SC - fishiness

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Ann Sasahara wrote:
> 
> On Wed, 28 Jul 1999, Philip & Susan Troy wrote:
> <snip>
> > suppose it's possible swans were semi-domesticated, fed things like
> > grain for a time before slaughter, to improve the flavor. Or, it may
> > simply be what people are used to.
> 
> Just out of curiosity, is this why snails are milk-fed before cooked to
> become escargot?  I've never had the milk-fed ones, so I don't know if
> this is supposed to improve the flavour or the texture.

I think it's largely to force the nastier waste products out of their GI
tracts. You can feed them something relatively inoccuous like lettuce,
too, but the milk may have another function. The recipes (some of them
period, as I recall) speak of them fattening in milk until they can't
get back into their shells. I wonder if this is some kind of plasmolysis
thing, like nuking garden slugs with salt.

This type of thing is done with several animal foods which involve
eating the animal more or less whole: mussels, crayfish, clams, oysters,
etc., can all be kept for a day or two to get the mud out of them,
either in salted water, or water with corn (maize) meal added, a variety
of expedient thingies.

Adamantius
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com
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