Are Pond Snails edible?

[Wycco]

Not that I have any intention of eating them... I'm just curious incase the recession get's really bad and protein is hard to come by.

The French of course are famous for eating snails... as quickly as bladder/ramshorns snails reproduce- could be a handy source of protein in places with starvation.

Apple snails might have a little more meat on them than pond snails I'm guessing.




Ummmm... anyone like to buy some Soylent Brown from me? - it's not made of people.

 

[Lupin]

I've interviewed a few local farmers and my grandfather about the snails they eat. Viviparus malleatus and Pila conica are apparently the tastiest of the snails they tried. They do not need to add soy sauce to make the meat tastier. How do they prepare the snails? Simply wash the snails and boil them. For the former, the shell is then chopped and you suck the meat out.

As for the Pomacea canaliculata, they do not taste well particularly when you consume their guts which is far too terrible to taste. Soy sauce is also needed to add taste to the meat. This was why the canas are already invasive species. People abandoned the farms rearing the snails after finding out the taste of the snails thus leaving them the snails to escape and wreak havoc to the native ecosystem. This has happened similarly to Hawaii and Asian countries.

 

[Wycco]

I'm guessing the common "pest snails" in the aquarium are too small to really get much out of then.

No reports of anyone ever eating them then?

 

[carolinyens]

ewwwww I couldnt eat a snail. I bet the meat is chewy, almost the consistency of rubber. Thats enough to make me gag

 

[Lupin]

Ask the local farmers here and they'll tell you those snails taste like chicken. I've never tried them and never will but I simply gave an interview and got all the needed information.lol

 

[BioHazard]

Ask the local farmers here and they'll tell you those snails taste like chicken. I've never tried them and never will but I simply gave an interview and got all the needed information.lol

Yeah, suuuuuure you haven't! :evil_lol:

 

[Wycco]

ewwwww I couldnt eat a snail. I bet the meat is chewy, almost the consistency of rubber. Thats enough to make me gag

I wouldn't say I would never eat a snail... but I would have to be VERY hungry before I ate one!

A lot of people eat Oysters and scallops here in the west though- I can't see why people can turn up their noses at snails and then eat an Oyster. (I have a hard time eating any of the above... even shrimp sometimes is a little bit of a pill for me although I will eat them occasionally- especially difficult though if they still have the heads on and you have to break them off first... thankfully they're normally beheaded first. The first shrimp I had as a kid in England came with heads on).

I was just curious due to how quickly pond snails reproduce... wouldn't be a market in the US of course- but if you could get a machine to automatically remove the shell- there could be a marketable industry for bladder snail meat in some countries... if they taste OK... which I don't know.

 

[dixienut]

well if your hungry please come over here :evil_lol:

 

[Lupin]

Have I ever admit my experience last December 2008? I was on a vacation and my friends led me to a buffet with a tray full of over 200 cooked snails. They knew I keep snails and decided to taunt me. I turned pale and avoided the tray. I'm not sure...I just feel somehow squeamish.

 

[KIM_TMA]

Escargo isn't that bad, my hubby is quite fond of it so I prepare them sometimes for him. Garlic, butter, a dash of soy and they taste like a meat. There isn't a meat that I have ate that I could compare it to but it isn't rubbery or anything like that. I feel bad and have to cover my brigg tank when I cook them though, lol.