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Frogs' Legs, Provencale
Cut away claws from one and a half pounds fresh frogs' legs, then cut each leg in two. Season on a plate with a teaspoon salt and half saltspoon pepper, sprinkle over a tablespoon flour, turn well in seasoning, then shake well on a sieve. Place two tablespoons oil in a black frying pan, add a bean garlic and cook until the garlic obtains a dark colour, then remove it. Drop legs in pan and briskly fry for five minutes, add four finely chopped shallots, toss well and cook for five minutes, lightly tossing meanwhile. Sprinkle over a half teaspoon freshly chopped parsley, toss again a minute, dress on a hot dish and serve.
A plain sauté that depends entirely on heat management and on not overcooking delicate meat. Two of the measurements and one of the vessels need translating.
- SaltspoonA saltspoon is a quarter teaspoon, so "half saltspoon pepper" is about an eighth of a teaspoon. The teaspoon of salt for a pound and a half is reasonable, though frogs' legs are lean and mild and can take it.
- A bean garlic"A bean" of garlic is a single clove, the size of a bean. It is cooked in the oil to perfume it and then discarded before the legs go in, which is why it is taken to a dark colour rather than softened.
- Black frying panA black pan is seasoned cast iron or heavy carbon steel. The point is retained heat: the legs are dredged in flour and want a surface that will not drop temperature when the pan is loaded.
- Watch the total cooking timeTen minutes of frying plus a minute with parsley is generous for frogs' legs, which are done when the flesh pulls from the thin bone. Smaller farmed legs will be through in five to six minutes total; give them colour on both sides and stop.
- Shake off the flourThe instruction to shake the dredged legs on a sieve matters more than it looks. Loose flour in two tablespoons of oil scorches and turns the pan bitter before the shallots go in.
- SourcingFresh frogs' legs are rare outside specialist suppliers; most sold now are frozen and imported, whether farmed or wild-caught, usually in pairs. Thaw fully and dry them hard before seasoning, or the flour will gum and the legs will steam.
- ParsleyHalf a teaspoon of chopped parsley is a token by modern standards. A tablespoon, added off the heat, gives the finish the dish is aiming at without cooking away.
- YieldA pound and a half serves two as a main course or four as a first course. Serve immediately with lemon and bread; the coating softens within minutes of leaving the pan.
Provençale here seems to be used in the sense it usually carries in the French professional repertoire of the period: garlic, olive oil, parsley, and little else. Frogs' legs had a long history in French cookery before they became a shorthand for it in English-speaking countries, and by the early twentieth century they appeared on American hotel menus as an emblem of continental sophistication, sometimes under the French cuisses de grenouilles. The technique here is simple enough to be done to order: season, flour, shake, sear hot, finish with an aromatic and send it out. The detail of cooking the garlic clove whole and pulling it out before it burns is an old and practical one, giving the oil its scent without leaving fried garlic in the pan for the remaining ten minutes.