Recipe no. 151 from Jean-Baptiste Reboul's La Cuisinière provençale (1909), page 79.
Ingredients
- small snails
- onion
- tomatoes
- garlic
- thyme
- bay leaf
- fennel
- orange peel
- savory
- saffron
- olive oil
- white wine of Cassis
- bread
Preparation
- Preparation and placing in the potAfter washing them carefully, put the small snails in a pot with sliced onion, chopped tomatoes and garlic, thyme, bay leaf, fennel, orange peel and savory; season with salt, pepper, saffron; drizzled with olive oil and generously covered with boiling water, so that they are well immersed; if you happen to have some bottle of good white wine of Cassis put by, do not hesitate to add a good glass of it.
- CookingSet the pot over a fierce heat, and let it all boil briskly for at least 25 minutes. The broth should then be noticeably reduced, leaving only just enough volume to soak the slices of bread that you will have arranged in a deep dish.
- ServingPour it then over these slices; arrange the small snails on another dish, and send everything at the same time. The small snails are pulled out with a pin or by the sucarello method. In the latter case, before cooking them, it is well to cut off the rear part of the shell, which makes it easier to draw the mollusc out by sucking.
Reboul's text
After washing them carefully, put the small snails in a pot with sliced onion, chopped tomatoes and garlic, thyme, bay leaf, fennel, orange peel and savory; season with salt, pepper, saffron; drizzled with olive oil and generously covered with boiling water, so that they are well immersed; if you happen to have some bottle of good white wine of Cassis put by, do not hesitate to add a good glass of it.
Set the pot over a fierce heat, and let it all boil briskly for at least 25 minutes. The broth should then be noticeably reduced, leaving only just enough volume to soak the slices of bread that you will have arranged in a deep dish; pour it then over these slices; arrange the small snails on another dish, and send everything at the same time. The small snails are pulled out with a pin or by the sucarello method. In the latter case, before cooking them, it is well to cut off the rear part of the shell, which makes it easier to draw the mollusc 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 |
| oulo | pot |
| cebo | onion |
| toumàti | tomatoes |
| aiet | garlic |
| farigoulo | thyme |
| laurié | bay leaf |
| fenoui | fennel |
| rusco | orange peel |
| pebre-d'ase | savory |
Source: Jean-Baptiste Reboul, La Cuisinière provençale, Marseille, 1909, recipe no. 151, page 79. Public domain. Transcription, formatting and Provençal glossary by Lingua Nostra.