There are slugs everywhere in the moist woods here. I read someplace that one needs to starve slugs for a day to remove any poisonous plant material from their digestive tracts before eating, but other people do not mention this and say just cook 'em up. I got one today and put it in a jar with some chickweed to eat, but it felt wrong. The slug did not want to be there and I couldn’t stand it so let it crawl out. Does anyone have any experience eating slugs they could share? Is starving them really necessary?
i tossed a handful in soup once while on a trip. can’t say anythng as to the need to starve them. never heard about that. might have to do with where you are at.
i put them in right as i took the pot off the fire. they more or less disapperared in the stew. the guy i was with told me they were good source of protein. never followed any of it up so no idea if thats the case.
I’ve heard that slugs are dangerous to eat because they eat shit.
Jon Young says on one of his tapes he won’t eat slugs after watching them eat shit. He doesn’t say is it is dangerous or just disgusting.
hmmm…I wonder if it depends on the type of scat they eat that determines if they are toxic or not to us.
You can get a type of meningitis from eating raw slugs and snails, though i have eaten raw snail with no ill effect and it was quite delicious. I found out about the meningitis after the fact - so followed my raw snail feast with a month of strong oregon grape root therapy. The starvation thing is to get any poisons they may have in their system out. These could be actual slug bait they consumed in people’s gardens or just poisonous vegetation or fecal matter. In any case there are tons of oysters around here so i can’t be bothered with slugs right now. When things are more scarce a few years down the road i’ll try a slug chowder.
Further Slug Discourse:
I know a girl who said her boyfriend was walking the dog and it licked a slug and then started acting all crazy so he thought hmmm… hallucinogens? Well he tried it and it worked. It was only the spotted slugs. I believe this was in vancouver, british columbia.
i’ve read that slugs can carry parasites (nematodes) and other shit that could potentially kill you if eaten raw.
Thats interesting Penny, the type of meningitis one can get from raw slug/snail consumtion is called eonsophilic meningitis - caused by a parasite that is tranferred from the slug into the human’s bloodstream, and then travels up to the meninges (thin membrane that surrounds the brain) where it causes an inflammation and then dies. Maybe there were worms crawling around in yr friends brain!
Damn, I am glad I’ve read this. I have been eatting slugs (banana only) on my land when I get out there. I just roast them over the fire, maybe not such a good idea after all.
I found this on The Suburban Bushwhacker:
Harvested (picked?) from a pile of slates in a wooded, but still inner-city (zone 2) garden, these snails were delicious. [b]Kept in a bucket and fed on salad trimmings for five days they purged all the grit accumulated from their natural diet. Then they were fed for two days on white bread. The bread passing through the snails and staying white, tells you the purge is complete.[/b]Boiled, rinsed and boiled again (approx. 10 changes of water) until the slime and froth were gone. Simmered for an hour. Baked in parsley, garlic and butter.
Served with rustic bread.
sounds like a lotta work! I wonder how effective the purge is on the above-mentioned nasties–doesn’t sound like it would rid the tiny slug GI system of parasites (or bloodstream? don’t know much about invertebrate guts).
I hope they tasted ridiculously good!
yeah, the 10 changes of water to get rid of the slime sounds really labor intensive to me. if i’m going to eat crawly things, i’d rather they don’t take up too much of my time. 
Not sure if it works the same for slugs, but here’s what Wikipedia has to say about Escargot (Hey, it worked in Europe for centuries):
[quote=“Wikipedia – RE: Escargot”]Not all 116 species of snail are edible, but many are. Even among the edible species, the palatability of the flesh varies from species to species. In France, two species native to France are normally used for preparing escargots. One of these, the “petit-gris” Helix aspersa, is common in temperate climates worldwide.
Because snails eat soil, decayed matter, and a wide variety of leaves, the contents of their stomachs can be toxic to humans. Therefore, before they can be cooked, the snails must first be prepared by purging them of the contents of their digestive system. The process used to accomplish this varies, but generally involves a combination of fasting and purging. The methods most often used can take several days. Farms producing Helix aspersa for sale exist in Europe and in the United States. Farm-raised snails are typically fed a diet of ground cereals.
Typically, the snails are removed from their shells, gutted, cooked (usually with garlic butter), and then poured back into the shells together with the butter and sauce for serving, often on a plate with several shell-sized depressions. Special snail tongs (for holding the shell) and snail forks (for extracting the meat) are also normally provided.
Escargot is high in protein and low in fat content if served without butter. It is estimated that escargot is 15% protein, 2.4% fat and about 80% water.[/quote]
Fat and protein in a convenient little carry-case!? Everything a hunting-gathering body needs!
Sounds like way too much work to me; ai’d just stick to crickets and their relatives.