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Frogs Stewed

A stew of frog legs cooked in butter, flour, herbs, onions, water, cream, and egg yolks.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and summer savory match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 241 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Frogs Stewed

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the frog legs

  1. Wash and skin the frog legs, then parboil them for about 3 minutes and drain.

  2. In a stew pan, melt the butter over medium heat.

  3. Add the frog legs and fry for about 2 minutes, stirring to prevent burning.

  4. Sprinkle the flour over the frog legs and stir to combine.

Make the gravy

  1. Add the parsley, summer savory, bay leaves, onion, salt, pepper, hot water, and cream.

  2. Boil gently until the frog legs are cooked through.

  3. Remove the legs and strain the gravy.

  4. Mix the beaten egg yolks into the gravy until smooth.

Serve

  1. Place the frog legs in a serving dish and pour the gravy over them before serving.

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. Parsley + summer savorytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together241 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Flour + summer savorytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together263 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Summer savory + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together671 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Summer savory + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together299 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Frog legs
Provide the main protein, which firms and turns opaque as it cooks through in the gravy.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, and carries flavour while the frog legs are fried.
Flour
Thickens the gravy as it cooks with the liquids, giving it body.
Cream
Adds fat and smoothness, mellowing the gravy into a rich, velvety sauce.
Egg yolks
Enrich and thicken the gravy, giving it a smooth, silky texture.

The step that matters

Adding the egg yolks to the gravy. Egg yolks thicken when heated, so if the gravy is too hot when they go in, they can scramble. Keep the gravy off a rapid boil and stir the yolks in steadily for a smooth result.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, parsley, summer savory, pepper, cream, egg):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Okrafits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, parsley, summer savory, pepper, cream, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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