Recipe no. 148 from Jean-Baptiste Reboul's La Cuisinière provençale (1909), page 78.
Ingredients
- snails
- fine salt
- vinegar
- mushrooms
- shallots
- parsley
- garlic
- white wine
- fennel
- bread
- egg yolks
- breadcrumbs
Preparation
- Cleaning the snailsWash a few dozen snails well in several changes of water, having tossed them briefly in a bowl after adding a handful of fine salt and a glass of vinegar. When they are well clean and no longer give off slime or froth, put them in boiling water and let them cook until you can pull them out with a pin.
- PreparationThen take them all out, remove the rear part of each.
- Cooking in saucePut a few spoonfuls of oil to heat in a saucepan; when it is nice and hot, throw the snails in, brown them a few minutes, add a handful of chopped mushrooms, then 2 or 3 shallots and a pinch of chopped parsley with 2 cloves of garlic. Give it a few turns without letting it darken, season with salt and pepper. Add liquid with half a bottle of white wine, add a bouquet garni with a sprig of fennel and let it cook covered over a low heat.
- Preparing the stuffingTake them out of the sauce then to put them on a plate; put a good pinch of breadcrumbs passed through a sieve and 2 egg yolks in the saucepan, give it a couple of turns over the heat and move it off; this sauce should now have the consistency of a stuffing.
- Stuffing the shellsYou will have well washed and dried the shells of your snails; put a snail in each, finish filling it with the prepared stuffing. Arrange them all thus prepared on a baking dish or gratin dish.
- FinishingFinely chop 2 cloves of garlic and a sprig of parsley, mix with the same amount of breadcrumbs, sprinkle over the snails, drizzle with a few drops of oil and brown au gratin.
Reboul's text
Wash a few dozen snails well in several changes of water, having tossed them briefly in a bowl after adding a handful of fine salt and a glass of vinegar. When they are well clean and no longer give off slime or froth, put them in boiling water and let them cook until you can pull them out with a pin. Then take them all out, remove the rear part of each. Put a few spoonfuls of oil to heat in a saucepan; when it is nice and hot, throw the snails in, brown them a few minutes, add a handful of chopped mushrooms, then 2 or 3 shallots and a pinch of chopped parsley with 2 cloves of garlic. Give it a few turns without letting it darken, season with salt and pepper. Add liquid with half a bottle of white wine, add a bouquet garni with a sprig of fennel and let it cook covered over a low heat. Take them out of the sauce then to put them on a plate; put a good pinch of breadcrumbs passed through a sieve and 2 egg yolks in the saucepan, give it a couple of turns over the heat and move it off; this sauce should now have the consistency of a stuffing. You will have well washed and dried the shells of your snails; put a snail in each, finish filling it with the prepared stuffing. Arrange them all thus prepared on a baking dish or gratin dish.
Finely chop 2 cloves of garlic and a sprig of parsley, mix with the same amount of breadcrumbs, sprinkle over the snails, drizzle with a few drops of oil and brown au gratin.
Small Provençal glossary for this recipe
Reboul writes in French: no Provençal word appears in this recipe, apart from the dish's name itself. The table below gives the Provençal equivalents of the words used, in mistralian spelling, translated by Lingua Nostra. Each form is attested in our Provençal-English dictionary; click to open the entry.
| Provençal | English |
|---|---|
| cacalouso | snails |
| sau | fine salt |
| vinaigre | vinegar |
| champignoun | mushrooms |
| eschaloto | shallots |
| aiet | garlic |
| juvert | parsley |
| vin | white wine |
| fenoui | fennel |
| rabina | to brown au gratin |
Source: Jean-Baptiste Reboul, La Cuisinière provençale, Marseille, 1909, recipe no. 148, page 78. Public domain. Transcription, formatting and Provençal glossary by Lingua Nostra.