No. 1022

Frogs' Legs Fried with Cream Sauce

Cuisses de Grenouilles Frites Sauce Creme

Should the frogs' legs be large, cut them in two by separating them at each joint; season with salt and pepper, and wet them over with a little milk, roll them in flour and fry them till a good color. First take out the small pieces, then the large ones, and dress them on a napkin with a bunch of parsley on top; serve a cream sauce (No. 454) in a separate sauce-boat.

← No. 1021 Frogs' Legs Fried a la Orly Frogs No. 1023 Frogs' Legs Royer →

For the Modern Kitchen

A plain fry with a sauce served alongside, from a book that assumed a brigade and a cross-referenced sauce repertoire. The only real decisions are oil temperature and knowing when to stop.

The hinge: fry hot and brieflyFrogs' legs are lean and cook quickly; Ranhofer gives no time or temperature, but modern practice is a few minutes in fat around 350-365F, past which they tighten and dry. The recipe has the small pieces lifted from the fat first and the larger ones after, so nothing overcooks waiting on its neighbor.
Quantity and yieldRanhofer gives no amount. Reckon on 8-10 pairs of legs (about 1 1/2 lb) for four as an appetizer, and fry in batches so the oil temperature holds.
SourcingFresh frogs' legs are rare outside specialty markets; frozen imported pairs are the usual supply and should be thawed slowly and patted very dry before the milk dip, or the flour will slide off.
"Wet them over with a little milk"This is a thin coating, not a soak, and it is what makes the flour cling. Whole milk works; the legs should be tacky rather than dripping when floured, and floured just before they go into the fat.
Cream sauce (No. 454)In The Epicurean this is a white sauce of the béchamel type finished with cream. Any good béchamel finished with cream, seasoned with salt, white pepper and a little nutmeg or lemon, serves the same purpose here.
"Dress them on a napkin"A folded linen napkin laid on the platter, which blots the frying fat and was a common presentation for fried dishes in this period. A paper-lined dish does the job; the napkin is optional theater.
The bunch of parsleyWith fried dishes this is often parsley dropped into the hot fat for a few seconds until it crisps, though the recipe does not say so and a fresh bunch is also possible. If fried, it must be bone dry going in, since wet leaves will make the oil erupt.
Cutting at the jointSeparate large legs at the knee rather than sawing through bone. The two pieces cook at different rates, which is precisely why the recipe tells you to remove them from the fat separately.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer ran the kitchen at Delmonico's in New York, and The Epicurean (1894) is his working encyclopedia of that kitchen: over a thousand numbered recipes, each cross-referencing a sauce or garnish elsewhere in the book, so that a cook could be sent to No. 454 without further explanation. Frogs get their own section with several treatments, which tells you how firmly French practice governed American fine dining at the end of the century; frogs' legs were a standard restaurant delicacy in Paris and travelled to New York with the repertoire. Much of the American supply then came from wild-caught bullfrogs, sold by the pair through city markets, and only in the twentieth century did farmed and imported frozen legs take over the trade. The name is simply descriptive — cuisses de grenouilles, frogs' thighs — and the dish is a plain one, flour-dredged and fried, with all the refinement pushed into the sauce served beside it.