Escargot

Escargot is the French word for snails. The French were hardly the first to eat snails. We have learned from cave drawings that snails have been considered delicacies since we first began eating meat. In ancient Rome, people regarded escargot as a dish fit for emperors. In Greece, snails were described as comfort food. Laugh if you want, but for most of human history people would have considered it far more acceptable than bacon. Even in English, a meal made with snails in it uses the name “escargot” because the most common preparations are the ones developed by the French and because humans tend not to like to call the meat on their plate the same name as the animal itself, similar to the way we call a steak “beef” and not “cow”.

There are two primary traditional preparations of escargot. The first is sautéed in garlic butter, white wine, or chicken stock. These are often served in escargot dishes, a small ceramic or metal dish with divots to hold the shells. The second is a baked dish that involves the chef taking out the escargot and filling the shell with a stuffing of some kind, usually similar to stuffing you might eat at Thanksgiving. The escargot is them reinserted into the shell and more of the filling on top.

You will generally be given special utensils designed specifically for eating escargot: a small set of tongs and a skinny fork with only two prongs. Hold the tongs in your non-dominant hand and use them to hold the shell. (If you are in an informal situation, sometimes it is acceptable to hold the shells in your hand.) Be careful to keep the shell upright! There is sauce and other food in the shell along with the meat and you don’t want to spill. Use the fork to dig into the shell. The meat and any other stuffing should come out together without too much trouble. If there is still sauce in the shell, you can drizzle it over the top before popping it into your mouth.

Many American students are disgusted by the idea of eating snails. However, they taste very different from the way they look! They are not slimy at all, but are chewy. If you’ve ever eaten clams or mussels, escargot has a very similar texture. The flavor is extremely mild and most escargot dishes taste like whatever else they are cooked with. For example, the most common escargot dish is snails in garlic butter - which pretty much tastes like garlic and butter.

Not all snails are suitable for eating, however. Many species of snails are too small to be worthwhile as a meal, and some are even dangerous to eat. Because there are so few species suitable for escargot, these snails are actually grown on small farms, much like how we have cattle ranches to grow our own hamburgers. There are three specific species:

-Escargot de Bourgogne or the Burgandy snail is the most common. It is the largest of these three species and considered by many to have the strongest flavor.

-Escargot Petit Gris or small gray snail is the second most common. As the name suggests, it is small but the easiest to farm.

-Escargot Turc or Turkish snail is the least common, and is sometimes sold incorrectly as being Burgandy snails since not many people recognize this species.

It is important to remember that escargot is not necessarily a common dish in modern France. You will see it on many restaurant menus, and most French people have eaten it before. But it is definitely not a daily meal - it is still considered an unusual treat. So if a French person ever invites you to eat escargot with them, realize they are going out of their way to provide you with a special meal and don’t be rude about it! Be brave and give them a try. You might like them! Worst case scenario, just drink a lot of water :)