No. 309

Frog Soup and Frog Soup with Timbales

Potage aux Grenouilles et aux Timbales de Grenouilles

Mince well a quarter of a pound of the white part of leeks, wet them with two quarts of fish broth, let boil slowly for half an hour, then press them forcibly through a sieve, returning this to the saucepan. Have one pound and a half of frogs, suppress half a pound from the thighs (the thick part of the thigh); put the balance in with the broth, and four ounces of fresh bread-crumbs; boil for ten minutes, then drain and pound all well. Dilute with the broth, strain it through a sieve, heat it up without boiling, and thicken with egg-yolks. cream and fine butter, the proportions being four yolks, one gill of cream, and two ounces of butter. Cook separate in some broth, the half pound of frogs kept aside; remove all the bones, and put them into the soup with a pluche of chervil (No. 448).

Frog Timbales.-Use the same soup, but instead of the garnishing of boned frog thighs, substitute small timbales the shape of half a pigeon egg; butter and fill them with frog forcemeat (No. 222), and cream; then poach them (No. 152) in a slack oven. Unmold, and serve separately in a vegetable dish with a little consomme; put a timbale into each plate when serving the soup.

← No. 308 Fish Soup a la Ponsardin Soups & Broths No. 310 Garbure with Lettuce →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer writes for a brigade with a stockpot always going and cross-references his own numbered recipes freely. The soup itself is a leek-and-frog purée finished with an egg-yolk liaison, and that liaison is the whole difficulty.

Never let it boil after the yolks go inOnce the four yolks, cream and butter are whisked in, hold the soup between 165 and 175F. A single boil curdles the yolks and the velvety body breaks into grains that no straining will rescue.
A gillHalf a cup, or 4 fluid ounces. The finishing liaison is therefore 4 yolks, 1/2 cup cream and 2 oz (half a stick) butter for 2 quarts of soup.
Buying frogsRanhofer's "one pound and a half of frogs" most likely means dressed frogs or legs rather than live weight, so buy about a pound and a half of frog legs; these are generally sold frozen at Asian and Cajun markets and are mostly farmed in Southeast Asia. Reserve the meaty upper thigh meat from about a third of them -- the half pound the recipe sets aside -- for the garnish and use the rest, bones and all, for the purée.
Fish brothTwo quarts of a light fumet made from flatfish or other non-oily white fish frames, simmered no more than 20 to 30 minutes. Salmon or mackerel bones will overwhelm frog, which is closer to chicken than to fish in flavor.
Pounding, then strainingA food processor replaces the mortar. Pulse the cooked frogs, bones included, with the bread crumbs and a little broth, then push everything through a fine sieve or chinois; the bone fragments are what the sieve is there to catch. Work in two batches so the purée stays coarse enough to break down rather than smear.
Pluche of chervilA pluche is herb leaves picked from the stems, usually blanched very briefly and refreshed; Ranhofer sends you to his No. 448 for the detail. Added at the last moment so the anise note stays bright. Flat-leaf parsley with a pinch of tarragon is a defensible substitute.
About 300F. The timbale molds sit in a water bath and are meant to set gently, 20 to 25 minutes for something the size of half a pigeon egg; they are done when the centers are just firm to a fingertip.
Timbale moldsHalf a pigeon egg is only about two teaspoons. Buttered mini muffin cups, small silicone hemispheres or espresso cups all work; the point is that they unmold cleanly and warm through in the consommé.
YieldTwo quarts of finished soup serves six to eight as a first course, with one timbale set in each plate at the table.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of thirty-odd years as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and frog soup belongs to the French repertoire he brought with him rather than to anything American. Frogs' legs had a long standing in French cookery \frfrog-eater" was already an English jibe at the French by the eighteenth century — and in the 1880s and 1890s they were a fashionable luxury on New York menus, supplied at first by wild trapping in the Hudson Valley and the Midwest before commercial frog farming and imports took over. The construction here is thoroughly classical: a vegetable puround with bread crumbs, passed through a sieve, then finished with the egg-and-cream liaison that defines a potage veloutorcemeat timbales, served apart in their own dish so each guest receives one, shows how the same base soup could yield two entries on a menu.

Century Old Kitchen · Soup

Every soup, printed twice.

You just read one recipe three ways — as it was printed, made cookable for today, and set in its history. This book does exactly that for 120 vintage soups, gathered in one place.

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