>>7919212

He was actually a pretty good cook; I just don't think he thought very highly of escargot.

>>7919212

>not being able to cook a shoe well

>>7917926
It tastes somewhat like a salty mushroom, and the texture is very similar. I enjoy them for that reason; eat them at least twice a week at work because we have truckloads usually.

escargot avec frites, c'est tres incroyable

ils ont soulevé leur propre aussi

the trick to raising a proper snail is to purge its system first, then raise it on a strict diet of organic nuts and herbs. they take on the diet they're fed!

it's just chewy and tastes like nothing but the sauce/seasoning you put on it

source: friend of mine captured some garden snails and fed them cornmeal for a couple months then we boiled and ate them

>>7919208
>try making snail escargot replacing the snail with a piece of tofu

Possibly the most uncivilized comment ever on /ck/.