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Escargot Recipe
(Translation: Snails recipe)
Ingredients for
4 people:
- Escargot
- Butter
- Garlic
- Herbs
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Preparation Time: see below |
Cooking Time:
see
below |
Overview:
Escargot is French for “snail”. There are
many recipes for escargot, but they generally follow the same
outline:
-
Purge and
clean the
snails
-
Cook them
in boiling water
-
Remove
the snail flesh from the shell
-
Make a
butter, garlic and herb mixture
-
Place
some of the mixture in the bottom of the empty snail shell,
then add the snail flesh, then fill the remaining space with
the mixture
-
Place the
stuffed snails on a baking tray and then cook them in the oven
-
Serve the
snails. Escargot is eaten with a small thin fork, which is
used to extract the flesh from the shell. Special tongs are
available to hold the shell while this is done; while useful
they are not absolutely necessary.
In practice,
almost everyone buys escargot partially or completely prepared.
Just as the vast majority of people (in western countries) buy
chickens which are already plucked and gutted, most people
cooking escargot would buy then after the first 3 steps have
already been completed, and often the first 5 steps (in which
case one only needs bake them in the over).
Notes:
Escargot
Preparation
As discussed below, even edible snails can have an unpleasant taste or become
poisonous, depending on what they have eaten (this is more a
consideration with wild snails, as it is unlikely that farmed
snails would be fed poisonous plants). Consequently, prior to
cooking them, there is a preparation stage to purge them. There
are two generally accepted approaches to this:
-
The
traditional method of purging snails begins with a fasting
period of 5 or 6 days, during which they are kept in a wooden
box. They are then washed with running water. After this, they
are put in a big container, with a handful of salt between each
layer of snails (the salt causes them to disgorge themselves,
producing a foam). Finally they are carefully washed again.
-
With
farm-raised snails, a simpler approach which does not require
salt can be used instead. Place the snails in a box with a
grating in the bottom (so that moisture is not retained), with
the box raised above the ground (so that the snails do not have
any contact with soil or vegetation). Each day wash then
thoroughly with running water, for two or three days. If they
are fed with dill during this period, they will acquire the
pleasant taste of dill.
After either of
the above methods, the snails have been purged of any unpleasant
substances. They are then cooked in boiling water for 3 minutes,
removed from the water and then the meat is removed from the
shells. The hepatopancreas organ (this organ is part of the
digestive tract of snails, and has a similar function to the
liver and pancreas found in higher animals) is then removed
(although with the Petit Gris, some people prefer to leave the
organ attached). The flesh is then put in brine (cold water
saturated with salt) for a quarter-hour, then removed and washed
thoroughly in fresh water. The meat is now ready for cooking or
freezing.
Escargot is most
commonly baked and served in the shells, although there are a
number of recipes which do not involve the shells. If you are
using the shells, they will need to be thoroughly cleaned
(inside and out), then boiled to sterilise them.
Escargot:
Already prepared
The above
procedure requires several days and considerable work.
Consequently, most people buy the snail meat already prepared.
One can either buy the meat (fresh, canned or frozen) on its own
(ready to cook) or one can buy them completely ready-made for
baking (with the flesh prepared, then stuffed back in the shell
with butter, flavoured with garlic and herbs).
Escargot
in France
The French
reportedly consume approximately 40 000 tons of escargot each
year, making them the world's largest consumers of escargot.
Much of this is imported, as the French are currently (2006)
unable to produce enough snails domestically to meet the demand.
Consumption is particularly high during festive times (e.g. New
Year) as escargot is a somewhat expensive delicacy.
History:
Although mainly
considered a French dish, escargot (snails) have been
eaten for many thousands of years. Large quantities of empty
shells have been found in the caves of prehistoric man,
indicating that in various parts of the world they were a common
part of the diet at that time. With the rise of civilisation,
various cultures (including the Greeks and Romans) have
continued to eat snails, often considering them a delicacy.
Today there are
over 100 different types of edible snails (with 116 different
types being the most quoted number). In France, only two types
are commonly eaten: the 'Petit-Gris' (which is French for 'Little-Gray', and is
scientifically known as Helix Aspersa) and the 'Escargot de
Bourgogne' (which is French for 'Burgundy Snail
', and is scientifically known as Helix Pomatia). It is possible to collect snails from
the wild and eat them, provided you know which ones are edible
and where to find them. In France there is a hunting season for
edible snails, and they can only be collected during this time.
Although restricting snail collection to this hunting period is
intended to protect the wild snail population, here and
elsewhere in the world the population has been reduced through
over-collecting.
If collecting
snails from the wild, considerations include:
-
Some snails
are protected (due to population decline) and cannot be legally
taken. Others may have a hunting season, which is the only time
they can be collected.
-
Not all snails
are edible. Some have an unpleasant taste, while other are
poisonous. If collecting wild snails, take local advice to avoid
a disappointing meal (or worse).
-
The taste of
wild snails is affected by what they eat. If they happen to have
eaten poisonous plants, they will also become poisonous until
the poison has been purged from them (see the above section
on Preparation).
The increasing
scarcity of wild snails (and associated costs of collection) has
promoted the creation and growth of snail farms, which now grow
a proportion of the snails for public consumption.
Breeding of edible snails has focused almost entirely on the
'Petit-Gris' rather than the 'Escargot de Bourgogne' . For more information
(and pictures on snail breeding) click on
Escargot Breeding. The
technical term for farming snails is heliciculture.
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