No. 1019

Frogs' Legs a la Poulette with Mushrooms

Cuisses de Grenouilles a la Poulette aux Champignons

Cut the frogs' thighs in two to divide them, and the legs at the joint; should they be small, leave the legs whole only suppressing the feet, having one pound in all after they are trimmed. Fry them in butter with six ounces of fresh, minced mushrooms, add half a pint of veloute sauce (No. 415), and let simmer for a few minutes, then thicken the sauce with three raw egg-yolks diluted in half a gill of cream; season with salt, cayenne pepper, nutmeg, lemon juice and chopped parsley.

← No. 1018 Frogs' Legs a la Osborn Frogs No. 1020 Frogs' Legs Deviled →

For the Modern Kitchen

A straightforward fricassee that lives or dies on the egg-yolk liaison. Ranhofer assumes you have velouté already made; everything else is a matter of a few minutes over low heat.

The hinge: never let it boilOnce the yolks and cream go in, the sauce must not exceed a bare simmer or the yolks will scramble and the sauce will break into curds and butter. Pull the pan half off the heat, add the liaison in a thin stream while stirring, and cook only until it coats the back of a spoon.
Half a gill of creamA gill is half a cup, so half a gill is a quarter cup, 4 tablespoons (about 60 ml). Three yolks in that little cream thicken fast; whisk them smooth before they meet the hot sauce, and temper with a ladle of the sauce first.
Half a pint of veloutéOne cup. Velouté (No. 415) is a white roux moistened with veal or chicken stock and reduced; a well-made chicken velouté is the practical substitute. Avoid anything already thickened with cornstarch, which will not take a yolk liaison gracefully.
Sourcing the legsOne pound trimmed means roughly six to eight pairs of medium legs. Most frogs' legs now sold are imported and frozen, farmed or wild-caught; thaw them fully in the refrigerator and pat them very dry, or they will steam rather than fry and will thin the sauce.
TimingFrogs' legs are lean and delicate. Three to four minutes in the butter to firm and lightly colour them, then no more than three or four minutes simmering in the sauce. Long cooking makes the flesh stringy and pulls it off the bone.
The mushroomsSix ounces of minced fresh mushrooms is a large proportion by volume; they release a good deal of water. Fry them alongside the legs until that liquid has gone, or the finished sauce will be loose.
SeasoningCayenne, nutmeg and lemon juice are all meant to be undetectable as individual flavours. Add the lemon juice at the very end and off the heat, since acid added to a hot yolk-thickened sauce encourages it to curdle.
YieldOne pound of trimmed legs with a cup of sauce serves two as a main course or four as an appetiser; serve in a shallow dish with croutons or plain rice to catch the sauce.

A Little History

À la poulette is a velouté finished with egg yolks, cream and lemon, the same liaison that defines a classic blanquette — and the name is sometimes said to come from the pale, chicken-like colour of the finished sauce, though it is at least as often linked to the sauce's use with chicken and fricassée. Charles Ranhofer, chef at Delmonico's in New York across two long stints in the second half of the nineteenth century, devoted an entire short section of The Epicurean (1894) to frogs, which arrived on fashionable American menus as a marker of French cooking rather than as a native dish, despite frogs being common enough in American ponds. Delmonico's is often credited with popularising them for New York diners in the second half of the nineteenth century; Ranhofer's neighbouring recipes — deviled, à la Osborn, poulette — show a kitchen treating them exactly as it would treat a small delicate fowl, which is why the poulette liaison suits them so well.