Recipe no. 150 from Jean-Baptiste Reboul's La Cuisinière provençale (1909), page 79.
Ingredients
- small snails
- onions
- carrots
- bouquet garni
- fennel
- white wine
- oil
- flour
- egg yolks
- lemon
- garlic
- parsley
Preparation
- InformationIn Provence a variety of small snails is eaten, known commonly as limaces. This species is a little smaller than the common snail, much more delicate, white and striped with various colours. It is scarcely prepared other than in sauce. It is a fairly common dish that we shall describe, offered here only as a curiosity.
- Cleaning and cookingAfter carefully cleaning, following the method indicated, a few dozen of these small snails, put them in a saucepan with sliced onions and carrots, a bouquet garni, a sprig of fennel, half a bottle of white wine and as much water; salt accordingly and let it cook covered after skimming it well.
- Extraction and cleaningWhen you can easily pull them out of the shell with a pin, drain them in a colander and keep the broth. Cut off the rear part of the shell. Once you have finished this operation, throw them into a bowl of water and take them out at once, so that any little pieces of shell that might remain stay at the bottom.
- Preparing the sauceSeparately, put a few spoonfuls of oil in a saucepan with a finely chopped onion, brown it without darkening, add a spoonful of flour, give it a couple of turns over the heat and add liquid with the reserved cooking liquid, to obtain a fairly thick sauce; then put the small snails in it; add a binding of 2 egg yolks with lemon juice, let it cook a few minutes while stirring to bind the sauce, add a chopped clove of garlic with a little parsley and serve.
- Note on the sucarelloThis way of preparing the small snails is called the sucarello, from sucer, to suck, because one sucks the snail out through the opening of the shell. The opening made underneath the shell serves both to remove the tip, which is not eaten willingly, and to make it easier to draw the snail out by sucking.
Reboul's text
In Provence a variety of small snails is eaten, known commonly as limaces. This species is a little smaller than the common snail, much more delicate, white and striped with various colours. It is scarcely prepared other than in sauce. It is a fairly common dish that we shall describe, offered here only as a curiosity.
After carefully cleaning, following the method indicated, a few dozen of these small snails, put them in a saucepan with sliced onions and carrots, a bouquet garni, a sprig of fennel, half a bottle of white wine and as much water; salt accordingly and let it cook covered after skimming it well. When you can easily pull them out of the shell with a pin, drain them in a colander and keep the broth. Cut off the rear part of the shell. Once you have finished this operation, throw them into a bowl of water and take them out at once, so that any little pieces of shell that might remain stay at the bottom. Separately, put a few spoonfuls of oil in a saucepan with a finely chopped onion, brown it without darkening, add a spoonful of flour, give it a couple of turns over the heat and add liquid with the reserved cooking liquid, to obtain a fairly thick sauce; then put the small snails in it; add a binding of 2 egg yolks with lemon juice, let it cook a few minutes while stirring to bind the sauce, add a chopped clove of garlic with a little parsley and serve.
This way of preparing the small snails is called the sucarello, from sucer, to suck, because one sucks the snail out through the opening of the shell. The opening made underneath the shell serves both to remove the tip, which is not eaten willingly, and to make it easier to draw the snail out by sucking.
Small Provençal glossary for this recipe
Reboul himself gives certain Provençal names in this recipe: sucarello. The table below gives the Provençal equivalents of the other words used, in mistralian spelling: each of these forms is attested in our Provençal-English dictionary, and the link opens the entry. Our dictionary does not yet attest the word sucarello: we therefore quote it as the author printed it, without adding a form of our own.
| Provençal | English |
|---|---|
| cacalauso | small snails |
| cebo | onions |
| garroto | carrots |
| amaneu | bouquet garni |
| fenoui | fennel |
| vin | white wine |
| òli | oil |
| farino | flour |
| citroun | lemon |
| aiet | garlic |
Source: Jean-Baptiste Reboul, La Cuisinière provençale, Marseille, 1909, recipe no. 150, page 79. Public domain. Transcription, formatting and Provençal glossary by Lingua Nostra.