404 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS. 



hundred private tables in Paris where snails are accepted 

 as a delicacy by from eight thousand to ten thousand 

 consumers. The monthly consumption of this mollusk 

 is estimated at half a million. The market price of the 

 great vineyard snails is from two francs fifty cents to 

 three francs fifty cents per hundred, while those of the 

 hedges, woods, and forests, bring only from two francs to 

 two francs fifty cents. The proprietor of one snailery 

 in the vicinity of Dijon is said to net over 7,000 francs 

 annually. 



That our ancestors in Britain ate snails and considered 

 them delicacies is certain. In Ben Jonson's "Every 

 Man in his own Humour " old Henswell, when excusing 

 himself for having taught extraordinary and luxurious 

 habits to his son, says — 



" Neither have I 

 Drest snails and mushrooms curiously before him, 

 Perfumed my sauces, taught him how to make them." 



Eobert May, who had been cook to Sir Kenelm Digby, 

 and published his " Accomplished Cook," the best of the 

 old English cookery books, the fruit of fifty years' 

 experience in the best and most hospitable English 

 families, in 1660, gives no less than nine different 

 recipes for cooking snails ; one to dress snails, three to 

 stew snails, two to fry snails, one to hash snails, one to 

 dress snails in pottage — " very nourishing and excellent 

 food against consumption," — and one to bake snails. 

 Here is the last recipe, and really it reads very well : — 



" To hake Snaik. — Being boiled and scoured, season 

 them with nutmeg, pepper and salt, put them in a pie 

 with some marrow, large mace, a raw chicken cut in 

 pieces, some little bits of lard and bacon, the bones cut 

 out, sweet herbs chopped, sliced lemon or orange, and 

 butter ; being full, close it up and bake it, and liquor 

 with butter and white wine." 



Lister, in his " Tres Tractatus Historise Animalium 

 Anglise," published in 1678, says, " Snails are boiled in 

 river water, and when seasoned with oil, salt and pepper, 

 make a dainty dish." 



