Every year in April, our local bar, the Venta Pericon announces that “the snails have arrived”. This bar is acknowledged as the town’s go-to location if you want to eat snails; and whole families turn up to try them. The season lasts until the end of July.
They are served in a spicy broth (guiso de caracoles) that tastes of cumin and chilli. You can buy snail spices in most of the shops in town if you want to make them yourself. To eat the snails you puncture the shell with your canine tooth to help release the meat, which you remove with a wooden pick. You can drink the broth.
Formerly, the snails were collected in the countryside around Conil at night or at dawn. They were collected one by one, by hand, but nowadays in practically all the bars the snails are supplied by specialized companies. In the traditional process, snails collected from the field had to be cleaned and purged. Today the specialist suppliers offer snails clean and ready for consumption.
There are three types of snails consumed in the province of Cadiz. The most common are the ‘small’ snails known as caracoles. The second variety, known as cabrillas are larger. These are found all year round in bars and are prepared in sauce of tomato. The third variety, which is usually only found in the Campo de Gibraltar, are the so-called ‘boyunos’ or burgundy snails. They are the largest and are usually eaten in Lent and Holy Week.
