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Frogs' Legs

Frogs' legs are boiled, then fried or broiled, served with herbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Frogs' Legs

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Skin the hind legs of the frogs.

  2. Boil them in salted water with a little lemon juice for 3 minutes.

  3. Drain and dry the legs.

Coat and fry

  1. Fry fat from 2 or 3 slices of thin salt pork.

  2. Dip the frogs' legs in beaten egg.

  3. Dip the frogs' legs in flour.

  4. Fry until golden brown.

  5. Dip the frogs' legs in bread crumbs.

  6. Season with pepper and salt.

  7. Dip the frogs' legs in beaten egg.

  8. Dip the frogs' legs in bread crumbs.

  9. Fry until golden brown.

Finish and serve

  1. Broil or stew them in seasoned water until tender.

  2. Brown in butter.

  3. Serve with parsley, watercress, or peppergrass and lettuce.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Hind legs of frogs
Provides the main meat, which becomes tender with moist cooking.
Beaten egg
Acts as a binder so the flour and bread crumbs stick to the legs.
Flour
Dries the surface and helps the egg coating adhere, aiding browning.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden crust when fried.
Thin salt pork
Its rendered fat is used for frying and adds savory flavor.
Butter
Adds richness and nutty browning flavor at the finish.

The step that matters

Drain and dry the legs well. Surface moisture stops the flour and egg coating from adhering evenly and causes oil to spatter. Dry legs give a crisper, more even golden crust.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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