The Lemon Fool

It seems to be high season for garden slugs - probably due to the coincidence of summer weather and some rain.

Anyone know if they can be turned into something delicious for humans, like their culinary cousins?

Fearnley-Whittingstall tried making kebabs from them, but he said they were like rubber bullets.

Unfortunately, AIUI, slugs carry some particularly nasty parasites, including heartworm and lungworm. Not sure I'd be inclined to risk it.

BJ

UncleEbenezer wrote:It seems to be high season for garden slugs - probably due to the coincidence of summer weather and some rain.

Anyone know if they can be turned into something delicious for humans, like their culinary cousins?

probably better used to feed chickens - catch, crush shels, throw to chooks.

then eat the eggs/chickens!

didds

other than the heartworm etrc conserns, the little i know is that you have to "rasie" or "husband" the snails for some whilke on very clean food stuffs in a very clean evironment eg lettuse in a sterile container etc) such that tyhey clean themselves through of all the rubbish they have ingested (grit, dirt etc) . Seems a lot of flap.

Nah. feed them to chooks and eat the chooks!

didds

didds wrote:other than the heartworm etrc conserns, the little i know is that you have to "rasie" or "husband" the snails for some whilke on very clean food stuffs in a very clean evironment eg lettuse in a sterile container etc) such that tyhey clean themselves through of all the rubbish they have ingested (grit, dirt etc) . Seems a lot of flap.

"Purging" them I think it's called. Like you have to do with american signal crayfish fished out the river/canal.

When I lived in Spain it was not unusual to see people out with a bucket gathering snails after rain. The snails were washed clean and kept in the bucket with flour added as feed. This process continued for a week or so to purge them. In Catalunya they make a kind of stew with them.

Tricia

Over the years I've found that sending the children/grandchildren and now great grandchildren outside with a small bucket and orders to fill with snails and slugs an excellent way of keeping them occupied and giving the chooks a treat. Only tried eating the little beggars once when we were in France, never again, like chomping on the end of a pencil rubber that's been dipped in garlic.

R6

didds wrote:

UncleEbenezer wrote:It seems to be high season for garden slugs - probably due to the coincidence of summer weather and some rain.

Anyone know if they can be turned into something delicious for humans, like their culinary cousins?

probably better used to feed chickens - catch, crush shels, throw to chooks.

then eat the eggs/chickens!

didds

I did not know that slugs have shells!

johnstevens77 wrote:[
I did not know that slugs have shells!

indeed.

Mind you I didn't know that slugs were also called escargots, as per the thread title

ah - they are not. "Limace" apparently. Who knew?

didds

The thread title was intended as a little creativity, to relate the subject to one known for its culinary distinction.

I wasn't expecting any very positive response, but worth a try. And the chicken-fanciers among us clearly do have a use for them

UncleEbenezer wrote:I wasn't expecting any very positive response, but worth a try. And the chicken-fanciers among us clearly do have a use for them

The blackbirds are welcome to mine. Apparently Britain is home to two thirds of all the slugs in Europe. Come and get 'em, birds, dinner is served.

BJ

Heh. They ought to do well with my garden: next door's cat is far too fat and lazy to kill birds himself, but asserts his territorial claim against any other cat entering my garden! Yet most of the vertebrate wildlife I see is just squirrels, pigeons, and occasional crows.

Snails are a bit of a nothing without the garlic sauce imho.

Recall many years ago in Brittany we were eating from a communal bowl of mixed snails, dipping them in sauce, when I noticed that some of them were crawling up the side of the bowl.
Sudden loss of appetite.

V8

bungeejumper wrote: Apparently Britain is home to two thirds of all the slugs in Europe.

A bit harsh. Not all our teenagers sleep in...

Get a hedgehog or two......your garden slug population will virtually disappear.

Alternatively a house brick will do the same job.

richlist wrote:Get a hedgehog or two......your garden slug population will virtually disappear.

Alternatively a house brick will do the same job.

I must have the wrong species of house brick..... mine just lie there and watch the slugs slither by

--kiloran

richlist wrote:Get a hedgehog or two......your garden slug population will virtually disappear.

Alternatively a house brick will do the same job.

We've got 3 hedgehogs in different parts of the garden but they must be sluggish because we still have a lot of slugs.

sg31 wrote:

richlist wrote:Get a hedgehog or two......your garden slug population will virtually disappear.

Alternatively a house brick will do the same job.

We've got 3 hedgehogs in different parts of the garden but they must be sluggish because we still have a lot of slugs.

Hogs will only eat slugs if they can't find anything better. So richlist's hogs are starving.

genou wrote:

sg31 wrote:

richlist wrote:Get a hedgehog or two......your garden slug population will virtually disappear.

Alternatively a house brick will do the same job.

We've got 3 hedgehogs in different parts of the garden but they must be sluggish because we still have a lot of slugs.

Hogs will only eat slugs if they can't find anything better. So richlist's hogs are starving.

C'mon Richlist, throw your hogs something to eat!