How to get snails ready for cooking

Snails are ready for consumption when they are mature, that is, when a lip forms at the opening of their shell. Before maturity their shells are more easily broken, making them unable for consumption. The commercial weight for Helix Aspersa is 8 grams or larger.

Nutritional composition of raw snails (per 100 grams of edible portion) is:

- Energy (kcal): 80.5
- Water (g): 79
- Protein (g): 16
- Available carbohydrates (g): 2
- Fibres (g): 0
- Fat (g): 1
- Magnesium (mg): 250
- Calcium (mg): 170
- Iron (mg): 3.5
- Vitamin C (mg): 0

For getting canned snails are washed, steamed, shelled, and then washed in a vinegar or lemon juice, and water-solution. Producing quality snails is somewhat tricky because you must take care to prevent food poisoning. 

To have snails ready for cooking remove the membrane, if any, from the shell opening. Cover them with a solution of water, 11/2-cup salt or 1/4-cup vinegar for every 50 snails. You will see the mucus will turn the water white.

Change the water several times during the 3- to 4-hour soaking. Rinse several times under running water until it gets totally mucus free. Put the snails in cold water and bring to a boil. Boil about eight minutes, then drain and plunge the snails into cold water. Drain. Pick the snails out of their shells with a needle or small fork. Remove the intestine and cut off all black parts. Some people cut off the head, tail, and all cartilage or gristle. Prepare the snails according to your recipe. 

An alternate method consists of washing the snails well in clear water. Drop salt into boiling water along with lemon juice and/or herbs, and cook for about 10-15 minutes--until you can easily remove the snails from their shells. Drain and rinse.

From: National Agricultural Library

How to breed land snails

Breeding land snails is not a hard task, but it does take time and patience. However, you can have a clear scope of snail breeding through this easy-to-read article, where I explain the process step by step.Understanding land snails

Snails are ‘vegetarians’, they love lettuce leaves, carrots, cucumber and legumes. They have told us they are hermaphrodites, they do not neat a partner for reproduction, but in order to preserve the specie, snails require a partner to copulate.

Materials

• Plastic aquarium for transportation.
• Manual water sprinkler.
• Sponge or rag.
• Pebbles holes.
• Cactus flowerpot.
• Soil (humus, you can get it at any gardener’s shop).
• Ashtray or small plastic box.

Building process

First phase

Clean up the terrarium with regular soap and plenty of water, be thorough to get rid of the minimum debris, and dry it well.

Prepare the substrate by scattering a 2-inch-high humus layer on the bottom of the terrarium. Fix the soil with your hands –not very hard – in a way it looks like the soil out there, not a flat as a carpet.  

Second phase

Make a trough with the cactus flowerpot, but since snails have no mouth to drink with, you have to help them out -especially when they are babies because that is the first or second thing they do once they are born- with a sponge or a plate to moisten them. Be careful the water does not evaporate. You can place the flowerpot half buried on a corner so the land snails do not turn it over. 

Third phase

Place the pebbles on the soil, leaving a free corner for the ashtray and the plastic box, in which you will out gravel or any rock for balance, so it does not turn over when the snails eat. 

Fourth phase

Moisten the soil mildly with the water sprinkler every night or every two nights since snails are night creatures and seek for food when they feel moist around.

Collecting

The best locations for collecting snails are cities with green areas, in a day that is about to rain or where it has rained already, because that is the time when land snails come out.

Make sure to collect snails of about the same size, other wise the reproduction will not be fertile enough. Pick no more than 6 to 8 snails, those are necessary to start a decent snail farm with the right care.

Feeding

For feeding snails you have to keep in mind their ‘vegetarian status’, therefore you will have to feed them with lettuce, carrots, cucumber and aromatic plants as laurel. You can also give them old bread (in good condition) or calcium-rich cuttlebone, necessary for shell formation.  

Maintenance

Snail maintenance is not big deal; you have to change their food once a week to prevent rotting, and give them a monthly-bath with lukewarm water in case they present fungi.

Important: be careful with baby snails, their shells are very fragile. 

Snail slime as a beauty product

One of the reasons why snail farming is so profitable these days is because of its slime. That’s right; snail slime is used in the manufacturing of skin care and skin beauty products as the famosue "snail cream".

Medicinal properties of snail’s slime are known from Ancient times. It was used as syrup for cough and ulcers. But in the late 20th century as snail farming grew for culinary use, they were discovered the skin regenerating effects it had in snail farm workers for healing their wounds and the smoothness for their hands. Snail has, among other properties, regenerating its very own tissues and shell.

The slime of the Helix Aspersa specie is the one used for the beauty industry to prevent as to treat skin problems such as:

• Acné
• Warts
• Cellulites
• Scars
• Stretch marks
• Wrinkles
• Skin blemishes
• Wounds
• Burns

Dermatologists and pharmaceutics guarantee the efficacy of snail slime, but warn that for beauty products made of it to have antioxidant en regenerating properties; the slime must have been extracted when snails are stressed out.

Snail eggs, the white caviar

Snail eggs are known as white caviar, it’s a product gaining more acceptance and, demand, especially among gourmets. The fact that main chef are using snail eggs in their cooking has allowed this snail product to gain select and exclusive status. Moreover, the price has incredibly risen; half a pound of white caviar can cost up to $2100 in the European market.

After the mating of snails and the necessary time before starting snail spawning, snail breeders try to force the laying of eggs in boxes full with very fine soil, of which every grain is no bigger than 2mm of diameter.

Snails dig holes of 1.6 inches deep in these boxes, laying an average of 150 up to 200 eggs. After this, it only takes gathering them and sieving each box. Snail eggs have a longer diameter than the soil’s grains. The next process is an exhaustive cleaning and keeping them in brine in a temperature between 23 Fº and 28.2 Fº.

Every snail egg laid weighs 3.6 grams, which means, in order to obtain a pound of white caviar it takes over 44 000 eggs from the spawning of 550 snails that obviously makes white caviar quite expensive.

Who have the change to taste white caviar affirm is a true delicacy and has great versatility in cooking. If we ever get lucky to try it, we definitely won’t miss it. Have you ever has the pleasure of trying snail eggs, yet?

Dangerous aquarium snails: how to get rid of them

As a fish breeder you obviously want your aquarium free predating snails. However, you not necessarily have to get rid of them all; you can always keep a few of them to give life and variety to the aquarium environment.

Two of the first things you must take away from your aquarium are dead snails. They are not beneficial at all, they pollute the environment. Likewise, poisoning products damage plants and the rest of aquatic creatures, so you better do not use whatsoever.

One of the best solutions to clean your aquarium is getting an animal that mainly eats sea invertebrates, as Clown loach, which only eats mollusk eggs and leaves the plants untouched.

Clown loach can live for over 22 years! So you can consider it a good long-time investment. But if you want something cheap –I mean really cheap- you can place on a lettuce leaf at night. In just 30 minutes you will be stunned by the loads of snails gathering around the lettuce.

In addition to this, you can prevent the massive snail reproduction by is removing the jelly layer covering the leaves were snail eggs lay on. It is a leg work, but it is easy and priceless.

Finally, keep in mind that although these and other techniques help eliminate dangerous snails from aquariums, the main reason of snail overpopulation is overfeeding. Therefore, if you regularly clean your aquarium (focusing on the rests of food on the bottom) you can save yourself a great deal of work and trouble.