138 EDIBLE BRITISH MOLLUSKS. 



sionally a few pints of the Trochus appear in the market 

 and are sold as winkles. 



The Chinese are very partial to sea-snails, and we 

 read in a description given of a Chinese dinner that the 

 second course consisted of a ragout made of them. At 

 lUacao, these sea-snails are white, but at Ningpo they 

 are green, viscous, and slippery, and by no means easy 

 to pick up with chop-sticks. Their taste resembles the 

 green fat of the turtle. It is curious that the most 

 abundant shell found in the Scotch kjokkenmoddings is 

 the periwinkle, and it is also met with in great numbers 

 in the Danish shell- mounds. 



Periwinkle Soup. — Take a pint and a half or a quart of 

 periwinkles, wash them well, and boil them in a sauce- 

 pan Avith a handful or two of salt, to enable you to pick 

 out the fish easily. Put a little dripping or butter into 

 a saucepan, with an onion or carrot, some chopped pars- 

 ley, and a sprig of thyme, and fry until it becomes 

 brown. Add a pint of water to this, and, as soon as it 

 boils, put in the periwinkles (which have been previously 

 picked oat of their shells), with a little pepper and salt, 

 and let the whole boil again for half an hour. 



To boil Periwinkles. — It is only necessary to put them 

 into a stewpan with as much water as will prevent the 

 bottom from burning, as the liquor oozing from them will 

 be sufficient for the purpose ; when the shells open wide 

 enough to extract the fish, they will be sufficiently done.* 



Note. — It is necessary to throw into the stewpan a 

 handful or two of salt with the periwinkles, otherwise 

 half the fish could not be picked out. The " opening of 

 the shell " refers, we conclude, to the falling out of the 

 operculum.-]- 



* Murray's « Modern Cookery Book.' f M. S. L. 



