This video, produced for About.com, features snails cooked in the traditional style of the Burgundy region of France. Do I like snails? No. Do I like Escargot Bourguignon? Yes, because the escargot are drowning in copious amounts of garlic and parsley butter. Do I think that most of the viewers will make this recipe? No. Do I think that some viewers that always wanted to try them will now go for it? Maybe. Do I think this is the most question marks every to appear in the first paragraph of one of my posts? Yes. Should I stop writing like this? Yes. 
This is the classic French method for preparing the slow-moving (which makes them easy to run down) delicacy. While it is true these are basically common garden snails, the ones you buy canned, imported from France, are especially plump and flavorful. I believe they are fattened on a special diet of foie gras and truffles before meeting their fate, but I’m not positive about that part. Anyway, this holiday season, when you’re in that fancy gourmet shop buying that gift basket for the person that you can never figure out what to give, pick up a can of snails, some tiny forks, and a very large bottle of wine …and enjoy!
Ingredients:
1 stick of softened butter
1 tbsp minced shallots
1 1/2 tbsp minced garlic
1/4 cup chopped parsley
black pepper to taste
salt to taste, I used about 1/2 tsp
*this is enough for about 32 snails
This video, produced for About.com, features snails cooked in the traditional style of the 
This is the classic French method for preparing the slow-moving (which makes them easy to run down) delicacy. While it is true these are basically common garden snails, the ones you buy canned, imported from 
27 comments:
hshs i like the beeping.
is "hshs" haha in french? ;)
they beeped you! That's censorship! how dare they
You've brought your Chef John's humor to about.com. I love it.
I hope I will slowly (like a snail) convert them to my style.
hmmm snails... it's one of my country's traditional snacks... not a fan myself, when I was 8 years old I tried one, never again :) but as usual you make it look good! I bet you can make anything look good...
hey one word of advice, your home page is getting pretty huge, you might want to move some of the older posts away from the home page...
K
Nice bleeping video. You missed some though. Like when you said "snails," and "eating snails," and "delicious" when talking about eating snails. But other than that you nailed it.
Incidentally, will this recipe work with any gross thing? I'm thinking primarily of the slug I found on my barrels yesterday. Or that centipede I found in my cellar...
All jokes aside, this is why I love your site. You actually have a good chance of me trying these. Honest! I had no idea I could make these at home. Kudos for the idea and effort.
Lastly, c'mon folks. Holiday Season is here. Now's the time to support Chef John and give your loved ones a great gift at the same time. I know I'll be buying a couple of FoodWishes shirts to grace the foodies in my life with. You should too!
I'll let you know how the snails turned out... How's the year 2012 sound to you? :)
Sincerely, thank you for the inspiration.
Scott - Boston
for the love of god don't move the old recipes! some of us forgetful folks still need them... i'm much more concerned about the quality of instruction (which has been top-notch from the beginning) than the pixels per inch or sound quality; and i have little difficulty navigating your page
LoL! See this is why we love watching your videos! Thank you! That really brightened my day literally! :) so just wondering here but where's my mac and cheese video?Don't make me use the blue box. Seriously I have two blue boxes in my pantry waiting for me, and I have the milk too. I think I'm going to put that compound butter in my mashed potatoes this Thanksgiving.:) Oh, are you going to make a thanksgiving episodes? Let me know please! Should I make pumkin cheesecake, or pie or BOTH?!
FYI for all. The homepage always has the last 10 clips. To find old clips simply look at the archive on the side bar, they are all there chronologically. Also you can use the google search box in the sidebar to find any keyword. ALL recipes are always on the blog. I never remove any clips,just because they arent on the front page just means you have go to the next page.
Now that I explained how to navigate a blog, prepare for another Scott from B-town comment regarding said instructions. Go Sox!
OWWW*@^!#($%%!$*
OOOOHHH*50350249650359*
Another tip: Don't eat escargot. Here's what will happen:
I will eat this snail...*chew chew* OH *QWERTYUIOPASDFGHJKLZXCVBNM*
(jk)
Hahahaha I agree with the rest of the comments. The bleeping was hilarious, I totally didn't expect that! Excellent recipe too. You're definitely making fine dinging recipes much more easy for the home cook. Thanks!
I used to eat this kind of thing all the time except it was in Thailand and the sauce is a good bit different, yum.
Your web page takes forever to load and just about crashes my computer but please keep the recipes coming, patience is a virtue.
Thanks, I believe I solved the page loading problem. I think it was the "widget" in my sidebar that was taking a while to load. Also the about/brightcove player takes longer to load than YT.
haha i wished i spoke french but nah...im from Pluto :P
Those are snails!! :O
Heyy,
I swear I would try this recipe.
Just maybe in 2 years.
Then I'd probably snail mail you a bite.
No. That wasn't funny.
Great vid, as always. Keep up the good work! Loving the bleeps.
This cracked me up!
Hey CJ (Chef John) wondering what those snails taste like...I was picturing it in my mind as something creamy and maybe mussel/clamesque..
more chewy than creamy, earthy, and VERY garlicy which is the whole reason to bother.
Salut chef john
I just came here to your site from Youtube.The last video you posted on there was almost a month ago.I got introduced to your videos via youtube.I was wondering if you would continue posting videos on youtube or have you abandoned youtube altogether?
btw..I absolutely love your videos.The commentary that goes with the video is very witty too
i have been doing vidoes and a site for About.com in order to keep the site going. Unfortunately i cant post all those video to YT also. I used YT to build traffic, but would rather you visit hear to read and watch. Thanks!
Here in Portugal is very common to eat snails as a snack, and I personally love it, though we cook them in a very different way. But your recipe seems really delicious and original!
Oh, and I had no idea that they sold snails in cans! The things I learn on the internet... hehe.
We love snails in my family. My little girl at the tender age of 4 was asking for more in a restaurent in Aspen years ago.
Another French trained chef showed me to add some fine chopped walnuts to the butter mix. It adds a nice nuttyness we like.
Great old post Chef John. Thank you!
Yum!
I do these every Christmas. I have a country house in Burgundy France and these big snails would be crawling along the walls. Garlic, parsley and buttery goodness equals awesome X-mas treat.
Paint a big letter 'S' on your car and drive really fast, and people will say "Look at that S car go! (escargot)"
Just a suggestion, but there's no link to the video anymore (as of 9/2/2012).
There's a restaurant in Long Beach, Washington (technically Seaview, but only by three blocks) that serves oysters this style, as in your first method. I'm going to have to try making them that way myself!
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