for 6 people
- snail
- breadcrumbs
- salt of cardona
- duck fat
- pepper

From the provencal lands to Catalonia towards the language frontier; the two languages are sisters. The cuisine becomes more spicy, using more saffron, more chilli, more shellfish, sausage, goat meat, snails ….And then a fire of vine-shoots is lit, and then men at the corner of the vineyard prepare a cargolada…
Catalan cuisine is of very ancient origins and is both varied and refined. The wines of Roussillon (Northern Catalunia), of the Pedenès and others (of the south) make the perfect accompaniment to it. To name but a few we can cite dishes such as olhada, bulhinada, the meat balls of Picolat, the “arm of gitan”, and fritters to end the meal.
Olhada is a popular soup made from pork, vegetables and dried beans. Bohinda is a Catalan version of the Marseillaise bolh-abaissa, featuring different kinds of fish. The meat balls of Picolat are meat balls made from veal, pork and lamb. Minced and cooked in a sauce made of tomatoes and very hot olives.
But let us now consider the Cargolada in detail. Providing another opportunity for getting together with friends. This convivial dish is a truly summer and open-air dish in which the preparation, cooking, eating and drinking takes place all together until it is all gone. Every isolated chapel comes to life in the spring months with a special kind of celebration that of the “Catalan cargolada”. The embers of the vine-shoot fires being used to cook kilometres of sausage, cutlets as well as hundreds of snails….. it being necessary to prepare large grills and to cool the accompanying rosè and white wines!We hereby propose a text cited in the “Provençal pages” work by the great provençal cook Prospèr Montanhé. This text was published in “Alh cargolada e caçolet”, a series of texts, translated and adapted in provençal by Mirelha Braç. The original illustrations are by Anna Réby (Vendémias collection, Institut d’Estudis Occitans, 1999).Preparation according to Gaston Vinàs.

Snail cleaning: This operation firstly consists in the removal of the white film which forms in June on the shell opening, using the tip of a knife. As they are cleaned the snails are placed on grills with bars very close to each other to prevent them from falling to the ground. It is meanwhile necessary to prepare the salt which in the Roussilon region is called “the salt of cardona”; by taking a marble mortar in which a handful of coarse grain salt is placed, with a few grains of red pepper, then everything is crushed together until a powder is obtained which resembles red brickstone powder. The pepper used is known as “bixto” in Catalan and forms part of the category of “folls”, that is of the “angry”. It is then used to season the snails placed on the grill. Place the grill on the dried vine embers. The snails produce a red foam, the colour coming from the colour of the “cardona salt”. Once the snail is cooked it is necessary to “christen” it. The operation consists in wrapping a slice of lard in white paper, and then inserting it on the tip of an iron rod, on setting fire to the paper the lard will begin to melt and will drip onto the snails. This spicy dish must be generously sprinkled with Rancio, Cosperons, Rivesaltas or Mauri. Then sprinkle with breadcrumbs and grease with duck fat. Allow to cook in the oven at a moderate temperature. It should be served in the same dish as used for their cooking.