In Case You Were Curious…About Escargot!
May 24, 2018
The Bottom Line: Learn more about Escargot.
The Full Story:
- Escargot - French - An edible snail, especially one prepared as an appetizer or entree.
- In France the two most common edible snails are the Burgundy snail (also called vineyard or large white snail) which are about 1 3/4 inches long and the smaller Petite-Gris snail, about 1-inch long.
- The French consume 40,000 metric tons of snails each year.
- An escargot plate has indentations (usually 6) to hold the snail shells for baking and for serving.
- Special escargot or snail tongs are used to hold the snail shells while using a small two tined escargot fork to extract the snail from the shell.
- Heliculture is the science of growing snails for food.
- Snails have been eaten as food since at least ancient Roman times. Apicius, the author of the oldest surviving cookbook (1st century B.C. – 2 century A.D.) has a recipe for snails in his cookbook.
- Restaurants serve about 1-billion snails annually.