Escargot

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Escargot cooked with garlic and parsley butter in a shell (with a €0.02 coin as scale)
Escargot cooked with garlic and parsley butter in a shell (with a €0.02 coin as scale)
Escargot cooked with garlic and parsley butter outside of its shell
Escargot cooked with garlic and parsley butter outside of its shell
A single escargot, with snail tongs and a snail fork.
A single escargot, with snail tongs and a snail fork.

Escargots, in French cuisine, is a dish of cooked land snails, usually served as an appetizer.

The French word escargot means snail; it is akin to old Occitan escaragol[1] and Catalan cargol, which, in turn, may derive from a pre-Roman word *karakauseli[2]. This name is almost invariably used on restaurant menus (especially in North America) to refer to snails as a food item, though in most Commonwealth countries one can also order snails in English.

Not all 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.

Contents

[edit] Preparation

Typically, the snails are removed from their shells, gutted, cooked (usually with garlic butter or chicken stock), and then poured back into the shells together with the butter and sauce for serving, often on a plate with several shell-sized depressions. Additional ingredients may be added such as garlic, thyme, parsley and pine nuts. Special snail tongs (for holding the shell) and snail forks (for extracting the meat) are also normally provided.

Like most molluscs, 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.[3].

[edit] Heliciculture

Main article: Heliciculture

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.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary, Eleventh Edition
  2. ^ Diccionari Barcanova de la Llengua. Editorial Barcanova, 2004.
  3. ^ Snail (escargot) nutritional value

[edit] External links

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