French Provincial Cooking - Elizabeth David [190]
The following information about various old country methods of cooking snails comes from M. S. Lovell’s Edible Mollusks, already quoted above.
‘The inhabitants of Central France use several sauces for snails, and the four principal are the following, according to Dr. Ebrard:
‘L’ayoli, or ail-y-oli, of Languedoc; a paste made with olive oil and pounded garlic.
'L’aillada, of Gascony; a most complicated sauce of garlic, onions, chives, leeks, parsley, etc., with spices, cloves and nutmeg, the whole thickened with oil.
‘La limassade of Provence, called la vinaigrette in Paris.
‘La cacalaousada of Montpellier, composed of flour, ham, sugar, etc. At Bordeaux the aillada is softened with a mixture of bread, flour and yolk of egg, boiled with milk.
‘Stuffed snails are also considered very good. A fine stuffing is made with snails previously cooked, fillets of anchovies, nutmeg, spice, fine herbs, and a liaison of yolks of eggs. The snail shells are filled with this stuffing, then placed before the fire, and served very hot. In some countries Blainville states that snails are eaten smoked and dried.’
LES PETITS GRIS
These are the small snails which the country people go out and gather by the basketful after the spring showers. Lovell quotes Dr. Ebrard as saying that this variety, the helix aspersa, ‘has a variety of names in France, and in the north it is called colimaçon, jardinière and aspergille; at Montpellier, caraguolo; in Bordelais, cagouille, limaou and limat; in Provence, escargot escourgol; at Avignon, caragaou and contar; banarut at Arles; and bajaina at Grasse.’
LES CUISSES DE GRENOUILLES
FROGS’ LEGS
It is odd that frogs’ legs, which are such delicate little morsels that surely even the most fastidious could not object to them, should inspire such horror in England. Only the green frogs with black markings are considered edible, and the back legs are the only parts ever served. However, it is not much use giving directions as to their cooking, since they are unobtainable in this country (although I see tinned frogs’ legs are being imported). The systems of cooking are, in fact, extremely simple, the frogs’ legs being usually simply floured and sauté in butter. They take about 10 to 12 minutes to cook. With the addition of chopped parsley, garlic and lemon juice, they become grenouilles à la provençale, and a particularly delicious dish of frogs which I ate at a restaurant in Chagny in the Côte d’Or was called grenouilles à la bressane; they were in a butter and cream sauce with a quantity of finely-chopped parsley and a little tarragon.
Les Viandes
Meat
FRENCH cooks, it is sometimes alleged, have perfected their particular brand of magic with second-class materials because they have no first-class ones. This, of course, is nonsensical. French cooks hold good-quality materials in the highest esteem, and certainly have plenty to work with. But the attitude of a French cook or housewife is extremely realistic. Appreciating the fact that not every fish that comes out of the sea is a sole, and that not even carefully nurtured animals are entirely constructed of prime steaks and cutlets, they have made it their business to know how to present coarser fish, elderly birds and second or third-grade cuts of meat with the identical skill and ceremony accorded to luxury roasts and show-pieces. Thus a number of cheap delicacies have become famous, and have acquired a considerable snob value wherever French cooking is known. Such things as andouilles and andouillettes (tripe sausages) are notable examples; bœuf gros sel which is boiled beef from the pot-au-feu with coarse salt, pigs’ trotters à la Ste. Ménéhould, blanquette de veau, tendrons de veau, oxtail stews and calf’s head vinaigrette have become specialities of sophisticated restaurants.
Also, a good French butcher takes as much trouble over the cutting, trimming and presentation of his cheap cuts as with the prime joints. Such