Snails Sommeroise

Recipes Ingredients:

100 Snails
1/2 lb Fatty bacon
Vinegar 6
Shelled walnuts, ground
2 Thyme sprigs
4 Canned anchovy fillets
1/2 Bay leaf
3 Garlic cloves
1 Basil sprig
Salt and pepper
1 Pared orange peel
3 tb Flour
7 oz Pork rind 6
1/2 lb Whole trimmed spinach leaves
1/2 c Olive oil

Recipe Instructions:

Preparation time 3 hours. Cooking time 2 1/2 hours. Starve the snails for at least 8 days, then wash them in several changes of water until clean. Rinse with vinegar, then drain. Place the snails in a Saucepan of boiling water with the thyme, bay leaf, basil, orange peel and Pork rind. When the snails are almost cooked, drain them and remove them from their shells. [I guess boiling them makes it easier to remove them from their shells. --mkm] Brown the snails in olive oil with the fatty bacon, very finely chopped [I assume the author means chop the bacon first. --mkm], the ground walnuts, anchovy fillets, crushed Garlic and salt and pepper. Thicken the mixture with the flour, then serve on a bed of spinach. [Make sure you wash all the grit off the spinach first. --mkm] Rose, red or white wines: Tavel, Chusclan, Coteaux d'Aix-en-Provence. [From "Larousse Traditional French Cooking."]