Mequite Smoked Escargot, not what we expected

bubba tim

My wife and I love Escargot. Many years ago I had some mequite smoked escargot at a restaurant in St Pete, Fl.
The wife, aka Little Chef, is not a big fan of smoked foods. (we all have our faults) I talked her into smoking up some escargot. We tried 3 different ways.
The first was in a tradional snail plate, the second was in a mushroom, and the third was in a snail shell.




Brought the Egg up to 410 and put in some mesquite to start things going.

Loaded up the Egg with our three offering and set the timer for 12 minutes. Just for chips and giggles, little chef put on some bananas with sugar and cinnamon at the half way mark.
Now for the results. The offering in the snail plate was ok, the finish was a bit much. The second offering was the mushrooms, very nice I must say. A little heavy on the smoke side. The third offering in the snails was just plain gross. Thank God the little chef decide to do the bananas, they were a life saver and help get the taste out. Take a firm semi-ripe banana, sprikle sugar and cinnamon on it, grill it till the top is carmelized and enjoy. Forget the snails!

mad max beyond eggdome

i love escargot in the egg. ...i would think that mesquite is way to strong for for them ...i don't add any extra wood when i do them, just let the hardwood charcoal and the egg do its magic ....crank up the egg to 425 indirect and let em go till they are sizzling . ...my first eggtoberest 5 years i did over 6 dozen of them for the masses down in atlanta. ..they were a big hit ... .served em up on slices of french bread. .. they were gone as fast as i could serve them up. ....

bubba tim

Max, yours looks a lot better than mine did. If I attempt this again, I WILL leave the mesquite out and just trust the Egg. That's why you rock! Now I have to make nice to the little chef. I am in deep do do. :(

mad max beyond eggdome

bubba, one of the things to learn about the egg, and of the key concepts to grasp, is to think of it not as a grill or smoker, but rather, to think of it as an outdoor, charcoal fired, oven .. .when you start thinking in those terms, then your cooking takes on a whole different level .... i do a lot of italian and french provencial cooking in my eggs ....and if you think about it, so many recipes that originated in the 1800s and early 1900s (right up till the advent of electric ovens and clean gas ovens after world war II, really came for wood and charcoal fired stoves. ..so when they are cooked in a clean burning big green egg (i.e. an egg that is simply using a clean burning load of lump charcoal with no extra wood), you are really achieving a taste that the originators of these recipes intended for you to achieve. ...so next time you want to cook something like escargot, or other french recipes, things like casseroles or soufles, etc. .. try them first in a simple clean burning egg. .using the same times and temps as your oven. ..i can assure you, the flavor with have a great 'rustic' flavor, much better than that achieved in your oven any day. ...

bubba tim

I agree with you 100%. I like to try wierd and strange things. Sometimes they work out, most of the time they don't :laugh: The wifey, aka little chef, is a real french trained chef and works in the industry. We have dicussions almost daily about my lack of culinary skills. That still does not stop me from making some really nasty food. But hey, Escoffier was strange at one point too. :woohoo:

mad max beyond eggdome

hmmm, do they not work out just in the egg? or in the kitchen as well? ....if its just in the egg, again, think about how you have been setting up and using your egg ....like i said, think about using it like wood buring stove. ..fire it up with a load of lump . .. let it burn for a good 45 minutes to an hour prior to putting the food in it (that way it is really burning nice and clean. ...no extra wood whatsoever. ... then cook with the exact same times and temps as you wood in your oven ... . your results should be very good ....i've done things like potatoe gallets, souffles, ox tail stews, lasagna, osso boucco, to name a few. . .try getting your wife to do the prep, so she has the prep input into the dish, and then you do the cooking part on the egg. ..see if that helps. ...read jacque pepen's book "the apprentice" he talks about how the junior guys' responsibility in the french kitchens in the 40's was to stoke the oven in the morning. ..maybe you can make that your job with the egg, while she preps the food. .. . could end up producing some really great food between the two of you. .

bubba tim

It seems to me that you may have walked the same path. Thanks Max, even at my age I still can learn.

Pyro

Max,

I'm going to be at this year's eggtoberfest (unless the price of gas goes to $5 per gallon). Are you going to cook these again?

Pyro

Max, I had not written beyond your original post when I answered. Your idea of understanding the egg as neither a grill nor a smoker, but rather as an oven makes incredibly good sense. You have forever changed the way I will look at my egg and will think back that the ceramic cooker started as an oven. If you go to an Indian restaurant you will quickly see that the ceramic cooker is primarily an oven as you enjoy your nan.

Thanks,

Wayne