NOTE: The Roman Snail may be protected in certain areas and/or during certain periods of the year. Check with local regulations before hunting!
The Roman or Burgundy snail,
Helix pomatia. First introduced in Sweden by foreign monks during medieval times to serve as food during lent. In the francophilic late 18th century, consuming snails became popular among the nobility, and several more were imported to manors and mansions where they still can be found in quite large numbers. There are other edible snail species, but the Roman snail is considered the snail
par préference.
Because of the snail's low reproductivity rate, special care has to be observed when picking. Pick only the largest specimens and never drain a local stock. The main threat to the Roman snail is not hunting, though, but the transformation of the agricultural landscape.
NOTE: Some texts recommend a starvation period of one week before the snails are consumed. This should be for safety reasons if they should have eaten poisonous plants. According to an expert I consulted, the starvation isn't necessary. I don't take personal responsibility for anyone consuming snails without one week's starvation period.
Wash the snails gently to remove most of the dirt.
Mix the snails with a handful of salt and let stand for 15 minutes to make them excrete their mucus (that's a lot!).
Rinse again.
Put them in a pot with slightly salted water and bring to a boil. Let simmer for 10 minutes while skimming off mucus and dirt. This is a humane way of killing them; they are anaesthetized at 45 C. Drain and rinse again. Let cool.
Extract the snails from the shells and remove the helicoidal colon. The rest is edible.
Save the shells. If they aren't used immediately, they should be dried for one hour in an oven.
Make a stock: For 50 snails: One onion, one carrot, three cloves of garlic, a piece of pork rind, some parsley stalks, three bay leaves, one teaspoon thyme and a few peppercorns. Add one litre water, one teaspoon salt and 50 ml of good wine vinegar (the original recipe calls for white wine which I think is unnecessary).
Bring to a boil and let simmer for 20 minutes. Then add the snails. Let simmer until tender (circa two hours).
Strain. Pick out the snails. Discard the stock and vegetables. The snails are now ready for consumption or freezing for later use.
The classic way to serve them is baked in their shells with an aromatic butter consisting of butter, shallot, garlic, parsley and lemon (à la Bourgignonne), on the right. On the left is another variety, with butter and Roquefort cheese; also delicious. They are baked for circa 10 minutes in 250 C oven, or until the butter boils vigorously and starts to brown.
Serve hot with fresh white bread. There is an argument among conoisseurs regarding the wine: red or white. In my opinion, any is good.
There are also canned Roman snails from France. These are farmed or imported from Eastern Europe. They smell like a sewer in my opinion. Farmed snails are fed cornmeal and a commercial snail farm can have one million snails on 200 square meters! In any case, they are much smaller since they are picked at a young age. A Roman snail takes 3-5 years to reach full size and can live for up to 35 years. It is obvious that fullgrown, free-grazing snails are something completely different when it comes to taste!
This picture shows the difference in size. To the left are 30 wild snails, picked in an old mansion garden near my house. Average weight 9 grams. To the right 30 canned French snails, average weight 4 grams.