• General & History -
• Varieties -
• Cleaning and Cooking Snails -
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Gastropods first appeared in the seas of the Lower Cambrian period more than 500 million years ago and long before there was any life at all on land. They were immediately successful and have since expanded their range to include fresh water and your garden.

"Gastropod" means "stomach foot" which is inaccurate because the stomach is up inside the shell, but they do sort of "crawl around on their belly". Gastropod shells (not all have shells) expand in a spiral form off to one side of the body as the occupant grows.

Some gastropods are vegetarian but others are notorious for drilling into and eating oysters, clams and other bivalves as well as other gastropods. Others will eat just about any organic material they can find.

Land snails need a lot more pre-preparation than sea or fresh water snails because of the slime they depend on for getting around. Basic preparation for small snails is to keep them away from food for 2 to 5 days depending on species to clean out their digestive tract. Land snails then need to be de-slimed by application of salt or by other means.

Larger snails like conch can be properly disassembled and cleaned so do not need any pre-prep (except a good pounding to tenderize them). Details for cleaning and preparation are included in the sub-article for each variety (click on the picture or "Prep & Cooking Details").

Abalone - [Awabi (Japan), Abulon (Sp), genus Haliotis various species]
There are eight species of abalone off the coast of California. Red abalone can get up to a foot long but not many get much beyond the 7 inch minimum even though harvesting them is highly restricted (free diving only, no SCUBA or air tubes, strict limits and closed areas).

All wild abalone populations on the California coast are endangered or severely threatened due to poor fishery management, largely the result of inadequate data. The only exception is red abalone where severe restrictions have been somewhat effective. Some stocks are considered beyond natural recovery and must be restored by captive breeding and concentration by transplanting, particularly white abalone which is near extinction. Stocks in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa are similarly threatened.

The high price abalone fetches and the short supply has made aquaculture viable. Three species are farmed in California: Red (H. rufescens) in northern regions, Pink (H. corrugata) and Green (photo H. fulgens) in southern regions and Baja California. Abalone are fed California giant kelp, the harvest of which is also strictly regulated. Prep & Cooking Details.

Apple Snail - [family Ampullariidae, probably Pila polita]
The largest of freshwater snails Apple Snails (various species) are found in tropical and subtropical wetlands worldwide. While some species can grow to 6 inches, the largest of the photo specimens was 2.6 inches long and weighed 1.9 ounces. Others in the batch, frozen whole in Vietnam, were smaller. For greater economy, buy frozen packages of apple snail meat - 50 or more for the same price as a dozen in the shell.

The Pila snails in the photo are native to Southeast Asia and are a preferred eating snail. Unfortunately uneducated nitwits with get rich schemes have illegally imported Pomacea canaliculata from South America to Taiwan, Southeast Asia, the Philippines and Hawaii. These snails have never been a commercial success because snail eaters don't like them much and they are devastating rice and taro crops wherever introduced causing severe economic damage and driving out the local snails. Prep & Cooking Details.

Blunt Creeper Snail - [Mud Creeper, Matah Merah, Belitong, Chut-chut, Hoy jup jeng (Thai), Longburm (Aust.) Cerithidea obtusa, family Potamididae]
Found in the brackish waters of mangrove swamps in Southeast Asia and Australia, these snails are gathered from the trunks and branches of the mangroves and sold live in local markets. The photo specimens were from Vietnam and labeled "Top Shell" which they are not. The largest would have been about 1-3/4 inches long if the tip hadn't been broken off. The tips are generally slightly broken in nature but these have been broken farther down to facilitate eating them. Prep & Cooking Details.

Brown Garden Snail - [Petit Gris (French), Helix aspersa var muller (alt Cantareus aspersus)]
These snails have been introduced to various parts of the world by French immigrants, often with ill conceived dreams of snail farming and always with disastrous consequences. They have become quite a pest in California and cost many millions of dollars every year. Only ducks, rats and Frenchmen seem to want to eat them.

One of the primary "escargot" snails of France, Petit Gris gets up to 1-3/8 inches across the shell. The other two snails eaten by the French are Gros Gris (H. aspersa var maxima) which grows to 1-3/4 inches and the Bourgogne Snail (H. Pomatia) which gets a little bigger than 2 inches. Neither of these is a problem in California, we're stuck with the little ones. Prep & Cooking Details.

Conch - Queen Conch - [Pink Conch, Tricornis gigas]
Pronounced "konk", this snail is found throughout the greater Caribbean region from South Carolina to Venezuela and around the Atlantic island of Bermuda. They can grow to about 13 inches long but the photo specimen is 8-1/2 inches. They reach sexual maturity in about three years when they will be about 8 inches long and weigh about 2 pounds

Long an important food item in the Caribbean it is now in serious decline throughout its range. Because much of the region's population is poor and lacks education local fishery controls are often ineffective so international trade sanctions are in effect. It is illegal to take any queen conch in U.S. waters or to import them, their meat, shells or products made from them from a number of countries. Import from some countries is still allowed but it's becoming rather expensive due to scarcity. Details at U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Note-1).

Restocking efforts have failed because captive grown conch lack survival instincts and are immediately eaten when placed in the ocean. It has recently been discovered, however, that queen conch are turned on by pheromones drifting over from wildly mating conch of a smaller species causing them to mate and spawn. This opens the possibility of closed cycle aquaculture. Prep & Cooking Details.

Periwinkles - [Littorina littorea (common periwinkle) and related Littorina species]
These small snails can get as large as 2 inches long, but the largest in a batch I bought from an Asian market was 1.1 inches. They live mainly in the surf zone of rocky coastlines so their shells are quite thick and often worn. The best known periwinkle, L. littorea, is native to the North Atlantic shores of Europe but seems to have made it to North America fairly early, some say with Scandinavians who were known to have cut timber for export to Iceland as far south as New Jersey well before Columbus' voyage. Other species live worldwide and vary considerably in shape and decoration. Prep & Cooking Details.

Whelks - [family Buccinidae, photo is Kelletia kelleti]
Whelks are a large worldwide family of carnivorous snails, some being scavengers and others actively boring into clams, crabs and even lobsters. The photo specimens are Kellet's Whelks purchased live from an Asian market in San Gabriel California. This heavy shelled whelk was introduced from the Sea of Japan and is now found from Monterey, California south around the tip of Baja California into the Gulf of California and competes with starfish for food. The largest was 5.25 inches long and weighed 8.2 ounces.

Whelks are a popular eating mollusk in Asia and in Europe but are less eaten in the U.S.. Large Asian rapa whelks are now invading the hardshell clam and oyster beds of the U.S. East Coast and are eating many of the economically valuable clams. They can't be eradicated, are too thick shelled for local predators. On the upside, rapas are reputed to be a highly edible (better than conch in some opinions) so people should get used to eating them. Prep & Cooking Details.

• S1 - Queen Conch restrictions - U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service - Queen Conch.
• S2 - Abalone anatomy - Marine Science.
• S3 - Abalone Species - Santa Barbara City College - Biological Sciences - with photos.