Snails

Snails (or escargot) are rich tasting with a firm textured meat. The best snail variety is considered to be the vineyard snail: plump, luscious creatures fed on vine leaves in the vineyards of Burgundy until they are fat and juicy. The petit-gris is a smaller variety, growing to about 1 inch, with a striped shell and sweet, tasty and tender flesh.

Snails must be carefully prepared before eating: first, the snail is prevented from eating for a week so that all elements of its digestion are removed. It is then boiled for a short time, the hepatho-pancreas removed and the snail placed in a cold water salt bath for 15 minutes. After this stage, it is finally ready for use.

This long, drawn-out process of preparing live snails means that it is much easier to buy them already prepared in one of the following forms:

• fresh, cleaned and ready to cook
• fully cooked to be simply reheated and combined with their sauce
• shelled and canned

The sturdy vineyard snails are best prepared by cooking and serving them à la bourguignonne - in their shells with rich garlic butter and fresh crusty bread. Snail tongs are used to hold the piping hot shell securely, whilst a small two-pronged fork is used to twist the snail out of its shell.

However, the smaller petit-gris snails have a far more delicate shell that is too fragile to be used to serve the meat, so this variety is often served in ceramic pots called 'godets'.