What the dish is and where it came from
Escargot is the term English speakers use for edible land snails, borrowed from the French word for snail. Snails are eaten in Africa, Southeast Asia and Mediterranean Europe, and are a taboo food in other cultures.
Researchers cannot say when people began eating them. Broken shells in the Franchthi Cave in Greece date to 10,700 BCE, and the most convincing evidence for prehistoric eating is in the Maghreb, from about 20,000 years ago to at least 6,000 years ago. The Romans counted snails an elite food, and a Roman cookbook gives four snail recipes.
How it works, in terms someone would actually use
Snails are purged first: kept alive for several days without food, or fed only flour, to clear the digestive tract. One chef recommends at least eight days without food, then a thorough wash. Slime is washed off in repeated rinses, including salt water.
In French cooking the snails are purged, killed, shelled and cooked, usually with garlic butter, chicken stock or wine. They go back into the shells with the butter sauce and garlic, thyme, parsley or pine nuts. They are served on indented metal trays with places for six or twelve, with tongs for the shell and a fork for the meat.
What it gets right
Snail meat is low in fat and calories and contains 10 to 19 percent protein. It is a source of iron, selenium and niacin, and of amino acids that are hard to get from other protein sources. The fat it has includes omega-3 fatty acids.
The same animal adapts to many kitchens. Cretan cooks boil snails in white wine and fry them with rosemary and vinegar, Maltese cooks simmer them in red wine or ale with mint, basil and marjoram, and Moroccan cooks make them a popular street food, served hot in broth.
What it does not
Not every land snail is worth eating. Many are too small to prepare, and the flesh varies in palatability from species to species.
The work is slow. Purging takes days, and the washing is repeated. Snails also show an avoidance response, including to a heated surface, which indicates their ability to feel pain. The salt-water washing can cause a great deal of pain to the snail. Through much of history the snail had little value in the kitchen because it was considered poverty food.
What it changed
Quintus Fulvius Lippinus, the Roman breeder considered the father of heliciculture, fattened large snails on a special diet and sold them in Rome, setting a trend among the upper class. Pope Pius V, an avid snail eater, ruled that snails counted as fish so they could be eaten in Lent. Diego Granado’s cookbook of 1614 gave snails their own section.
Snail farming, heliciculture, now takes place mainly in Spain, France and Italy and makes snails available all year, where they were once eaten from April to June. Haute cuisine chefs have helped lift the snail from poverty food to delicacy. In Lleida in Catalonia the L’Aplec del Cargol festival, held since 1980, draws some 300,000 visitors over a weekend in May.
Who it is for, and who it is not
Snails suit anyone who already eats them in a tradition that has a place for them, and their iron content makes them recommended for people with iron-deficiency anemia. Orthodox fasting tradition treats snails as fully Lenten.
They are not for everyone. Most scholars of the Hanafi school rule land snails forbidden, permitting only sea snails, and Jewish dietary law forbids both land and sea snails.
Is it worth your time
Yes, if you are curious about a food people have eaten since prehistory and can accept the days of preparation. The French way, cooked in garlic butter and returned to the shell with the butter sauce, is one of many regional styles.
