Snails as food
[1] Snails as a food date back to ancient times, with numerous cultures worldwide having traditions and practices that attest to their consumption.
[3] Although throughout history the snail has had little value in the kitchen because it is considered "poverty food", in recent times it can be classified as a delicacy thanks to the appreciation given to it by haute cuisine chefs.
[6] Researchers have not been able to pinpoint when humans began consuming snails, although archaeological discoveries point to earlier stages than the invention of hunting.
In Historia de gastronomía (2004), Fernández-Armesto points out the possible reasons: snails are easy to handle, and their cultivation "seems like a natural extension of harvesting".
Many sites in the Zagros Mountains of Iraq and the Kermanshah region of western Iran are from the late Pleistocene and include snail shells that have been interpreted as food debris.
According to Lubell (2004b), archaeological remains of land snails have been found in the Caribbean, Peru, Texas and other parts of North America, East Africa, Sudan, Nigeria, and the Philippines.
The Roman breeder Quintus Fulvius Lippinus is considered the "father" of heliciculture, or at least, the first written reference to snail farms.
Lippinus established his study center in the Tuscan city of Tarquinia to feasibly domesticate various animals, such as dormouse and wild boar, among many others.
[14] Shells of the edible species Cernuella virgata and Otala lactea have been recovered from the Roman-era city Volubilis, in present-day Morocco.
[15] Pope Pius V, who was an avid eater of snails, decided that they had to be considered as fish to continue eating them during Lent, exclaiming: Estote pisces in aeternum!
In the Libro del arte de cozina [es] by Diego Granado, head chef of the Spanish royal household, a section was dedicated to the snail, explaining its biological characteristics, how to clean it, and various recipes on how to cook it, fry it, etc.
[17] In the stricter Orthodox Church tradition of fasting, snails are still considered fully Lenten, being invertebrates, and are historically and presently popular.
[21] Snail flesh is a good supply of essential amino acids such as lysine, methionine, and cysteine, which are difficult to get in other sources of protein, according to Adeyeye et al. (2020).
Snail chef Morell i Bitrià (1999) recommends not giving them anything to eat for at least eight days (ideally ten or twelve) and then washing them well.
[24] After being cleaned and washed several times, they are transferred to a pot with cold water and salt, when they emerge from their shells the heat is raised to the maximum, and they are cooked for approximately a quarter of an hour.
In the cuisine of Lleida, they are an ingredient in many traditional dishes, in many cases mixed with other meats such as pig's feet, rabbit, chicken, lobsters and prawns, etc.
Typical of Equatorial Guinea is a giant sea snail called bilolá (Persististrombus latus), eaten stewed or sautéed, which in Cape Verde is known as búzio cabra, and is grilled on skewers.
In Cretan cuisine, the snails are first boiled in white wine with bay leaves, celery, and onion and then coated with flour and fried with rosemary and vinegar.
[28] A city known for its snail culture is the town of Lleida, in the north-Spanish region of Catalonia, where the L'Aplec del Cargol festival has been held since 1980, receiving some 300,000 visitors during a weekend in May.
