Smoked snails

Smoked food is very popular in Britain and I like smoked snails very much. I cook the snails in local cider first in the usual way, then transfer them to a sweet cure for a few minutes while they are still hot. If you leave them too long they will be too salty. Twenty minutes in one of those small domestic smokers is enough to impart a good smokey flavour without damaging the soft texture. I put brown sugar in the seasalt cure to give a little sweetness and smoke some garlic with the snails so I can pack them with the garlic and fresh thyme in local rapeseed oil. I kept an apple theme by using local cider in the cooking process and apple wood for smoking.

They could be vacuum packed if you don't want to eat them straight away. Smoked foods do freeze well but you don't want to damage the texture. I tried bottling them but it wasn't a good idea!

Eat them cold.

Cooking snails

Take your Snayles (they are no way so as in Pottage) and wash them very well in many waters, and when you have done put them in a White Earthen Pan, or very wide Dish, and put as much water to them as will cover them, and then set your Dish or Pan on some coales, that it may heat by little and little, and then the Snayles will come out of the shells and so dye, and being dead, take them out and wash them very well in Water and salt twice or thrice over; then put them in a Pipkin with Water and Salt, and let them boyle a little while in that, so take away the rude slime they have, then take them out againe and put them in a Cullender; then take excellent sallet Oyle and beat it a great while upon the fire in a frying Pan, and when it boyls very fast, slice two or three Onyons in it, and let them fry well, then put the Snayles in the Oyle and Onyons, and let them stew together a little, then put the Oyle, Onyons, and Snayles altogether in an earthen Pipkin of a fit size for your Snayles, and put as much warm water to them as will serve to boyle them and make the Pottage and season them with Salt, and so let them boyle three or foure hours; then mingle Parsley, Pennyroyall, Fennell, Tyme, and such Herbs, and when they are minced put them in a Morter and beat them as you do for Green-sauce, and put in some crums of bread soaked in the Pottage of the Snayles, and then dissolve it all in the Morter with a little Saffron and Cloves well beaten, and put in as much Pottage into the Morter as will make the Spice and bread and Herbs like thickening for a pot, so put them all into the Snayles and let them stew in it, and when you serve them up, you may squeeze into the Pottage a Lemon, and put in a little Vinegar, or if you put in a Clove of Garlick among the Herbs, and beat it with them in the Morter, it will not tast the worse; serve them up in a Dish with sippets of Bread in the bottom. The Pottage is very nourishing, and they use them that are apt to a Consumption.

The Compleat Cook, Nathaniel Brook, 1658

Reptile Food

In every clutch of snails there are some that never grow properly and can't be sold for human consumption so I sell them for reptile food. There are some lizards that like snails: skink, tegu and monitors. I believe some turtles eat them too.

I sell the snails in small quantities: 100 gm by weight and you can choose what size you want to suit your particular reptile pet. If you want larger quantities that can usually be arranged - just email and ask. www.snailfarm.org.uk