OMG! Snail INVASION! Bastards everywhere!

[sojourner]

That sounds like a threat a really cool villain would say

Well, I have to admit I did nick it from 'Dead Men Tell No Tales'

So, Lemmy - villain, n that








*twatted already*

 

[moon]

Do you think the snails eggs came from the compost? I have been wondering this for a while now that my garden is suddenly overun with slugs after putting a load of compost on it.

maybe you can put them in a fish tank, fed them carrots untill their poo comes out orange, then dump them in a pan of boiling salted water and eat them...i am sure thats what they do in france.

 

[mrs quoad]

Snails - how do they kill them for restaurant meals? Tell me they're dead when they cook them

To prepare live snails for cooking, remove the membrane, if any, over the shell opening. Soak the snails in enough water to cover them. (Add 1/2-cup salt or 1/4-cup vinegar for every 50 snails.) Mucus will turn the water white. Change the water several times during the 3- to 4-hour soaking. Rinse several times or under running water until no mucus remains. Put snails in cold water and bring to a boil. Boil about eight minutes, then drain and plunge the snails into cold water. Drain. With a needle or small fork, pick the snails out of their shells. Remove the intestine and cut off all black parts. (Some cooks also cut off the head, tail, and all "cartilage or gristle.") Prepare according to your recipe. An alternate method is: Wash the snails well in clear water. Drop into boiling salt water (to which you may add lemon juice and/or herbs), and cook--about 10-15 minutes--until you can easily remove the snails from their shells. Drain and rinse.

Prepare the giant African snail by breaking away the shell, then cutting the foot away from the rest of the body. The traditional way to remove the slime is to rub wood ashes on the snail, then wash the snail (or part of the snail) under running water, then repeat until no slime remains. You may substitute substances like flour (to which you may add salt and vinegar) for ashes. Cut up the foot into convenient-sized pieces. [You may dehydrate the leftover visceral mass, crush it up with the shell, and mix it in poultry feed to make up 10% of your snail feed.] Another source says put the live snails in boiling water for 30 minutes to kill them and to make removal from the shell easy. During boiling, the snails will release a large quantity of mucus. Data varies, but 28% to 46% of the live weight of Achatina is shell.

They've got a fascinating page on heliciculture

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heliciculture#Turning_Snails_into_Escargot

 

[sojourner]

They've got a fascinating page on heliciculture

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heliciculture#Turning_Snails_into_Escargot

So basically, the snail suffers? Terribly?


Ok, thats enough to put me off

 

[mrs quoad]

So basically, the snail suffers? Terribly?


Ok, thats enough to put me off

Try slugs instead?

Well, technically speaking the wiki page doesn't actually MENTION suffering. It just mentions that they're placed into cold water that's then made into rather hot water.

And, hey, if it takes 30 minutes of boiling to ensure they're dead then I'd guess that they secretly quite enjoyed a nice bit of boiling. It's gotta be a pleasant change from the drab old life of lettuce, mud, lettuce, mud, balcony, mud, sunflower, eh? Variety is the spice of life?

Lobsters enjoy it too, no? Uh, I'm sure I read somewhere that they're electrocuted sometimes too. But I might be wrong on that *shrugs*

 

[mrs quoad]

This suggests they're dead by the time they're cooked:

Therefore, before they can be cooked, the snails must first be prepared by purging them of the contents of their digestive system. The process used to accomplish this varies, but generally involves a combination of fasting and purging. The methods most often used can take several days. Farms producing Helix aspersa for sale exist in Europe and in the United States. Farm-raised snails are typically fed a diet of ground cereals.

Main article: Heliciculture

Typically, the snails are removed from their shells, gutted, cooked (usually with garlic butter), and then poured back into the shells together with the butter and sauce for serving, often on a plate with several shell-sized depressions. Special snail tongs (for holding the shell) and snail forks (for extracting the meat) are also normally provided.

Unless they're not quite dead after being gutted.

 

[mrs quoad]

Preventing escapes: In an open pen, curve the top of the fences inward in a half circle to confine the vineyard snail. H. aspersa will escape from such an open pen, so you could use an electric fence to contain them. [The electric fence top has two or more thin wires that are 2 to 4 mm apart. Each wire carries the opposite charge of the wire next to it. Use a battery or transformer to supply 4 to 12 volts to the wire. A snail will get a mild shock and retract when it crawls over a wire and touches a second wire.

Blehhhh heh heh.

 

[sojourner]

Oh shut up will you

you're makin it up now

 

[mrs quoad]

Oh shut up will you

you're makin it up now

ALL from wikipedia!

Though there's nowt to say the folks on there aren't making it up

 

[sojourner]

ALL from wikipedia!

Though there's nowt to say the folks on there aren't making it up

Well, quite

 

[mrs quoad]

Well, quite

HOWEVER.

Please check your snails before blanching to ensure that no dead snails enter the cooking pot as it will ruin the whole batch.

We prefer to cook our snails in this dormant state for two reasons.

1 - it is more humane,

2 - once cooked there are no off putting feelers showing.

1. If using live snails, steam them over boiling water for 1 hour, or until they leave their shells. Rinse well

An alternative to boiling is flushing the shell with pressured water.

Garden Snail Risotto

It’s time. A week ago I collected my snails, and after five days of banqueting on the finest of Waitrose greens, plus an extra two on a starvation diet, my slimy pals are purged of all impurities and ready for the pot.

Awaiting Slaughter

The slaughter is made more difficult than expected because over the last week I’ve grown attached to the little fellas, humanising them somewhat by giving them names. In the picture above, Valentino Rossi can be seen clambering over a couple of the less dominant members of the family (middle right), while Chandler is the alert looking creature (top left) about to give Princess B a ride. What Princess B doesn’t realise, of course, is that this ride will surely be her last.

Boiled Alive

And into the pan they go. Reluctantly ignoring their silent snail screams, I boil them gently for ten minutes. Rather strangely, the water turns yellow, but I can’t find any reference to this on the Internet - I’m hoping it’s not some kind of toxic gastropod secretion, but only history will tell. Cooking time over, I’m able to extract the fleshy morsels from their homes using a corkscrew.

...

Would I do it again? Well, there’s a lot of work involved. You need to stalk the snails under cover of darkness, keep them fed for the best part of a week (they got through nearly £2 worth of salad), clean death row regularly (you don’t want them to start snacking on their own poop if they get hungry), then lead them guiltily to the killing floor. This bit, although mildly traumatic, wasn’t nearly as hard as I expected, and I’m proud of the fact that I’ve hunted, slain and cooked my own dinner.

Next up, polar bear.

Or dog. I don’t like dogs much.

Etc, etc, etc.

http://www.google.co.uk/search?clie...=boiling+live+snails&meta=&btnG=Google+Search

 

[pembrokestephen]

Blehhhh heh heh.

That's me current plan. Circles and spirals of alternate-polarity bare copper wires at 12V off a wall-wart (probably a bit dubious, but fuck 'em).

 

[Calva dosser]

Sadly, I am allergic to snails, having challenged the all-Armagnac snail eating champion to a competition. I lost.

I am still troubled by their depradations. They seem to be aware of my impotence, on the escargophagic frontiere.

I poison them and crush them. Those that I catch around food crops (no poison) I give to the chickens. If only chickens were brighter, they are the ultimate snail and slug killing machines. Trouble is, chickens wander.

 

[polly]

The slugs laughed contemptuously at my egg shells and coffee grinds before sailing over them to eat two lovely bushy thyme plants, 5 marigolds and all my cat's catnip. But i love the birds, so no slug pellets. So I am considering this stuff: Diatomaceous Earth. It's crushed bones of prehistoric creatures
For the hippies amongst us, I recommend it- it did for some bed bugs that I had a few years back when lashings of chemicals did fuck all except mutate my future offspring. Probably.

 

[Calva dosser]

The snails have just breached the barriers on the Indian marigolds.

I am charging the phased-pulse-plasma cannons.

Never has such a charming beast deserved death in such I violent manner.

 

[cillaB]

has anyone tried vaseline? Apparently the bastards can't slime over it so it can be used as a barrier method.