The snail is now a very fashionable article of diet in Paris; and has also spread to America. Snails are eaten in Tuscany and Austria. They were highly esteemed by the Romans, our masters in gastronomy. In the provinces of France, where the vine is cultivated, snails of large size abound. They are gathered by the peasants, put in small pans for a few days, salt water thrown on them, to cause them to discharge whatever their stomachs may contain; then boiled, taken out of the shell, and eaten with a sauce, and considered a luxury by the vine dressers.
There are now 50 restaurants, and more than 1,200 private tables in Paris, where snails are accepted as a delicacy by from 8,000 to 10,000 consumers. The monthly consumption of this mollusc is estimated at half a million. The market price of the great vineyard snail is from 2s. to 3s. per 100; while those of the hedges, woods, and forests, bring only 1s. 6d. to 2s. The proprietor of one snailery, in the vicinity of Dijon, is said to clear nearly £300 a year by his snails.
In Switzerland, where there are gardens in which they are fed in many thousands together, a considerable trade is carried on in them about the season of Lent; and at Vienna, a few years ago, seven of them were charged at an inn the same as a plate of veal or beef. The usual modes of preparing them for the table are either boiling, frying them in butter, or sometimes stuffing them with force-meat; but in whatever manner soever they are dressed, it is said their sliminess always in a great measure remains.
An anecdote is told of Drs. Black and Hutton, which shows how difficult it is for philosophy to wage a war with prejudice. It chanced that the two doctors had held some discourse together upon the folly of abstaining from feeding on the testaceous creatures of the land, while those of the sea were considered as delicacies. Wherefore not eat snails?—they are well known to be nutritious and wholesome—even sanative in some cases. The epicures of olden times enumerated among the richest and raciest delicacies the snails which were fed in the marble quarries of Lucca. The Italians still hold them in esteem. In short, it was determined that a gastronomic experiment should be made at the expense of the snails. The snails were procured, dieted for a time, then stewed for the benefit of the two philosophers: who had either invited no guest to their banquet, or found none who relished in prospect the pièce de resistance. A huge dish of snails was placed before them; but philosophers are but men after all; and the stomachs of both doctors began to revolt against the proposed experiment. Nevertheless, if they looked with disgust on the snails, they retained their awe for each other; and each conceiving the symptoms of internal revolt peculiar to himself, began with infinity of exertion to swallow, in very small quantities, the mess which he internally loathed. Dr. Black, at length, ‘showed the white feather,’ but in a very delicate manner, as if to sound the opinion of his messmate:—‘Doctor,’ he said, in his precise and quiet manner, ‘Doctor—do you not think that they taste a little—a very little, green?’ ‘Green! green, indeed—take them awa’, take them awa’,’ vociferated Dr. Hutton, starting up from table, and giving full vent to his feelings of abhorrence. And so ended all hopes of introducing snails into their cuisine.
At the town of Ulm, in Wurtemburg, on the left bank of the Danube, snails are fed in great quantities for various markets in Germany and Austria, but especially for that of Vienna, where they are esteemed a great delicacy, after having been fed upon strawberries. About 20,000 okes (each nearly 3 lbs.) of snails are annually exported from Crete, valued at 15,000 Turkish piastres.
The breed of large white snails in England is to be found all along the escarpment of the chalk range, and is not confined to Surrey. It is said to have been introduced into England by Sir Kenelm Digby, and was considered very nutritious and wholesome for consumptive patients. Indeed, to this day, considerable quantities are sold in Covent Garden market for this purpose. They are sometimes made into a mucilaginous broth, and at others swallowed in a raw state.
In the Island of Bourbon, the French use them to make a soup for the sick.
At Cape Coast Castle the luxuries of the natives are fish soup, made of dried unsalted fish, and snail soup with land crabs in it; and beyond Ashantee the food consists of plantains and large snails, 300 or 400 of which dried on a string sell for a dollar. These snails are the great African Achatina, which are the largest of all land-snails, attaining a length of eight inches.
A species of barnacle, called the parrot bill (Balanus psittacus), is much esteemed by the inhabitants of Chile. From 10 to 20 of these animals inhabit as many small separate cells, formed in a pyramid of a cretaceous substance. These pyramids are usually attached to the steepest parts of rocks at the water’s edge, and the animal derives its subsistence from the sea, by means of a little hole at the top of each cell. The shell consists of six valves, two large and four small; the large ones project externally in the form of a parrot’s bill, whence the animal has received its specific name. When detached from the rocks, they are kept alive in their cells for four or five days, during which time they occasionally protrude their bills as if to breathe. They are of different sizes, though the largest do not exceed an inch in length, and are very white, tender, and excellent eating.[36] Capt. P. P. King, R.N., confirms this, and says they form a common and highly esteemed food of the natives, the flesh equalling in richness and delicacy that of the crab.