Small, slimy, but delicious, the snail is an animal considered by many in different cultures as a delicacy, and Spain is no exception to this rule, whether in dishes such as caracoles a la madrileña or espadrilles.

Although rare to see in paellas or rice dishes in modern restaurants, it is an additional ingredient for paella quite typical to see in the countryside and mountain villages, where there is rarely a lack of chopsticks on the table to taste this delicacy with the rice of the day.

In this blog post, we are going to take a look at how to prepare snails for paella.

Should I prepare my snails if I buy them at the supermarket?

Before starting we must clarify that the process of preparing snails is only necessary if we have them alive. In case you have bought them in a supermarket, frozen, vacuum packed or even in a jar, you do not need to do this process, because these snails have already been cleaned beforehand.

Otherwise, if you want to do it in a more traditional and natural way, you can follow the next steps:

How to prepare snails for paella

Food purging

The preparation of live snails for consumption and use in paella is quite long, but this does not mean that the reward after all the necessary processes is not worth it, on the contrary.

First of all, the snails must be purged/cleaned before consumption, in this way, we eliminate from their intestines any kind of substance or food that they have ingested and that can be harmful to our health.

The process to follow is to isolate the snails for 5 days or a week, so that their organism eliminates everything ingested. The most traditional way is to gather them all in a fine net and hang them on the air with a string or on the wall, preferably in an open place where you can give them some air, where you can fast them.

Snail cleaning

When the purging period has passed, it is time to clean the snails, we must be careful during this process, as we do not want to kill them by accident.

We start with a water wash, put them in a bowl of warm water for 2 minutes. Then move them to a container with salt water, let them stand for 2 minutes and rinse them with plenty of water, then let them stand for another 15 minutes. Repeat this last process 2 more times, on the fourth time, simply rinse with water and let stand for 20 minutes.

This process will help us to eliminate the remains of dirt from the shell and the mucus of the snail, we recommend to surround the edges of the container with salt to prevent them from escaping.

Blanching the snails

Once our snails are clean, put them in a pot or casserole with warm water without covering the snails completely, do not cover it or put fire for now, wait 10 minutes of rest, because we want the snails to wake up and come out of the shell, so that when you cook them, they stay out of it.

In the meantime, put a second pot with water and bring it to a boil. When it starts to boil, turn on the first pan over low heat, this way, the snails will gradually come out of the shell.

Once they have come out, add the boiling water from the second pan into the first one, this should make that almost all the snails stay out of the shell. Now let it cook for 10 minutes, drain the snails and clean them, now we can introduce the snail in our paella.

How and when do we introduce the snails in the paella?

The key moment to add the snails to the paella can vary according to personal taste.

We can add them together with the sofrito, where we will mix it with the tomato and the rest of the ingredients, allowing it to infuse with flavour. But we can also add them to the paella once the water begins to boil.

Frequently asked questions

What variety of snail is used for paella?

The snail, like many other animals, has multiple species or varieties, something that, in my case, I learned with my father in the fields, where shortly after the rain stopped, we went out to look for snails among the leaves and bushes that came out to eat.

The favorite snail for a paella is the one known as Vaquetes or mountain snail, a large snail, which means that there is much more meat to enjoy once cooked.

Why is snail not used so much in paellas today?

The reason why it is not common to see snails in paellas is due to multiple factors that can be summarized in three points:

- Obtaining snails for paella can be difficult if you do not know which store to get them from or do not intend to go looking for them yourself in the fields and mountains, in addition, they are a somewhat expensive ingredient, especially if you want them alive.

- The preparation time for snails is long, unless they have been obtained from a store that already had them prepared, the purging time can last at least a week. Unless you have tried them before or are really interested in tasting them, few people will have the patience to carry out this process.

- There are many people who simply do not like this mollusk, either because of its appearance or flavor, and introducing them to paella can result in a change of flavor that they are not willing to try, therefore, it is not usually included in paella in a common way in restaurants.

We hope that this brief guide has given you all the information you need to enjoy these delicious mollusks, rice cookers!