Snail caviar is a delicious type of caviar, which consists of fresh or specially processed eggs of pulmonary snails. In English publications you can find a mention of it under the unusual name "Aphrodite's pearl."
Species of snails
The snail belongs to the animal kingdom, the type of mollusks, the class of gastropods. The Latin designation of the snail appeared due to the combination of two words of ancient Greek origin, which meant "belly" and "leg". In Russian, the name of the mollusk arose from the Old Slavonic adjective, translated as “hollow”. As a result, the word "snail" is an animal that wears a hollow house and shelter.
The class of gastropods includes about 110,000 species of snails, more than 1.6 thousand of which are located on the territory of the Russian Federation.
The geographic cone is considered the most poisonous snail. This mollusk lives in the Indian and Pacific Ocean. The snail produces a portion of the toxin, which is enough to affect 10 people.
The largest snail is the giant Australian trumpeter. By weight, the mollusk reaches 18 kg. The snail lives in coastal areas in the north of Australia, as well as in the sea in Indonesia. And the smallest snail is Angustopila dominikae. In size, it barely reaches 1 cm.
Also, snails are divided into marine, freshwater, land, gill and lung. A typical representative of the pulmonary group are grape snails, which will be discussed later in this article.
Grape snails
In appearance, it is considered a rather large mollusk, with a spiral curved shell, the diameter of which is 50 mm. The life cycle of this snail is from 8 to 20 years. The shell of a grape snail can be painted in a variety of colors, ranging from cream to red-brown.
It lives preferably in the central and southeastern regions of Europe. Most often, this type can be found in the Baltic states. People have consumed grape snails and their caviar since time immemorial. For example, the ancient Egyptians and Romans used the caviar product as an aphrodisiac.
Product Popularity
The most expensive delicacy consider caviar. This dish appeared in France thanks to the development of De Jaeger. The organization entered the market with a unique product - snail caviar. Snails themselves are not a new product for the company, but in order to establish the production of caviar, it took 3 years of research and various experiments.
However, recently this delicacy is gaining popularity and has become popular not only among Europeans, but also far beyond its borders. For example, among foodies living in Japan and the United States of America. Foreign companies are also starting to establish production of expensive delicacies, but still caviar made in France remains a model of taste and quality.
Gourmet characteristic
The taste of caviar is similar to the smell of oak leaves and mushrooms, mixed with the freshness of the forest after the past rain in the fall, as well as complemented by the unusual aroma of wet peat moss. Therefore, this caviar product is also called forest pearl. Some gourmets note the similarity of the delicacy with black caviar.
In appearance, caviar resembles neat pearls of the correct form. In their natural state, the eggs are colorless, but after processing the product may become creamy, pink-white and white. Each egg is about 3 mm in diameter. However, there are also large ones with a diameter of 6 mm.
Snail caviar is produced by special snail farms whose main income is snail breeding. About 3 years ago it was possible to purchase such a delicacy at a price of 10 thousand rubles for 50 grams. Caviar producers explain the shocking cost of the product by the fact that in order to get 100 grams of the necessary product, 260 snail clutches should be manually sorted (the weight of one clutch is 4 g).
The delicacy has great nutritional value and contains about 36 micro and macro elements. The composition of snail caviar contains vitamins A, D, E, C, as well as B vitamins.
The most expensive delicacy has a lot of useful properties. A balanced vitamin-mineral complex helps to improve the function of the cardiovascular system, thyroid and genital glands, and also increases the activity of the whole organism.
Delicatessen Pathfinders
It is not surprising that the first to start using caviar of grape snails were the French. After all, it is in France that culinary experts prefer original flavor combinations and unusual food products. For example, the same frog legs - the famous know-how that came from France, which was able to conquer gourmets around the world thanks to its delicate taste.
So, the first farm engaged in the cultivation of snails was opened in the late 80s of the 20th century by the famous French chef Jean-Pierre Faranca. He was able to create a snail farm to produce this caviar product. It is worth noting that the process of growing snails on an industrial scale requires remarkable knowledge and capabilities. And the high price of the resulting product is due to the fact that each snail lays eggs only 2 times a year. It turns out that the farm for the production of caviar product of the famous French chef receives a few pounds of expensive delicacy during the year.
Use of caviar product
Caviar is prepared for consumption in a special saline solution, then laid out in metal jars. Also, special components are added to the caviar of snails that give the popular delicacy an oil consistency.
Use this product at room temperature in the form of a delicious snack to a sparkling alcoholic beverage, sometimes add it to the first dish (usually soups) or combine it with the rest of the ingredients when preparing an exotic dish. When consuming snail caviar in food, gourmets suggest adding sauce or sour cream to the delicacy.
The calorie content of the most expensive delicacy is small, it varies from 85 to 90 kcal per 100 g of caviar product.