The Prescott daily news., 1915-11-01
EDIBLE SNAILS

To most Americans the idea of us
 ing snails in the diet will not awaken gastronomic enthusaisism; but there are people in various parts of the world to whom the suggestion of the use of other mollusks such as oyS- ters and clans, would be repugnant. It is not necessary to go back to the days of the elder Pliny for evidence that edible snails have had place on the menus of many countries. It is stated that during our own oyster season, from September to April, more than 200 million snails are disposed of in Paris alone. The daily consump- tion of "escargots" in the French cap itaI has been estimated at 50 tons when trade Is at its best. In the be- lief that the American people can be educated to see the true worth of the edible snail, which might be grown with profit in the United Staes, a government expert has collected some facts bearing on their use. The Flu
 ropean war has added a further inter est to he possibility of snail culture
 Comparatively few Americans have ever tasted snails, know of their pre- paration as food, or even consider them a fit article of diet. Among the for eigners in our population, snails have have a limited sale. Those sold in the fish markets of our larger cities have practically all been imported from France Abroad, snails are by no means regarded in any sense as a na- tional dish. They are included in the dietary much as is the oyster in this country, as table luxury or delicacy In respect to composition, the two groups of mollusks furnish about the same yield of nutrients. In Europe, snails are raised commercially under an intensive system of culture in many places, in snaileries. Rust believes that although snail culture may not be very profitable in Europe, where edonomic conditions are different, in that the food for the animals must be grown and supplied to them regular ly, and everything done with much la United States snail farming might with judicious publicity, and in time, become profitable. Whether or not it is advantageous, from the standpoint of nutrition, to attempt to introduce a new food to the American table is a question of individual preference. AL most every one, Rust writes, who has ever eaten well-prepared snails, ad- mits their gastdonomic worth, from the points both of nutritive value anC of flavor, and there are many states where they could be grown and kept fresh until used, and where they would prove a very welcome addition to the somewhat limited menu of the To- cality. In the Mississippi Valley, for instance, where conditions for their cultivation are almost ideal. they could be grown at practically no cost (either in money, time or labor), and might be used to a great extent in place of oysters, which they greatly resemble in flavor when properly pre- pared. Such a practice would be ad- vantageous says The Journal of the American Medical Association, for the snail is possibly preferable as an article of human consumption. It Is cleaner, feeding daintily, as it does only on the cleanest of vegetable tis- sues, while oysters, not being able to move about in search of food, must take what comes to them in the water are sometimes fattened in water i'm pregnated with bacteria-laden sewage and thus, occasionally, act as carriers of typhoid and other diseases. At any rate, We can be prepared to re- ceive the suggestion of the addition of snails to the American menu without the revulsion of feeling which it awak- ems in many at present.