Cagouilles Charentaise

Not long after we had arrived in France some 18 years ago we were invited round to our French friends home for dinner. It was Autumn and had been raining quite a bit more than was normal, so we were looking forward to a friendly meal around a log fire as the nights became longer and a good evening to practice our French. Our friends, Eric and Marie-Agnes Cartaud are local wine producers and own a number of hectares of vines. They had collected 'some' snails and were having a family meal, we were told we simply must attend so we could try the local dish. After receiving this extra information on what was being served for dinner, we wern't overly keen but to refuse would of been unthinkable, so we went along telling ourselves we could try one or two to be polite then we would enjoy the rest of the dinner.

The snail was introduced into France and the UK by the Romans as a food delicacy however it was the famine of 1816 that brought snails into the diet of the Charente Inferior (as the Charente Maritime was known as until 1945) on a regular basis as the main source of protein for the local population. As a traditionally agricultural and relatively poor region of France, when the crops failed the people had no choice but to find food where they could. Over time this one time necessity for eating snails has turned into a favoured meal that is enjoyed by all the family and turned into quite a celebration. The Charentaise people are even known as the 'Cagouille' by other French and we even have our own 'snail' themed folk group
  'Les Binuchards' .

We get a great climate here in the Charente Maritime, we don't get a huge rainfall and snails are easiest to find when they are crawling around in the damp vegetation after a rainstorm, so when it does rain, the snail baskets come out and whole families will take a walk along the lanes and through the vines to capture this delicacy as a good excuse for a family get together and great meal. We soon learnt that Vineyard snails are the best and most sort after, lucky for us our host owned dozens of hectares of vines.

There are numerous ways to prepare and cook snails. Each region has its own recipe and every family worth its salt has an individual family recipe going back generations. The garlic butter and parsley recipe is perhaps the best know way to eat snails outside of France, which is how we started our meal. We were given a small prong to hook the snail and then pull, and pull, until the snail body detached from the inner shell and sprung back into its curly shape. This is not what happens when you buy them from the supermarket ! They have been removed, trimmed, cleaned, cooked and put back into a pristine shell (sometimes not even the shell it came from if it wasn't attractive enough !) After getting over the 'cold and slimy' image we had in our minds, the experience of eating snails for the first time was really quite enjoyable. The taste is of what they have been marinated and cooked in, the texture that of a mushroom stalk, there really isn't anything to dislike; needless to say we tucked into our garlic butter snails and smiled as the French giggled at the 'English' eating snails.

                   The Petit gris snail is the most common one in this area but actually only contributes
                                                       to 2% off total snail consumption

The French 'experts' like to think they are the only people in the world who make wine, produce cheese and eat snails; unfortunately they are quite wrong and the English have been eating snails since Roman times if not earlier, it just never really caught on as much as it did in France; still you can find many a top chef preparing and serving snails in their restaurants and we certainly hadn't eaten them before, so it was another great 'French' experience that we were tucking under our belts after our move to the country.

We felt quite proud that we hadn't embarrassed our countrymen and had  held our own around the table and were looking forward to the rest of the meal - what next, perhaps a nice roast of pork with mogettes (dried white haricot beans cooked in a stock of carrot, lardons and onions) and a home grown 'salad' with one of Maries delicious vinagrettes; but no, out came la 'piece de résistance' a huge casserole pan of Cagouilles Charentaise cooked in red wine, tomatoe and pork mince. In fact this particular recipe was delicious and we tucked in, well I did, Wendy was not so keen on snails in general, but politely ate a good plateful. About half way through the meal, we found everyone counting each others empty shells. Apparently children must eat at least 30, ladies 50 and men at least 100! The French children had easily consumed their fill, not only gobbling up the snail flesh but draining the juice from the shells afterwards too. I don't think I made the 100 mark but we had eaten well and held our own and along with fresh bread, homegrown salad, apple tart made by the children earlier and all washed down with lots and lots of Erics Cartauds own wine, we had a fantastic evening and enjoyed a very special French family meal.

                                                 Eric and Marie-Agnes Cartaud and their girls

We like to think our participation and enjoyment of this very French and very Charentaise tradition played a part in our integration into this community; whether it did or didn't we certainly learnt a great deal about our hosts in our new home in France and how through food and wine and laughter we can all get along famously whatever our nationality or our language. After 18 years here in the Charente Maritime we are certainly part of the community, our boys speak fluent French with a Charentaise accent and our French is not too bad either. Our boys go out and collect snails for fun after a rainstorm but we don't keep them to eat, we leave that to the experts - the French.

Content by Chris Blakeman