Recipes: Snail kebab

Snails kebabs make an original and exquisite appetizer for your guests, fast and easy for those who love simplicity in the kitchen.

Ingredients

• Small wooden skewers
• Shallots
• Breadcrumbs
• Garlic
• Parsley
• Pepper
• Olive oil
• Salt

Preparation

Cut the garlic, parsley and shallots and blend them with the breadcrumbs.

Take snails off their shells, remove the entrails, and thread each one onto the skewers.

Some gourmets advice to keep the entrails because it is considered the most delicious part of a snail, where the real flavor concentrates.

Spray the skewres with the already-mentioned blend and fry the kebabs in hot oil until they turn golden.

Serve very hot and enjoy!

Snails under stress

Not only snail breeders can get stressed out about their snail farms, but snails themselves can suffer stress too. Very snail breeder knows how delicate the process of raising snails is since they need specific humidity and temperature conditions.

The farm conditions must be the best, since they are very small animals, plastic containers and pet carriers seem like a good first solution. Snails do not feel comfortable when they are so close to each other. Cold water also causes them stress. A sponge helps create a humid space.

During the stress phase snails segregate a substance –its reaction towards external aggressions- in order to obtain the famous "snail slime” that is used to elaborate cosmetic products. 

Snails go under a registered physical stress procedure of rotation that “makes no harm” to the snails. Ten snails are needed to produce 4 mm of the snail beauty products.

Photo: Butterfly724

Raising snails.Part I

Snail features

Snail is a gastropod mollusk that belongs to the family of Helicidae. It moves by means of a locomotive system called foot. It has an enclosing spiral shell.
The body is formed by foot and head. In the head there is a pair of major tentacles that take in charge of the touch sense, and a pair of minor tentacles that take in charge of smell.

Snails move slowly, around 3 inches per minute. It has an average life expectancy of 5 years.

There are species of snails like Helix Pomatia that suffer a process of operculization that protect them from low winter temperatures.
In summer, they present the phenomenon of stiving and in winter they suffer hibernation. They are both strategies of the snail to resists unfavorable atmospheric conditions.

To tell the difference between species we can consider color, the shape of peristome (region around the mouth), position, opening shape and the shape of the shell.