With the start of the California foie ban and Tour de France happening on the same day, I couldn’t think of a better time to branch out and pay some attention to that other French delicacy.
Meet team S-Car-Go, you might not recognize them without their shells helmets, but they are the world’s first and only snail cycling team. As the self-appointed directeur sportiff, I can tell you they’ve got quite a bit of work to do before they’ll be prepared for any major courses, cycling or culinary.
I’m willing to bet that most people who claim to love escargot really just love the preparation. Most things taste good with butter and garlic. I wanted to know about the actual snails. As suspected, there’s definitely a reason for the typical accouterments. Unadorned, both the taste and texture reminded me a lot of low-sodium canned button mushrooms, which is to say..not that great.
They have a slightly meatier texture and earthier flavor, but they could easily be mistaken for some canned toadstools, they even sort of look like them. You may have expected me to mention a salty or briny flavor, but escargot are land snails, and again, these were packed in water.
If I can find one positive aspect its that they are a good source of protein. It’s just too bad that they’re not a good tasting one as well. I finished them, but only after mixing into a dish of spaghetti with olive oil, spices, and anchovies. I still wasn’t crazy about them.
I would consider most escargot served as hors-d’oeuvres to be like doped-up tour champions, and my water-packed gang more like a team of guys on trikes. I don’t think I need to explain that any further, and I’m resigning as directeur sportiff.
Grade: D
{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
I’m thinking maybe a good pizza topping…as far as with garlic butter and parsley,,,yeah, I’d pretty much eat a cardboard box if it were covered in that as well.
My family used to buy some sort of jarred snails at an Asian grocery store. I can’t remember how they were flavored, but I do remember them having enough flavor to b eaten alone or with rice porridge.
Pav – I was actually going to mention that! The only time I like canned mushrooms are on top of cheap pizza. If I come across them again, maybe I’ll top a frozen pie.
Rosa – I’ve seen that you can get them packed in brine, and they were much better once I added salt so I imagine those would be the same. Still not something I would seek out though.
Probably the only blog where you can find reviews for both canned snails and Ben & Jerrys. Bravo!
Lol this was awesome dude. See my Tweet
Why not make a classic escargot bourguignon with these?
Rodzilla,
If you ever try snails again, you could Americanize them by making them into
patties and cooking them on the grill. Top your snailburgers with fried onions, American cheese, and plenty of catsup. Put them in toasted hamburger buns, and force feed them to mallards. Crucify the ducks, if the snailburgers don’t kill them. Lovingly remove their livers and feed them to feral cats. San Diego will consider you a prominent citizen for solving the feral cat problem.
Hugs,
The Rodfather
would not eat/10…too bad they sucked because those macros are really solid, and not even a lot of sodium like most canned meat/seafood
Say that you don’t like escargots because you didn’t like canned escargots is like saying you don’t like kurobuta pork because you didn’t like spam – both are made from pork but that’s were the similarity ends similar to fresh snails and canned snails. Call a few restaurants which have snails on the menu and find out if they are fredh ones. (These tend to be restaurants which don’t serve them with butter and garlic to cover the “canned” taste). Fresh escargots are really great tasting with unique slightly nutty flavor and great chefs can make outstanding dishes with them
Bianca – Thanks
Chuck – seen
Jake errr Dad – We actually do have quite the Ferrell cat problem in SD. I’ll have to think about it.
Mitch – agreed
2f1J – Valid point, I’ll extend this rating to the canned variety only. As I mentioned, they reminded me of canned mushrooms which are very different than fresh. If you saw the dish I linked to from a meal at Notion, you’ll see that I have actually enjoyed them in the past when they were fresh.