Why is escargot so expensive?

I would imagine the low demand for snails make them a speciality product. Low demand, therefore low supply, generating few suppliers who find it worthwhile to be in the snail business. Small businesses have higher costs, ergo they must ask for a higher price for their produce.
That being said, I love snails in garlic butter! I caught a bunch of them in the garden once and was all ready to try and cook my own, but the missus would have none of it.

Apoparently there is more to it than catching and cooking them.

Cleaning and prepping a snail for eating is time-consuming and fairly tedious.

”...using fresh snails, follow the procedure below for cleaning and preparing the shells and the snails;

48 fresh snails in their shells
White vinegar
Salt
Dry white wine
1 onion, coarsely chopped
2 carrots, coarsely chopped
1 stalk celery, coarsely chopped
1 bouquet garni
10 cloves garlic, mashed
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper

Allow snails to fast for at least one day. Rinse snails under cold running water and then transfer to a large bowl and cover with white vinegar and a handful of salt. Cover snails with a heavy plate to keep them submerged and allow them to purge for at least 3 hours. Rinse again under cold running water and clean thoroughly to remove all traces of mucous. Place snails in a small saucepan and cover with water. Boil for 10 minutes. Drain and remove snails from their shells. Transfer shells to another saucepan and cover with salted water and boil for at least 30 minutes. Remove shells from the water, clean thoroughly and let them dry completely before proceeding. Clean shelled snails again and remove the black part at the end of the tail.

Now you get to cook them before you actually prepare your escargots Bourguignon

Place snails in a saucepan and cover with a mixture of half water and half dry white wine. Add onion, carrots, celery, bouquet garni, 10 cloves garlic, salt, and pepper. Partially cover saucepan and bring to a boil. Simmer for 2 hours, or until tender, and allow snails to cool in cooking liquid. Drain snails (discard poaching liquid) and pat snails dry. Proceed with recipe as directed.

@gailcalled I find that when I buy the cans, there are few options in raising or feeding them. Maybe it’s just me.

You have to use the correct snails too. Not all snails are safe to eat or taste good.

@Rheto_Ric They are not in such little demand that restaurants leave them off their menus. Chocolate flavored peanut butter seems like a specialty item. But it’s everywhere!

@WestRiverrat The most common snails in the yard are the snails imported from Europe and loosed on my garden. True, you can find inedible snails, but it takes a lot of work.

I’ve never noticed them to be particularly expensive in restaurants.

This is in the heart of civilization, mind you; a place, from which – considering the talk about escargot in cans – you seem to be presently quite removed.

This may be relatively speaking though. Eating out in Europe is not generally cheap, but escargot is not notably expensive. The American consumer demands cheap food, but most food is impossible to produce cheaply, hence ‘American cuisine’, which does not include escargot.

I reckon you should try a French restaurant in your nearest metropolis.
I’d be surprised if the escargot was considerably dearer than the rest of the menu.
As you say, the ingredients are not difficult to come by…

@gailcalled “Allow snails to fast for at least one day.”
That’s hilarious to me. Allow them? Do we mean “force” them to fast?
If one accidentally eats something, do we force it to purge, or does it have to start over?
Do we tell them the truth? “You have to stop eating so that your G I tract is empty, because frankly it would be too much trouble to open you up and remove your entrails. We want to eat your flesh, not your breakfast!”
I’m going to snicker for the rest of the day. ;-)

@The_Idler by “I’d be suprised” I guess you mean, “I know nothing but I still have an opinion.” How lifelike. They are expensive here.

Sometimes I have this impression any delicacy with a French name costs more. ES-CAR-GOT! : )

@6rant6 Even at French restaurants, relative to the rest of the menu? Hmmm, I’m surprised. =P

I thought it might just be shop ones (since it isn’t that popular with the mass market), and the restaurants would have better suppliers.

Well, looks like you’ll have to catch your own. Dare!

They grow at a snails pace.

@The_Idler I’ve done so. It’s trivially easy. Does take some time, but seems on scale it would be cake. Hence my question.

The factor that may need to be examined is the portion size. Generally (here at least) we see a standard serving of 6 snails, which I estimate is an ounce – a smaller serving than comparable appetizer foods such as cheese, fish, shrimp or mussels. So even if the cost of the dish is the same, the implied price of the raw ingredient is much higher.

Use nice big ones. I’ve heard that you have to put them on a corn meal covered surface, which will clean them out inside. I’m not sure what you use to clean out the shells, but they need cleaning too. There is sand way up in the shell. This is why you buy the canned ones. If I were to try to use the ones in my back yard, I’d look for advice from experts first. The snails themselves taste of soil. You also can just make the butter, white wine, and parsley on something else, like cubes of chicken, partially cooked. Think muffin cups with the butter stuff melted. Broil until chicken finishes cooking and browns a bit around the edges.

They are probably expensive for a couple of reasons:

They might be expensive to mass produce, process, and transport.

People like profit. This includes everyone from the person growing the snails to the transportation company to the restaurants and stores selling them.

They are a niche item, so there are fewer customers and the price has be go up to make enough profit off of the snails they do sell.

They realize that price is not a major selling point. People who buy escargot buy it for a reason other than to get a good deal. Thus, they can increase the price without drastically reducing the number of customers.

People expect the price of escargot to be high, and are thus willing to pay a higher price. This is sort of what is happening with diamonds right now. Diamonds aren’t really as rare as people think that they are, but if the companies sold the diamonds at a lower (more reasonable) price, the companies would sacrifice profits and fewer people would buy them because they would think that the diamonds were of lesser quality.

Recently, I bought some escargot in a can (aka “canned snails”) as part of a French cultural project. I’ll probably eat them tonight, and I’m not really looking forward to it. What do you consider a descent price of escargot? I calculated my cost to be about 20 cents per snail.

@PhiNotPi: ^^Read my link. Although harvesting the snails is easy, the prep is really labor-intensive. Snails have to fast, then soak in a briny mix, and then purge. It’s not as easy as it sound.

I’m going to take a wild guess at this. Here in the US, escargot is not high in demand. Most people I know are grossed out at the thought of eating a snail. Some that gather up the courage to try them are turned off by the rubbery texture. These factors make them low in demand; thus, they have a short shelf-life. Even if they come out of a can, how long will it be before there are enough orders placed to use up all of the snails?

In this country, the only time I see escargot on a menu is when it is a French and/or posh restaurant. These types of service establishments typically charge a fair amount for small portions. It’s a shame, really. Edible snails are common, high in nutrients and low in fat.

The SO and I were in Barcelona earlier this year and went to a reasonably priced restaurant. Escargot was one of the appetizers listed. Since he had never had them before, we requested this and one other appetizer. We both expected the escargot to be the standard offering of six. What was presented was an omelette-sized pan full of snails. So, either they are cheap in Spain, or as we later came to suspect based upon other factors, one cook was clueless.

Less and less because now people raise snail, snail slowly disappeared as prices rise, so more and more expensive.

Less and less because now people raise snail, snail slowly disappeared as prices rise, so more and more expensive.

It’s the name. If they were called “snails” on the menu, they would probably be cheaper.

Why am I reading this on an empty stomach in the morning?
The last snails I consumed were little green sea snails in asia, soaked in brine and sucked out of their shells raw. Yeah, it was a dare at a night market, between sea snails, fried duck heads, boiled turtle and squid on a stick.
Lets just say if it were not for being well lubricated on Taiwanese beer I’d have never have gone there. Still beat the duck heads.

Chewing betlenut ( Areca nut) on the cab ride home lent itself to a pretty exotic experience. lol

I assume it’s because they’re a delicacy. IMO, pizza tastes far better and costs less.