Appears in
Oxford Companion to Food

By Alan Davidson

Published 2014

  • About

lavignon or lavagnon the French name for an edible bivalve, Scrobicularia plana, which is a local speciality of the Charente-Maritime. The species has a distribution extending from Norway to the Mediterranean and beyond, and is abundant in British waters, but seems not to be generally eaten. An English name, mud-hen, used to be current, suggesting some consumption in the past in England. Now it is sometimes named ‘furrow shell’ in technical works.

The lavignon has a maximum width of 6–7 cm (2.5"). It has a slightly peppery taste and is good when eaten raw, especially as part of a seafood salad to which it contributes its own particular flavour.