Escargots à la bourguignonne — snails baked in garlic-parsley butter

Weigh 100 g whole butter, cut into small pieces and leave in a bowl at room temperature about 30–40 minutes until easily pressed with a spoon. It should be soft and pliable but not liquid. Do not clarify it and do not drain off any part. Prepare the other ingredients while it softens; all the weighed butter goes into the served sauce.

Choose cooked canned Helix pomatia snails without prepared butter and without shells. Discard the canning liquid, briefly rinse the meat in a strainer and let drain, then gently pat dry with paper towel. Weigh 125 g prepared meat, about 24 large snails. Canning liquid and rinse water do not enter the dish. This is prepared meat, not raw snails needing cleaning or prolonged cooking.

Dry the washed parsley very thoroughly, remove thick stems and weigh 12 g prepared leaves only. Chop as finely as possible. Crush or finely chop the peeled garlic, 8 g, and cut 15 g peeled shallot into very fine dice. All stated weights refer to edible prepared parts. Do not reserve parsley for decoration and do not add water for chopping.

Work the soft butter with a spoon and add all 12 g parsley, 8 g garlic, 15 g shallot, 0.5 g salt and 0.25 g pepper. Mix until evenly distributed throughout the butter. Scrape the bowl sides thoroughly. It should be pliable with fine green flecks, without large garlic pieces. Do not add wine, oil, cream or breadcrumbs.

Preheat the oven to 200°C using conventional top-and-bottom heat and set a rack in the middle. Prepare four small ovenproof dishes, about 90–120 ml each, suitable for a hot oven. Set them on a stable metal baking sheet. They do not need extra greasing. Use room-temperature dishes, without moving cold glass straight into a hot oven.

Divide all the flavored butter into four similar portions. Spread a little of each on a dish base, add one-quarter of the meat, about six large snails, then distribute the remaining butter over and between them. Scrape up all edible remnants from the bowl. Each dish should contain its meat portion and one-quarter of all the parsley butter; do not reserve anything for later serving.

Put the baking sheet of dishes in the preheated oven and bake about 8–10 minutes. The butter should melt completely and bubble gently at the edges, with the prepared meat well heated throughout each portion. Remove before parsley or garlic browns deeply. Do not prolong baking for a dry crust: the snails are already cooked and excessive heating harms their delicate texture.

Remove the baking sheet wearing oven mitts and set each hot dish on a heat-resistant small plate. Wait about 1–2 minutes for the butter to stop sizzling vigorously. Serve one dish per person with the snails and all the butter sauce, eaten with a small spoon. Do not drain off fat. The recipe makes four small appetizers without bread, extra herbs or other decorations.

Serve the snails after baking while the sauce remains liquid. If some prepared dish remains, let it cool, transfer it with all its sauce to a closed container and refrigerate within 2 hours at the latest. Eat the next day after heating thoroughly; further reheating may harm the meat's texture. Do not store leftovers in an open metal can.