BBC West had a special programme tonight that tackled a subject dear to my heart: Snails. And how to eat them.
The programme I gather will appear is here at www.bbc.co.uk/insideout/west/
I had a brief e-mail exchange earlier this year with the chap behind the programme, as - like many other people - he’d come across my transcript of my grandfather’s recipe that was the origin of the “1960’s popularity”. You can read the comment (no. 3) that started it all.
A number of villagers - including Pat and Bob Reynold’s (who were the last to serve snails at the Miners’ Arms) and my parents - helped prepare the snails and appear in the segment. Quite how much of them is shown is still to be seen. Editors decisions being final and all that. My parents appear at 12.50; Bob and Pat feature strongly. Plenty of references to my grandfather too. Marvellous. Just wish the presenter didn’t go “oh, but not me!” after everybody else seemed to rather like them.
But it’s great to hear that the owner of the Old Spot in Wells is sounding keen to put them on his menu. We had the pleasure of eating at the restaurant ourselves a while back, and it was very nice indeed. Putting snails on the menu is certain to get me back again! Especially if he’s to use the recipe my grandfather was so successful with so many years back.
See also:
October 25th, 2007 at 8:09 am
I think this is the strangest thing I have ever read on your blog, Richard! However, it’s cool that your grandfather’s recipe is most likely going to be used - even so, I am still not sure you could get me to eat a snail. Hmmm. Just don’t have them as a starter at the wedding…now there’s a thought
October 26th, 2007 at 6:57 pm
[...] The “Priddy Oggy” does seem to appear every now and then in various recipe guises - frequently and bizarrely dubbed as “Cornish”, “Celtic” or even “traditional” (I’m puzzled that 1960’s culinary concoctions can be construed as such!). So I don’t think I’m stretching things that far to suggest that this recipe is in many ways a derivative of my grandfathers own. But certainly I could be getting a bit carried away after Wednesday’s Snail segment on BBC1 West. [...]