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Fried Frogs' Legs

Fried frog legs coated in breadcrumbs and sautéed in butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Fried Frogs' Legs

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Clean and trim the frogs' hind legs.

  2. Season with salt and pepper.

Coat

  1. Roll the legs in bread crumbs, then dip in beaten egg, and roll in bread crumbs again.

Cook

  1. Sauté in a hot skillet with enough butter to prevent burning.

  2. Cook in small batches to avoid overcrowding.

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

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

  2. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  3. Pepper + breadtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Frogs' hind legs
Provide the main protein, which turns tender and firm when fried.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden coating that browns in the hot butter.
Egg
Binds the bread crumbs to the legs so the coating holds during frying.
Butter
Conducts heat for frying and adds browning and a rich flavor.

The step that matters

Cook in small batches to avoid overcrowding.. Crowding the skillet drops its temperature, so the legs steam instead of searing. Small batches keep the pan hot enough for a crisp, browned coating.

“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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