Yes or no to escargot?

[Jenise]

Carrie mentioned escargot in Bob Ross' artichoke thread, and this is a food that often divides the crowd. Personally, I think it's all about the garlic butter. You could cook an eraser in there and people would like it....

Jenise, I used to think I loved them, but like you, realized it's probably more about the garlic butter. My favorite part was dipping the bread into it when the snails were gone.

I can't really answer the poll since my answer really would be that I can take them or leave them. Neither hate nor love them.

[Jenise]

Carrie, strange, but this poll posted without two additional options that I typed in, I swear, including the one you mention and another that would allow for never having had them, but being willing to try. I wonder if the software will let me edit them back in. Lessee....

[Jenise]

Hmm...had to edit it twice, once for each added option, but they're there now.

Garlic butter is so 20th Century, Jenise. Here's our current favorite:

ESCARGOT IN WINE

4 oz. escargot
1/4 c. red or white wine
1 clove garlic, crushed
1/4 tsp. coarsely ground black pepper
2 tbsp. fresh parsley, chopped
1 tsp. tarragon
2 tbsp. chives
Butter if and as needed.
Dressing if used.

Marinate escargot in wine and seasonings - at least 2-3 hours.

Place escargot in shells. Spoon in wine mixture. Marinate.

Place in baking pan. Bake in 425 degree oven for 10-15 minutes until bubbly.

Cook's notes:

1. Press 1 teaspoon butter (softened) over opening of shell. (This seals in the escargot.), or

2. Seal with a simple breading: bread crumbs, minced garlic, Parmesan cheese, olive oil, black pepper.

3. A fruity CdP works fine, or a dry Riesling.

4. I marinate overnight.

5. Canned escargot work fine -- and once in a very great while a local fishmonger has fresh, live snails -- always interesting.

****

It continually surprises me that this is the only shell animal other than scallops that Janet will eat -- although she tried a turtle soup once and actually finished it.

A neat website on a snail farm in France is at http://www.frenchentree.com/france-food ... sp?ID=4911

Regards Bob

Oh, I forgot that sometimes I make them by marinating, sautéeing, and cooking them in pastry shells. I believe that is a Provencal style and served with scalloped potatoes.

[Robin Garr]

Carrie mentioned escargot in Bob Ross' artichoke thread, and this is a food that often divides the crowd. Personally, I think it's all about the garlic butter. You could cook an eraser in there and people would like it....

We had them in a little restaurant in one of the smaller Champagne villages once, and although the rest of the meal was estimable, the escargots really did bear a close resemblance to pencil erasers.

Put me in the "take 'em or leave 'em" camp. I love just about all shellfish, but I don't find escargots (other than the garlic butter) all that enticing, and even though I try not to have food taboos, I find it hard to keep thoughts of garden snails and slugs entirely out of my head while I'm indulging.

I enjoyed this little gift from Google Books; there are some useful ideas here:

Snails (Escargots).—These are more popular in France
and, nowadays, in America, than they are in this country,
though there are parts in England where the edible
snail is still found; the relics, it is variously said, of the
Roman occupation (snails having apparently been a
Roman dainty) or of the days when the vine was cultivated
in this country, as they are generally found where
vineyards have once been known to exist. But at the
present day they are almost invariably imported.

Two kinds are acknowledged in France, the large and full-
flavoured Burgundian, and the more delicate Bordeaux
snail (le petit gris). These escargots are really only in season when
cemented up their shells, and are beginning to hibernate
for the winter, as they are then " clean," from not eating.

The most appreciated way of cooking them is:
a la Bourguignonne.

—Blanch the escargots for ten minutes, then drain, and pick them carefully out
of their shells, and place them in a basin full of water,
and let tihem stand for two or three hours, afterwards
draining them and wiping them dry; put into a
saucepan enough water and good white French wine
(five parts of water to three of wine) together with salt,
pepper, a bunch of herbs, a sliced onion, carrots, a clove
of garlic, and the escargots ; directly this all comes to the
boil, simmer it gently for two hours, then turn it all
into an earthenware basin, and let it stand for twenty-
four hours (this is one of the secrets of escargot cookery); '
now replace the snails in their carefully scrubbed and
dried shells, filling them up with the following forcemeat :

For 250 escargots take rather better than lib. of
butter, about Jib. of shallot, about foz. of garlic, £oz. of
black pepper, and 3oz. or 4oz. of parsley (this is a French
restaurant recipe, and is rather large).

Another one runs: Pound together some fresh butter, finely-minced
shallot, parsley, and chervil, and work this all to a paste
with an equal quantity of sifted breadcrumbs and a
wineglassful of white wine, seasoning with salt and
pepper, working it all well to a smooth paste. Some of
this mixture is then placed in the shells, the snails are
put back, and covered with more of the farce, dusting
this with breadcrumbs, and setting them in the oven, the
open part uppermost, till brown on the top, which will
take about four minutes; then serve.

It is said, with
how much truth I know not, that in some restaurants the
Burgundian snail shells are carefully saved, thoroughly
cleanst'd, and used over and over again with a savoury
stuffing, which owes more of its flavour to the chef than
to any escargot, Burgundian or otherwise. Snails prepared
as above may be served stewed, u la pnulette, ait gratin,
&c., but probably the above is sufficient for most
tastes.

Fish, S. Beaty-Pownall, London, 1903.

Are snails shell fish?

Ssslurp...chew chew chew...ssslurp...gulp...ahhh.

rwj

Absolutely not, Thomas. That's why I'm careful to call them shell animals.

Authority: c888 ÆLFRED Boeth. xli. §5 Mani{asg}e sint cwucera {asg}esceafta unstirende, swa swa nu scylfiscas sint.

If they don't live in water, they ain't shellfish.

[I just knew you would chime in with that prickly issue. ]

[Robin Garr]

Are snails shell fish?

Well ... they have shells, and as mollusks, they are close together on the evolutionary family tree, and, I would argue, in culinary use.

No, they're not fish.

But then, neither are shellfish, if you think about it.

Are snails shell fish?

Well ... they have shells, and as mollusks, they are close together on the evolutionary family tree, and, I would argue, in culinary use.

No, they're not fish.

But then, neither are shellfish, if you think about it.

Yep, shell fish is something else, isn't it...

Speaking of snails, among a beautiful fig tree, tall pear tree, great big walnut tree, and two small lemon trees, the other thing that greeted me in Barbaresco as I got out of the car to enter the apartment was a large "school" of escargot doing their slow walk along the bottom rail of a fence and on the ground.

A veritable moving supper, slow as it was moving.

The Danish fellow who was my host and in whose apartment we would have had to bring the hardened slugs said, after I asked, "absolutely not!"

I can only get them in cans. The small, tender French ones are fine, the big, Chinese ones are tough, stringy and generally nasty. Anyone who has spent time in SouthEast Asia should be familiar with them. They crunch under your tires and make the road slippery.

To paraphrase Billy Gibbons: I've had good, I've had bad. Put me in the take it or leave it camp.

Although Robin taught the oldest to smash 'em pretty good after pulling them off the plants. So I don't think I could ever get away with ordering or fixing them now.

Take or leave. I do like the ones in puff pastry a bit better than the garlic butter version, though.

Robin wrote:

I find it hard to keep thoughts of garden snails and slugs entirely out of my head while I'm indulging.

Same here. but it may have something to do with the fact that when my Cavalier King Charles was a puppy, he would find snails in our courtyard, break their shells with his little needle teeth and feast on them. (A hunter even in his early months!) We always joked about his refined tastes, but still, it kind of grossed me out.

Carrie, our two year old Cavalier is doing the same thing except in our climate he's feasting on crickets coming in the house for the winter. I think of him as less of a hunter and more of a vacuum cleaner -- he seems to always want to eat, and will try absolutely anything.

Keeping his weight below 20 pounds is heart breaking work -- he is so charming when begging for food.

I think the best in Albuquerque are at Le Cafe Miche. Their secret ingredient is Pernod in the sauce. Yum.

We've had some truly delicious things there, Larry, but have never tried the escargot. Hmm.

Bob, your Cav needs to have our dog's name. It's KIRBY. We should have called the lab (his brother) Hoover, but he is Cooper. Cooper will eat anything--a true lab. Kirby is actually pretty finicky, but loves protein in any form. He's on the small size. The heaviest he ever got was 17 lbs. He's usually 15 or 16. They are cute when they beg though! It always amazes me how long he can stand on his hind legs.

Yours is Black and Tan right? Remind me what his name is.

Ours is named after a self centered, egotistical, artist friend of ours, Clive Hallam. Both Clives are extremely demanding, but our Clive is much cuter when he's demanding something.

We've started sending our Clive to an overnight kennel -- a "Fat Farm" -- where he has a restricted diet. He spends a great deal of time running around -- Camp Bowwow has an online camera so we can watch him from anywhere in the world.

He loves going there and loves coming home. So loneliness on our end brings him back home again.

[Robin Garr]

Ours is named after a self centered, egotistical, artist friend of ours, Clive Hallam. Both Clives are extremely demanding, but our Clive is much cuter when he's demanding something.

Does your friend know of this honor, Bob?

Does he ever self-Google?

He does, Robin. He somewhat prefers it to Janet's title for him, "Clive the Shit", which he earned by leading us up a hill in Ireland and then tricked us onto a path which did not lead to the summit -- while he danced in triumph on the summit.

This picture shows his personality: http://netsuke.org/Convention2005/day4/Day4ai.jpg

But he carves like an angel, generally acknowledged as the leading modern netsuke carver. Janet is something of a patron, well, more than a patron really.

I wonder whether he would self Google, though. He's not too interested in other people's opinions of him personally, just his work, actually, and his work sells itself -- unless Janet gets it first.