Ingredients
Snails
- 24prepared snails, tinned or vacuum-packed
- 24shells
Butter
- 200 gbutter, softened
- 6 clovesgarlic, crushed
- 1large bunch flat-leaf parsley, very finely chopped
- 2shallots, very finely chopped
- 1 tbspPernod, optional
- ½ tspsalt
- black pepper
- a squeeze of lemon
To serve
- baguette
Directions
- Use commercially prepared snails, which are purged, cooked and sold tinned or vacuum-packed. This is the important step and it is not about convenience.
- Wild land snails can carry the rat lungworm parasite, Angiostrongylus cantonensis, which causes eosinophilic meningitis in humans and has done so in well-documented cases. They must never be eaten raw or undercooked, and preparing them safely from wild-collected stock needs a lengthy purge and thorough cooking. Buying them ready-prepared removes the question entirely.
- Rinse the prepared snails and drain them well.
- Beat the softened butter with the garlic, parsley, shallot, Pernod, salt, pepper and lemon until completely smooth and green.
- Chop the parsley very finely and use a great deal of it. The butter should be visibly green rather than merely flecked, because the butter is the actual dish and the snail supplies the texture.
- Put a small knob of butter into the bottom of each shell.
- Push a snail in after it, then seal the opening with more butter, packing it flush and slightly domed.
- Set the shells opening upwards in an escargot dish, or on a bed of coarse salt in a roasting tin, which stops them tipping and spilling their butter.
- Bake at 200°C (400°F) for 10 to 12 minutes, until the butter is bubbling furiously and just beginning to colour.
- Serve immediately with tongs and a two-pronged pick, and plenty of baguette.
- The bread is not optional. Half the point of the dish is mopping the butter out of each shell afterwards.
Technique
- Snails were eaten in Roman Gaul and revived as a Burgundian delicacy in the nineteenth century.
- The shells are sold separately and can be washed and reused indefinitely.
- Make the butter a day ahead. It is better for the garlic having had time to move through it.
Substitutions
- Large mushroom caps in place of snails, filled with the same butter, which is a genuinely good dish in its own right.
- A little pastis or absinthe if you have no Pernod.
Variations
- Baked in a dish without shells, under a lid of butter.
- With ground almonds worked into the butter, which is done in parts of Burgundy.
- In small puff pastry cases rather than shells.
History
Snails were eaten in Roman Gaul and revived as a Burgundian delicacy in the nineteenth century, served in garlic-parsley butter in their shells.
Frequently asked questions
What is Escargots?
Escargots is a snack from France: snails baked in garlic-parsley butter, eaten with picks. Snails were eaten in Roman Gaul and revived as a Burgundian delicacy in the nineteenth century, served in garlic-parsley butter in their shells.
How long does Escargots take to make?
Escargots takes 25 min of preparation and 12 min of cooking. The recipe makes 4 servings. It is rated easy to make.
What can I substitute in Escargots?
Yes, within limits. Large mushroom caps in place of snails, filled with the same butter, which is a genuinely good dish in its own right. A little pastis or absinthe if you have no Pernod.
What is the most important thing to get right in Escargots?
Wild land snails can carry the rat lungworm parasite, Angiostrongylus cantonensis, which causes eosinophilic meningitis in humans and has done so in well-documented cases. They must never be eaten raw or undercooked, and preparing them safely from wild-collected stock needs a lengthy purge and thorough cooking. Buying them ready-prepared removes the question entirely.
