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Man and Mollusc's Data Base of Edible Molluscs

Corbicula Fluminea
(Asian Clam)

• clams should be allowed to set in cold, fresh water several hours before preparation, giving them time to purge sand etc. then
• A quick dunk in fresh, boiling water, until the shells are open renders the clams ready to consume from the shell with cocktail sauce or as an addition to marinara sauce over feticini with your favorite wine.

Helix species

Escargot

Escargot well-prepared still has the taste of snails, but that is delicious !

"PS : I don't think the reason why my grand mother has less and less snails in her garden comes from her consumption but from the use of pesticide in order to save her salad from slugs (not eatable, in France!). In Paris, sometimes you can buy alive snails in the market, they come from breedings."

To prepare snails you have first to starve (jeûner) them. I must confess I've (Sophie) never done it myself, but I've seen my grandmother doing it. So, that's what she used to do :

In the garden she had a little paddock (enclos) where she put the snails she was able to find. When they was enough snails (a minimum is 12 per person), she stops feeding them for a week "nobody knows what they could have eaten" and them feed them with flour for a few days "to be fatty". Then she put them in the salt till they stop drooling, clean them and cook them in a court bouillon (water, white wine, parsley, little garlic, onion, thyme, salt, pepper...). When you can take them out of the shell,they are cooked. Take them off, eliminate the entrails, the brown part at the end (if you leave it it's bitter) and the operculum. The first part is over.

You have then to mix butter (take it out of the refrigerator one hour before) chopped garlic and parsley, little salt, pepper. When your butter is ready, put little butter in a shell, a snail and butter
again. You must then put the snails on a special plate in order to have the aperture up (if you don't have it, you always find a way !), put everything in a hot oven in order to have the snails grilled, be careful, if they stay to long they will be "ratatinés" (shriveled up). Ouf, it's ready !

Eat them with good bread and dry white wine.