"White caviar"

As reported at The Telegraph:

Pushing open the door of a large, plastic-framed barn, Mr Trobalon shows off the surprising jewel in his farming crown: pens full of slithering snails.

The animals – 6,000 of them – are kept to feed the latest gastronomic trend sweeping Europe: "white caviar", or snails' eggs. A kilo of the pearl-like eggs retails for €1,800 (£1,600), and Mr Trobalon, a former pest control expert, admits surprise that he has gone from killing snails to actively cultivating them.

"It's funny how things turn around," he said. "I used to sell 80 tonnes of chemicals a year to kill snails. And now I'm rearing them."

Chefs throughout Spain and Europe are rediscovering the highly-prized delicacy, which centuries ago starred in banquets for wealthy Romans, Egyptians and Greeks. The tiny eggs, which taste slightly earthy and are recommended marinated in herbs, are also known as "Pearls of Aphrodite" for their supposed aphrodisiac quality...

"It is a highly unusual product and made in a labour-intensive way. It takes four hours to fill a 50 gram tin, as each tiny egg is selected by hand using tweezers...

The high cost of snails' eggs - cheaper than the finest beluga caviar, which fetches €4,000 euros a kilo, but more than three time the price of farmed black caviar - makes it a risky ingredient for chefs to experiment with...

He showed The Sunday Telegraph how to make his spring speciality - a broad bean, pea and "white caviar" crostini, with an asparagus reduction. Popping a handful of the eggs into his mouth, he described the flavour as "autumnal, earthy".

Photo: Harriet Alexander