Escargot Snail Types

The first time I ate escargot, I had no idea what was on my fork. A waiter set down a dish of little shells in green butter. I was sixteen, in Paris, trying hard to look worldly. The garlic was wonderful.

The snail itself was mild and a touch chewy. I asked what kind of snail it was, and the waiter just smiled. I have wondered about it ever since.

I had assumed there was one escargot snail. There is not. Escargot is simply the French word for an edible snail, and dozens of species reach the plate. Some are farmed by the million. Some are gathered wild in the hills of Spain. A few are giants from West Africa, longer than your hand. The smallest would sit on a coin.

Below you will find 15 escargot snail types, where each one comes from, how big it grows, and how it reaches the table. One warning runs through every entry. You can never eat a snail raw. The chart comes first, then the detail by group.

Escargot snail identification chart

Here are the 15 edible snails side by side. Use it to match a name to a region and a size. The sections below sort them into the classic French escargots, other Mediterranean snails, a few lesser-eaten European kinds, and the giant African food snails.

What counts as escargot

Escargot is just the French word for an edible snail. It is not one animal. On a menu it usually means a land snail from the family Helicidae, cooked in garlic butter. Snails are gastropod molluscs, soft-bodied animals in the same broad group as the octopus and the cuttlefish, though those cousins took to the sea. A snail carries one coiled shell and glides on a single muscular foot.

People have eaten snails since the Stone Age. The Romans fattened them in special pens. The French turned them into a national dish, and still eat about two-thirds of their yearly harvest at Christmas. Most escargot today is farmed, a practice called heliciculture. The most prized snail is the Burgundy snail. The most farmed is the smaller garden snail, the petit gris.

The classic French escargots

These four are the snails behind the famous dish. The Burgundy snail, also called the Roman snail, is the prize. It is the large escargot de Bourgogne, gathered in early winter when it has fasted and cleaned itself out.

The garden snail, or petit gris, is smaller but easy to raise, which makes it the most farmed escargot in the world. The gros gris is just the petit gris bred big, a larger grade sold to rival the Burgundy on size. The Turkish snail rounds out the group and travels far, often canned, under the name escargot turc.

Mediterranean table snails

Around the Mediterranean, snails are a country food gathered after rain. The milk snail has been eaten so long that its shells turn up in Roman ruins. The vaqueta, Otala punctata, is cooked much the same way in Spain.

The chocolate-band snail, with its brown spiral bands, is a regular in Spanish kitchens, and across Italy and Greece. The Spanish snail, or serrana, is the gourmet pick, small and pricey and gathered in the dry hills of southeast Spain.

The white garden snail is tiny but collected in large numbers, and the green snail, named for its olive shell, is a favorite in Italy and North Africa.

Lesser-eaten European snails

A couple of European snails end up in the pot only now and then. The grove snail is the pretty one, with a shell that ranges from yellow to pink with dark bands. It is famous in science for that color variation, less so on the plate.

The decollate snail is odd, with a shell that looks snapped off at the tip. It is better known as a garden helper, since it hunts and eats other snails, though some regions still gather it for food.

Giant African land snails

The biggest edible snails come from Africa, and they are huge. The giant African snail can reach 20 cm and is eaten across West Africa and parts of Asia, often sliced and canned. It is also one of the world’s worst invasive pests, banned from import into many countries.

The giant West African snail is a heavy, broad-shelled species and a prized bushmeat in Nigeria. The giant Ghana snail is the largest of all, with a shell that can stretch to 30 cm. These three are a serious source of protein, not a garnish.

Burgundy snail vs garden snail

These two are the snails you are most likely to eat, and they are easy to mix up on a menu. The Burgundy snail is bigger and more prized, but it resists farming, so it stays a seasonal, wild-gathered treat.

The garden snail, the petit gris, is smaller and farm-friendly, which is why it fills most tins and most plates.

Can you eat any snail? Safety first

You can eat many snails, but never straight from the garden. Two steps make a snail safe. First, purge it. Keep the live snail for a few days, feed it clean food like flour or fresh herbs, then starve it for a day or two so its gut empties.

Second, cook it through. The gut of a raw snail can be toxic, and land snails can carry the rat lungworm parasite. Eating a raw or undercooked snail can lead to a dangerous brain infection, and people have died after eating snails or slugs raw on a dare. The CDC warns against it, and Britannica agrees that escargot should never be served raw.

FAQs

What kind of snail is escargot?

Usually a land snail from the family Helicidae. The Burgundy snail and the garden snail, or petit gris, are the two you meet most often.

Can you eat garden snails from your yard?

Only with care. They have to be purged for several days and then cooked through. Never eat any snail raw, and avoid snails from areas treated with slug bait.

Why can’t you eat snails raw?

A raw snail’s gut can be toxic, and land snails can carry the rat lungworm parasite. That parasite can cause a serious brain infection in people. Thorough cooking kills it.

What is the largest edible snail?

The giant Ghana snail (Achatina achatina) is one of the largest, with a shell that can reach about 30 cm long. The other giant African snails are not far behind.

Is escargot healthy?

The meat itself is lean and high in protein, with useful iron and calcium. The garlic butter it swims in is where most of the fat and calories come from.

What is the difference between Burgundy snails and petit gris?

The Burgundy snail (Helix pomatia) is larger and more prized, but hard to farm. The petit gris (Cornu aspersum) is smaller, easy to farm, and the snail you most often eat.