Frogs
Only the hind quarters of frogs are cooked. Wash and dry them; skin and dip them in milk; sprinkle with salt, pepper and flour and fry in boiling hot fat. Or put them in a saucepan with butter, a sprinkling of flour and pepper and salt. Shake over the fire for a moment; add a little water; simmer until tender and almost dry; then add a cup of cream and a large lump of butter rubbed together with a little ficur. Bring to a boil and serve. •
Two methods in one paragraph: a quick flour-dredged fry and a braise finished with cream. Both hinge on the same thing, which is not overcooking legs that are essentially all lean white muscle.
- Cook them brieflyFrog legs are done in about 3 to 5 minutes in hot fat, and a pan-braise needs only 8 to 10 minutes before the liquid is reduced. "Simmer until tender" invites 30 minutes of stewing, which turns them stringy and dry rather than tender.
- "Boiling hot fat"Fat hot enough to sizzle briskly, in the region of 350-375F; the book gives no temperature. Shallow frying in half an inch is plenty; the legs are thin and cook through before the crust darkens.
- Skin, then milkMost frog legs sold today come already skinned and frozen, so the first steps are done for you. Thaw in the refrigerator and pat very dry before flouring, or the coating slides off. The recipe calls only for a dip in milk; a longer soak is a later refinement, said to firm and milden the flesh.
- "ficur"A typesetting error for flour. The final step is a beurre manié: butter mashed together with flour -- here a large lump of butter to only a little flour -- and stirred into the cream, which is then brought to a boil as the recipe directs.
- "Shake over the fire"Just a brief sauté on high heat in the butter and flour to set the surface and cook the raw flour taste out, less than a minute. The "little water" that follows should barely film the pan.
- Hind quartersA pair of legs is joined at the pelvis; many cooks separate them at the joint before cooking. Sizes vary hugely, from thumb-sized to a large bullfrog leg. Figure 6 to 8 ounces of legs per person as a main course, less as a first course.
- SourcingSupermarket and Asian-market frog legs are mostly imported and sold frozen, some farmed and some wild-caught. If you take wild frogs, they are game in many states, with seasons, licences and size limits; check local regulation first.
- Seasoning the creamThe finished sauce is mild by modern taste. Lemon juice, a little garlic, and parsley or chives added at the end suit it, and are common in French treatments of the dish.
Frog legs reached American tables by two routes: rural hunting, where spring and summer frogging was a familiar way to get a free supper, and French restaurant cooking, where cuisses de grenouille were a recognised delicacy in city dining rooms of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Filing them under Fish follows a kitchen convention that grouped frogs and turtles with fish rather than meat, a habit generally traced to fast-day rules that permitted aquatic creatures when flesh was forbidden. The two methods given here fall within the period's range: a plain flour-and-fat fry and a butter-and-cream finish. The instruction that only the hind quarters are used reflects the fact that a frog's forelegs and body carry almost no meat.