Not all are equally edible snails
Everything in the world there are about 100 species of edible snails. The most famous of them - a snail, or Helix pomatia and garden snail (Latin Helix Aspersa). That representatives of these two species are popular in France snails "Petit Gris" and "Escargot de Burgunon." Last, Burgundy snail, she's the apple and Roman, found not only in Europe but also on the Baltic coast.
Would be a great mistake to assume that if the edible snail, it can have. It's not so simple. To poison and can be a snail when it previously ate something useful for her, but not acceptable as food for humans. That is why, gathering edible snails, they should not be eaten immediately. They need to create special conditions, follow their diet, to arrange a "fasting" days.
Snails on a diet
Snails are grown on the farm, a few days before the sale are placed in special boxes with bars instead of the floor. These boxes are raised high above the ground and held them snails every day for a week, washed with running water. At this time they do not feed at all, or give them to eat fresh green dill, which subsequently gives the meat snails wonderful spicy flavor.
Snails caught in the wild, subjected disgorging - put them in a box on a layer of salt and tiny cephalopods have to spew out all the contents of the stomach in the form of gray foam. Snails washed and repeat the cleaning procedure of the intestine. So they are kept for five or six days - without food, cleaning and washing.
And those and other snails before selling boiled alive in boiling water, remove from the shell, often remove the digestive tract and are soaked in brine for 15-20 minutes. Snail shells thoroughly cleaned inside and out, sterilized and returned to them cooked and marinated meat. If the meat is smoked snails, the shell immediately discarded. Meat in the shells can chill, freeze or turn them into a semi-finished product, for example by adding a shell frozen "green" garlic oil.
What is the value of the cochlea?
The fact that the cochlea - the product is not cheap, of course. But as he thus "valuable"? Useful if Escargot? Nutritious it? Yes I Am. Meat snails consists of 15% protein, 80% water and contains only 2, 4% fat. In this case it is very useful high content of linoleic and linolenic acids.
How to eat snails?
Most often Escargot served as an appetizer, but there are recipes where snail meat is in addition to pasta or vegetables. One of the traditional French recipes - Escargots à la bourguignonne or snail Burgundy, is very simple. It includes 1 kilogram of good butter unsalted butter, 25 grams of salt, 5 grams of ground black pepper, 150 grams of cloves of garlic, 95 grams shallots, parsley and 90 grams 100 grams grainy French mustard. All the herbs finely cut and added together with spices in the softened butter. Snails are extracted from shells and put into the little "green" garlic-mustard oil, return the meat to the place and fill the remaining space with the same oil. The oven is heated to 200 degrees Celsius and snails baked for 10-15 minutes.
To feed the snails there is a special dish - eskargotnitsa where each clam takes its separate cell. This metal dish is usually calculated on a half-dozen (6 pieces) or a dozen (12 pieces) snails. Snails eat the same tongs and fork, like oysters.