This day is celebrated the 8 December in Gorliz accompanied by a Christmas fair and a contest of snails preparation. Participants will demonstrate the slight variations that this traditional recipe can have.
Highlights this day
On the one hand, and taking advantage of the fact that this is Christmas period, every year a Christmas fair is held where different artisans from different parts of the region participate, with stands selling handicrafts and land products. In this fair you will find traditional Basque gastronomic products as well as objects of many kinds manufactured by the artisans who sell them.
Secondly, but it doesn’t end there. Every year, on the occasion of this day, the annual contest of snails in Biscayan sauce is celebrated, also known as snails in sauce. This is a dish that cannot be missed in Basque homes during Christmas and since these holidays are very close in time, it is the day of the Immaculate Conception when this contest is held. Despite being a single recipe to follow, the “Biscayan” one, the contestants manage to surprise year after year giving this typical dish a personal touch that can mean the difference between winning and losing.
Snails in Biscayne
Throughout history snails have been in numerous times food for the human being. Depending on the species of the specimens, they are prepared in one way or another and may or may not be edible for the human being.
The snails that abound most in the area of the Basque Country are those that have the brown shell and have a fairly large medium size.
Furthermore, when preparing them, the most typical recipe in the area of Biscay is that of the snails in sauce or in Biscayan sauce. This recipe was one of the typical dishes in important celebrations made by the Basque grandmothers. Nowadays they are not prepared so often because cleaning the snails to making the dish perfect is a hard work.
This recipe, although in each house has small variations, is usually prepared with the pulp of choricero peppers and boiled onion as a base adding flour to fatten the sauce, and tomato. In addition, chorizo, bacon and ham are added in small slices or chopped that gives to the dish a delicious flavour.
