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Recently, there are more and more eco-farms in the Moscow region. They offer dairy and meat organic products to residents of Moscow and the Moscow region, invite tourists to their place and organize excursions. Each farmer tries to surprise his guests with something. At the eco-farm "EcoDerevushka", which is located in the village of Parfentevo, Kolomensky district, tourists are shown a snail farm. The RIAMO correspondent visited a snail farm and learned how to grow and breed a grape snail in the Moscow region.
“For at least a year I have been studying what other than goats can do, and now I came across the topic of snails,” says the owner of the snail farm Sergei Balaev, “started reading, watching videos ...”. And after all this I went to Crimea and from there brought the first 100 kilograms of a live snail in the trunk. Sergei did not buy it anywhere, he just picked up these 100 kilograms in nature. Since this all started.
“You see, there is a lot of grass here, which means little snail. If there were more snails here than the grass has time to grow, then we would have added the grass, ”says Sergey Balaev, founder of the EcoDerevushka eco-farm.
“The maintenance is absolutely simple, in our conditions it lives and reproduces beautifully,” explains Sergei Balaev, “it will also endure the cold, so everything is fine”. This year, some of the snails will remain in the outdoor enclosure, and some will move to a warm room. This is a kind of experiment that will help the employees of the eco-farm better understand how to keep a snail in our conditions.
Feeling the arrival of cold weather, the snail is screwed into the ground by 15 centimeters - there it falls into a state of suspended animation. The snail can be in hibernation for up to six months. “In nature, up to 60% of snails die,” says the owner of a snail farm, “but the books say that 20% die in such enclosures. But as I watched, there were only two empty shells for the whole time. "
In summer, the snail feeds on grass. But in order to feed her in the winter, you have to go to vegetable depots and look for what she loves. According to Sergei Balaev, the snail loves everything juicy and soft, so now you have to go to vegetable depots and collect foliage (for example, from cabbage).
A grape snail does not like heat, so it hides in tall grass, and if the grass is mowed low, the snail finds itself shelter from the sun under special boxes. “There is little grass in Europe, so if you raise such a board there, snails will hang in clusters under it,” says Sergei Balaev.
All snails are hermaphrodites, so they can all lay eggs. On average, grape snails breed 2 times a year. Each clutch contains approximately 40-60 eggs.
“Abroad, they have already begun to pack them in cans and sell them - this is considered a delicacy for them,” says Sergei Balaev, “we haven’t gotten to that yet, we need a snail as a tasty product”.
An adult snail weighs 35-40 grams, in one kilogram 40-50 pieces. In "EcoDerevushka" a kilogram of snails costs 500 rubles. Not only visitors to the farm buy snails from Sergei, but also restaurants. This is especially convenient in the context of import substitution. However, for Sergei Balayev, the supply of snails to restaurants is not an end in itself, since in the near future gastronomic tours to a snail farm will be created, where tourists will be told about breeding snails and taught how to cook them correctly.
The only thing that Sergei still cannot understand is how to transfer the European experience with salt to our conditions. In Europe, the habitat of snails is limited by sprinkling salt along the edges of the territory. It is believed that having felt the salt, the snail will turn around and crawl back. But Sergei did not succeed in this experiment - as they approached the salt, the snails died.“Therefore, now we have to pull the net - this is not very convenient, because the snail always crawls up,” explains Sergey, “probably in Europe they use not pure salt, but some kind of salt composition”.
Author - Julia TitovaRIAMO
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It is believed that grape snails spread throughout Europe from Italy. They do not live in central Russia, but they are often found in the Baltic States, the Kaliningrad region and on the southern outskirts of our country. They love a humid warm climate: old gardens, ravines overgrown with bushes. 16 photos via |
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Let's see how this “horned delicacy” is grown on special farms. |
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Snail farming is a new direction of “animal husbandry” in Europe and one of the options for small business. There they are collected by collectors, sending them in large quantities, fresh and frozen, to supermarkets and restaurants in developed European countries. The demand is great and growing constantly. In this horny and slimy delicacy, meat that is completely free of cholesterol and unhealthy fats is extremely prized. Consisting of pure healthy protein, amino acids essential for humans and a host of different vitamins. Yes, it also increases potency. In addition to sea mollusks, popular all over the world, in France they also love land - grape snails (Helix pomatia). Soft-bodied delicacies are called by the pretty word "escargot" and are sold in any supermarket. Fishing (hunting? Collecting? Catching?) Of wild snails is becoming more and more difficult in France due to the destruction of the natural habitat, therefore it cannot satisfy the appetite of a gourmet nation. The food problem is partly solved through imports. But patriotic French people prefer domestic goods, they sincerely believe that everything French is the best in the world. Therefore, the only solution is to breed in captivity. |
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The humid sea air of Brittany is excellent for this land clam. Le Croisic is home to one of the many French snail farms. The farm is called “pedagogical”, as there are regular guided excursions, who provide a view of Helix pomatia, unexpected for a zoologist. A typical phrase of the guide near the poster depicting the anatomy of the snail: “... At the end of the shell is the liver. If this organ is not removed, the taste of the snail will be spoiled. " |
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Snail farms began to be organized when the areas of abandoned gardens and ravines were reduced, or completely disappeared, when in some European countries it was forbidden to collect grape snails, taking them under protection. Beautiful, light brown, with dark stripes and almost completely curled carapace, large, up to almost 5 cm in length and height (that is why they were called tall in Russia). Some people even keep them at home as pets, no matter how ridiculous it may sound. |
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The cultivation of snails begins with reproduction. Breeder snails are given a special diet rich in carrots. It is surprising for us that each individual of the snail has both male and female genital organs (although from the point of view of snails, probably men and women are inferior creatures ...). The snails are planted in pairs and they fertilize each other. Since snails lay their eggs in the ground, after mating, the producers are planted in special small pots with soil. Then the valuable contents of the pots are placed in an incubator. |
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Newborn snails live in mini-terrariums, and the grown ones are moved to an open-air cage with mesh walls, on boards that slide into special boxes, like in a writing desk. |
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The "young" are fed with carrots with cereal grains. Farm snails reach gastronomic sizes (like plums) in a few months; “Wild” snails in nature take a year and a half to do this. Here, on the farm, in a special laboratory, which is certified by the sanitary and veterinary inspections, culinary processing of snails is carried out |
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First, they are placed in boiling water for five minutes, then removed from the shells, the liver is removed, sautéed, boiled in a special broth, put back into the shells and poured with a traditional specific green sauce with parsley and garlic. An elderly Frenchman once told me: "The snails themselves are just meat, but the sauce for them is something special." |
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The excursion around the farm ends in a shop and a restaurant, where properly “warmed up” gourmets can finally taste various dishes and buy spiral delicacies for future use. Snails in traditional sauce, snails in dough cups instead of shells, snail cassoulet with mushrooms in tomato sauce, a semi-finished product for those who like to cook - boiled unflavored snails in cans, et cetera. |
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Breeding snails in artificial, "greenhouse" conditions is also a guarantee that the meat that is sold will be free from various contaminants: heavy metals, pesticides and others. Snails breed well. Only they need space. Normal conditions for their life are created when 40-50 snails (that is, about a kilogram) live on 1 square meter. In snails, each individual brings offspring. Once a year, in spring, they lay 40-60 eggs. The offspring grows rather quickly and, under artificial conditions, gains marketable weight in about a year and a half (in the cycle "spring - autumn - spring"). “Commercial” is considered to be 20-25 grams in weight and about 5 cm in size. Even if part of the new generation does not survive, each snail still brings up to 1 kg of offspring in the indicated period. And 2 kg of feed is spent on 1 kg of delicacy. Thus, from 100 kg of snails, you can get several tons of offspring. Isn't it a business? |
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Now the ubiquitous Chinese have begun to actively engage in the cultivation of these mollusks. They do not take patience and perseverance. And this business, I must admit, although profitable, but not easy. The snail business itself does not require large financial investments, but it certainly cannot be done without professionalism and experience. Without delving into writing a business plan and drawing up a cost estimate, it should be noted that the costs of organizing the business will be: training costs, costs of purchasing (or collecting) the initial batch of snails, fencing the farm, cages and feed. They love strawberry leaves, horse sorrel, burdocks, cabbage and, of course, grape leaves, for which they got their name. On a plot of only half a hundred, you can get healthy meat, for sure, more than from a bull. And its price is 10 times higher than the price of beef. |
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As Germanic monks raised snails in cabbage beds, you can plant artichokes or some kind of grain inside the enclosure.A temperate climate (about 21 degrees) and a humidity of 75 - 95% are an indispensable condition for the breeding of shellfish. The snail is a nocturnal animal. She sleeps during the day. Just like in winter, it burrows into the soil and hibernates. Calcium must be present in the soil. |
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Already in the second year of life, snails living in favorable conditions will be able to mate. It is considered normal for individuals when 40-50 snails live on about 1 sq. m. Each lays about 50 eggs. After a year and a half, the individual gains marketable weight. So, from 100 kg of snails, tormented mainly with babies, you can get several tons of new mollusks. |
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Another problem is obtaining certificates. After all, the products will be shipped abroad. |
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Summing up, I would like to note that whether it is a rabbit, an ostrich, a chicken or a small snail, if it is a living creature, then the main thing that will have to be invested is care and attention. Then - success is assured. |
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Why don't they live in the middle lane? About five or seven years ago there was a terrible number of them in the southern part of the Moscow region - Podolsky district, etc. Without any industrial breeding This post has been edited xli — 18.11.2015 — 22:15 |
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I don’t know how it tastes there, but we have this fat in bulk on free grazing. For example, for mushrooms, we are shodts - so there is more of this good than those mushrooms were! |
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I brought 4 pieces of grape snails from Zhitomir 15 years ago and released them in my dacha, the dacha is a little further from Narofominsk and they live in the same place, on the compost heap, they live well in the suburbs, and there are also farms for growing them in the Moscow region |
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just opened the gate, and they will rush kaaak |
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bullshit, Samara region, this summer. |
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It's probably cold, and the climate is not the same. And in my dacha this delicacy eats everything like locusts. Not a single poison takes. Only manually collect and destroy. Stavropol Territory, if that ... This post has been edited Bormoglotik — 18.11.2015 — 22:19 |
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Frogs, snails, oysters, horse shit ... People do not eat it, and even more so they do not feast on it. Well, there are enough perverts in Europe. |
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Great marketing ploy! |
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Snail farm in the village of Parfentievo near Kolomna. "Snail driver" and part-time guide Anatoly Cherepakha with his wards
Several years of import substitution have shown that sanctions are more likely to benefit agriculture. For example, farmer Sergei Balaev is engaged in the cultivation of a delicacy - a grape snail, the demand for which is growing in our country.
The farm in the village of Parfentievo, a few minutes drive from the center of the Kolomna Kremlin, turned out to be ideal for breeding grape snails. So far, this is the only farm in the Moscow region where it has been possible to grow mollusks on an industrial scale.
Sergei Balaev, a resident of Reutov, took up farming in the 2000s. True, the story began unexpectedly: Sergei went to the bird market to buy aquarium fish ...
He left with a larger purchase - four sheep, which he registered at his summer cottage. Over time, the expansion of the "living space" was required. So, at first I had to rent a farm in the Oryol region, but then I moved closer.
And in 2012, he and his horned wards ended up on a farm in Parfentievo. On the site of the destroyed state farm "Sergievsky" Sergei rebuilt a new farm and established the production of cheese, cottage cheese and yoghurts.
It would seem that things are going uphill. Where does the craving for such an exotic business come from?
Sanctions are not scary for snails
The owner of the farm is Sergey Balaev. He promised to personally present one of the goats to Vladimir Zhirinovsky
A person with an entrepreneurial streak never sits still. Thoughts are constantly spinning in my head about how to improve your business. We began our conversation with Sergei at a large log table, where snail cooking master classes are held.
- Sergey, how did you get the idea to breed mollusks?
- Many tourists come to my farm, they need to be entertained with something. There are raccoons, horses, geese, but this, as they say, is a standard set. And in 2014, in the wake of sanctions and import substitution, there was talk on the Internet that many wanted to open a snail farm: it seemed that it was not expensive, but the profit was good. But no one got things off the ground. I am the first.
- And where did the gastropods come from?
- I decided to combine business with pleasure, went on a car to rest in the Crimea and gathered snails in the fields there. As a result, we got 300 kilograms. I brought them all safely to the farm, but did not take root ... Apparently, our climate did not suit.
- But it did not stop you ...
- On the contrary, it spurred me on! I turned to a snail breeder in the Krasnodar Territory. And a batch of mollusks bred rather quickly on the Kolomna land.
- And how do they endure our winter, do they really not freeze?
- With the onset of cold weather, the snail goes underground to a depth of 30 centimeters and falls into suspended animation. And in the spring, after hibernation, they appear on the surface.
- How popular is this exotic product?
- We take a snail for breeding, for cooking - both at home and in restaurants.
The last order was for 300 kilos.
- But not everyone is able to put a slug in their mouth. Where does this interest come from?
- For myself, I explain this by the fact that many have tasted snails abroad. By the way, snail caviar is in no less demand.
- Snail caviar?
- Yes, in terms of cost and quality, it is comparable to black caviar. True, we are not producing it yet.
- Well, how relevant was the story of import substitution in your case?
- Well, here you yourself can compare. A package of 12 snails from a French manufacturer will cost about six times more. So this is still some kind of import substitution.
- And how many shellfish live here now?
- Nobody exactly counted, but about a ton.
- Who visits your farm?
- From ordinary people to deputies. They come to eat ready-made snails, and take with them, some buy them for breeding.
- During the excursions, you give a master class on cooking snails. Where did you get experience?
- Initially, there was no experience in cooking, I studied by trial and error. I chose the most popular recipe for the master class - “Burgundy snail”.
- Have you tried a snail abroad, whose is it tastier?
- The French chef who prepared escargot * from our snail said that they have exactly the same in France. But it seems to me that he is disingenuous, ours is softer and fatter. Abroad, they have adapted to selling snail meat and are doing the following trick. Snails are taken out of large shells, their meat is sold separately, and then a smaller snail is put into empty shells and sold to restaurants.
- Are you planning to expand your farm? Maybe you will breed some more exotic animals?
- Frog! Wednesday is the most suitable here - the swamp of the village of Parfentievo. I studied the case in detail, but this is in theory, in practice, alas,
Gastropod menu
From theory, I decided to move on to practice, more precisely, to inspecting mollusks. Frankly, I had no idea what a snail farm might look like. Anatoliy Turtle has undertaken to dispel my fantasies on this subject. In the village of Parfentievo, he practically from the very foundation of the farm. Moved here from Zaporozhye, and stayed so. First she grazed the cows, and then the snails. An unpleasant rain was drizzling outside, but for the snails it turned out to be the most pleasant weather.
“We let them out of the brooders, so watch your step, they have spread across the lawn,” warns Anatoly. - We woke up from the water, now they will "mow" the lawn.
In some places, the grass really looks like it was mowed by a lawn mower. I walk over to the brooder, which looks more like the frame of a wooden greenhouse. Watering umbrellas are installed only at the top. And the walls are covered with a soft mesh, along which snails are constantly crawling. There is a narrow wooden deck in the middle of the brooder, and small feeders on the left and right. Finely chopped food for gastropods is spread on them.
- Is it true that snails only eat grape leaves? - I am interested.
It turns out that this is a myth.
- Their favorite food is dandelion, nettle, cucumber, carrot, but most of all they love corn flour. They grow on it, as if by leaps and bounds, - says Anatoly and looks for the most well-fed ward in the grass.
Then he picks up a few more snails of different sizes in his palm.
- This one, - pointing to a clam the size of a large plum, - will go for stuffing, smaller, the size of a grape, for breeding, - explains the snail shepherd.
And suddenly, unexpectedly, he brings the collected snails to my ear.
- Do you hear? Beep! - not without pleasure Anatoly states.
There are almost no troubles with such wards, after the rain I collected them, woke them up and fed them several times a day.
- Do snails grow fast? - I ask the shepherd.
- Pretty fast. In captivity, they would grow to the size we need for three years, but here it takes only one and a half years, - without letting go of one of the largest snails, says Anatoly.
And then I remember that a snail is not only valuable meat, but also ... a cosmetic product!
- Anatoly, are your pets suitable for cosmetology? - I could not resist the question.
- These are not, but the tropical Achatina (large land mollusk, which some start as a pet. - "VM") is just used in cosmetology. By the way, we have one. My name is Masha. We demonstrate it during master classes, - Anatoly boasted.
- Why don't you breed it? The business is profitable, and it is in demand.
- They grow too long, and the meat is tough, so one Masha is enough for us, - Anatoly admitted.
With garlic and boots you can eat
Well, how, being at a snail farm, not to try the signature dish - “Burgundy snail”. The photojournalist and I ordered two dozen for two. It must be said that our snails, in comparison with the Greek ones, turned out to be more impressive in size. And the garlic aroma, even the photographer, who looked at my venture with skepticism, aroused an appetite. However, not for long. As soon as he tried the snail, the fuse was gone.
However, this did not stop me. The snail really turned out to be juicier than its western relative. Perhaps our nettles and dandelions played a role. The snail meat tastes like neither chicken nor beef, but rather like seafood with spices. But in any case, it cannot replace real meat, after all, snail dishes are still exotic for us.
* Escargot is an exquisite French grape snail dish served with dry white wine.
SNAILS IN BURGUNDIAN
The recipe will require:
snails - 100 g, white wine - 1 l, vinegar 3% - 200 g, flour - 3 tbsp. l., carrots - 2 pcs., onions - 2-3 pcs., parsley - to taste, bay leaf, thyme - to taste, salt, snail oil - 800 g.
For snail oil:
onions - 100 g, garlic - 3 cloves, parsley (chopped) - 80 g, salt - 25 g, ground pepper - butter to taste - 700 g.
Pour cold water over the snails, bring to a boil and simmer for 5-6 minutes. Rinse them with cold water, pat dry with a clean towel. Then take them out of the sink and cut off the black tip.
Rinse the peeled snails again and put in a saucepan, pouring white wine and the same amount of water so that all the snails are covered with liquid. Add 2 chopped carrots, 2 onions, thyme, parsley root, celery stick, green onions.
Salt at the rate of 10 g per liter and cook for 4 hours. Then remove from heat and leave to cool in this broth.
While the snails are boiling, wash and boil the shells in soda water. Then rinse them with clean water and pat dry.
Prepare snail oil. To do this, finely chop the onion, garlic and parsley, add salt and black pepper. Put soft butter there and mix everything thoroughly.
Cut and stir the snail meat. Then stuff the shells with meat, covering with a good portion of the same oil. Put the stuffed shells with butter up on a dish and put them in a hot oven for 7-8 minutes before serving.
GRAPE SNAIL
Grape snail - one of the largest terrestrial molluscs.
The spherical swirling shell of a grape snail reaches a height of 5 cm and a width of 4.5 cm, has 4-4.5 whorls, ending in a wide mouth.
The shell is yellowish-brown in color with wide dark brown stripes running along.
FACT
In metropolitan restaurants, escargot will cost from 1,000 to 2,000 rubles.
BY THE WAY
Eating only 6 snails in terms of energy value can be compared with 1.5 kilograms of beef.
If you find a very large brownish snail with a round shell and an elongated slimy body on a humus heap, in grass or other damp places, then it will most likely be grape snail... For a long time I believed that such snails can live only in the warm south. But recently I saw them in the Tver region near the Ivankovskoye reservoir (Moscow Sea). Grape snails also multiplied in Valdai. They are found in Moscow on the territory of the All-Russian Exhibition Center, the Timiryazev Academy, and even in parks. Farms near Moscow have appeared, where terrestrial giant mollusks are grown. Recently, there are publications with headlines such as: "Grape snails attack the Moscow region", "Grape snails are mastering the north", "Protect our gardens from grape snails." This large mollusk seems so cute to some people that they put it in a terrarium and keep it as a pet.
Grape snail
Description of the grape snail
The grape snail (Helix pomatia) is a large land gastropod lung-type mollusk with a large round brownish-brown (in young individuals) or grayish-cream (in older snails) shell with more or less bright stripes. The shell is 45 - 47 mm wide and high, with up to five turns on it. A sturdy shell withstands gravity, but it often suffers when a snail falls on stones, even from a small height. The spiral is more often twisted to the right, less often to the left. Such "wrong" snails are more valuable, they are called the "king of snails". The mollusk has a leg 4 - 5 cm long, 2 cm wide. The weight of one grape snail is about 35 g.
In the central and southeastern regions of Europe, grape snails have been known for a long time. They are also found in the Baltic countries. These giant mollusks live on forest edges, in thickets of bushes, along the banks of rivers and lakes, in parks, vineyards, orchards, vegetable gardens and even in ditches along roads.Since the days of ancient Rome, grape snails have been bred on special farms in order to then prepare food from them.
In nature, under favorable conditions, grape snails live up to 20 years. Most often, the life path of mollusks is limited to 6 - 8 years. They die because of accidents and enemies: humans, birds, moles, hedgehogs, weasels, shrews and ... cats. It happens that small bugs get under the sink and spoil the life of the snail.
Grape snail in all its glory
Grape snails are more active at dusk and night than during daytime. During the day, they crawl out in cloudy weather or after rain. In autumn, when it gets cool, they burrow into loose soil to a depth of 5 to 25 cm or occupy an empty hole, are drawn into the shell and fall into suspended animation. During hibernation, the mouth of the shell is covered with a lime plug with a tiny breathing hole.
Snails are classic hermaphrodites, i.e. each individual is bisexual, performs male and female functions. When mating, only the exchange of spermatophores occurs. The fertilized mollusk lays up to 40 pearl-like eggs. Only every twentieth newly born snail survives, the rest die for various reasons. Tiny one week old snails are able to find their own food.
Grape snail in the garden and vegetable garden
The giant snail is considered a serious agricultural pest that is banned from import into a number of countries. Sometimes these leisurely mollusks arrange massive migrations, filling parks, vineyards, orchards and vegetable gardens that they meet on the way. Such a massive invasion of snails leads to the extermination of foliage and fruits of plants.
In areas where many grape snails are bred, protective measures have to be taken. Thorny branches (for example, wild rose), which enclose the beds, help well. It is imperative to protect newly planted seedlings. Grape snails have a habit of hibernating and feeding in the same places. They are attracted by fresh humus heaps, which are built in vegetable gardens at a short distance from each other. Such a trick distracts the mollusc from cultural plantings well.
Mechanical harvesting is still the most reliable way to protect your site from snails. Not only children, but also adults should not bring these shellfish from trips and then release them to their site.
Caring for a grape snail at home
Sometimes grape snails are kept in the house. They buy them, bring them or catch them outside the city. These are long-lived animals. The recorded record is a thirty-five-year-old grape snail. It's funny to see how this animal stares at a person. Its eyes are on tentacle-like outgrowths. They say that the mollusk soon gets used to a person and is not at all afraid of him.
Moss or soft grass can be placed on the bottom of the terrarium
The habitat of the mollusk can be an aquarium or a transparent plastic box. There must be a cover on top so that the snail cannot escape. Ventilation holes or slots should be provided as these animals need air to breathe. The container should not be placed in a sunny place.
During movement along a horizontal or vertical plane, a wave-like muscle contraction occurs. In this case, the extended snail leg is actively involved. In its front part there are glands that secrete a lot of mucus.
In nature, land snails prefer moist places. In the confined space of the terrarium, there should be a shallow bowl of water. These mollusks do not swim and can drown in deep containers. It is better not to put gravel and sharp stones so that the shell does not crack when the snail falls from a height. A loose soil mixture is placed on the bottom, on which the snail can easily move. Once or twice a day, water is sprayed in the terrarium with a spray bottle. This is to maintain moisture.
Grape snails feed mainly on plants.They eat grass and various young shoots. They are given burdock, cabbage, dandelion, plantain leaves and fresh cucumbers. To strengthen the shell, calcium is required, which is in the ground or in crushed eggshells. You can use a piece of chalk or limestone with smooth edges.
Grape snail mucus as a cosmetic product
Grape snails produce a lot of mucus when moving. It is considered a good cosmetic product, therefore creams and serums are made on its basis. Snail mucus repairs damaged or inflamed skin, smoothes wrinkles and is an excellent moisturizer.
Some salons offer an expensive skin rejuvenation procedure. For this, grape snails are used, slowly moving along the face and body. They say that in this way it is really possible to smooth out and noticeably reduce the number of wrinkles.
How to cook a grape snail at home?
People have eaten grape snails at all times
Grape snails have been eaten at all times, because it was often one of the most affordable food items. Gourmet dishes have also appeared, which are served in expensive restaurants. Shellfish meat is considered dietary, cholesterol-free. It is often compared to oyster meat. It contains phosphorus, magnesium, potassium, iron, calcium, vitamins (A, E and group B).
In those places where grape snails are collected in "buckets", they are more often introduced into the diet. The shellfish can be boiled, fried, baked, stewed with wine, stuffed, etc. Add lard, salt, garlic, onion, lemon, herbs or spices. Before cooking grape snails, it is advisable to place them in a large saucepan with a lid, into which chopped straw or bran is poured. Snails that have eaten the bran are "cleaned" and become tastier.
Many people like the taste of grape snails baked for ten minutes on wire racks over coals. The finished meat is removed from the shell and all entrails must be removed.
When cooking, first get rid of mucus. To do this, boil grape snails for several minutes, wash, and then cook in fresh water for another five minutes. It turns out the base for many dishes and a healthy broth for the soup. The meat of boiled grape snails is removed from the shell, cleaned from the entrails and fried with lard and onions.
Some stores receive a frozen delicacy - grape snail shells stuffed with a mixture of minced clam meat, cheese and olive oil. Sometimes spinach, nuts or mushrooms are added to the meat. In order to prepare such an exquisite dish, you need to boil the grape snails for about five minutes, then clean the shell of the contents, rinse it, boil it in water with a small amount of baking soda and dry it. After that, the shell is filled with minced snail meat with various additives.
♦ Heading: Animals.
