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Frogs' Legs, Newburg
Cut off bodies and claws (if any adhering) from one and a half pounds fresh frogs' legs, then separate the legs, heat two tablespoons melted butter in a sautoire, add the legs, season with a light teaspoon salt and cook for ten minutes, occasionally tossing meanwhile. Pour in three tablespoons sherry, one and a half gills milk and one and a half gills cream. Season with a saltspoon cayenne and a saltspoon grated nutmeg, mix well and let slowly boil for ten minutes. Dilute two egg yolks in two tablespoons cream and add to the frogs, constantly shuffling the pan while heating for four minutes, being careful not to boil, pour into a chafing dish or tureen and serve.
A chafing-dish supper dish from the era when Newburg sauce was applied to nearly anything. The measurements convert cleanly; the timings do not.
- Gills and saltspoonsA gill is half a cup, so one and a half gills is 3/4 cup — you need 3/4 cup milk and 3/4 cup cream, plus 2 tablespoons more cream for the liaison. A saltspoon is 1/4 teaspoon, which makes the cayenne assertive and the nutmeg about right.
- SautoireA straight-sided sauté pan or a wide, shallow saucepan. The shallow shape matters here: the sauce reduces quickly and stays in contact with the legs.
- The hinge: never let the yolks boilOnce the two yolks go in, the sauce must stay below a simmer or it will scramble into curds and separate. Pull the pan half off the heat, keep it moving, and stop as soon as it coats a spoon — four minutes is the outside limit, not a target.
- Cut the frying timeFrogs' legs are lean and finish in three to five minutes over moderate heat, not ten. Ten minutes in butter followed by ten more at a boil in dairy will leave the meat stringy and shrunk off the bone. Sauté briefly to firm and lightly colour them, then add the wine and dairy.
- Reduce the sauce, not the meatIf you want the ten-minute reduction the recipe intends, lift the legs out with a slotted spoon, boil the milk, cream and sherry down until slightly thickened, then return the legs to warm through before the yolks go in.
- Sourcing and preparationFresh legs are hard to find in most places; frozen imported pairs, thawed and patted very dry, are the usual substitute. Bodies and claws are generally removed already, but the pairs often arrive joined at the pelvis and should be separated as directed.
- YieldA pound and a half of legs feeds three as a light main course, or four to six from a chafing dish with toast points or plain rice to catch the sauce.
Newburg sauce — butter, cream, sherry or Madeira, egg yolks, cayenne — is generally traced to Delmonico's in New York in the 1870s, where it is traditionally said to have been created for or by a shipping captain named Ben Wenberg, the name reversed to Newburg after a falling-out with the restaurant. It was devised for lobster, but by the time this book appeared the formula had become a house style applied to shrimp, crab, sweetbreads, chicken and, as here, frogs' legs. The chafing dish in the final line is the giveaway about how such a dish was eaten: Newburg belonged to late suppers and after-theatre entertaining, the sauce brought to the table in the vessel it was served from. American frogs' legs were then a genuine market item, supplied by commercial froggers in the Midwest and the South, and appeared on hotel menus as a domestic delicacy rather than a French import.