The French Touch: Frogs & Snails

The French eat some odd things, frogs being a notorious example. Indeed, the British have called the French “frogs” for centuries, and the French concede that the small amphibians are not everyone’s cup of tea. “Frogs are a delicate dish, but they are not to everyone’s taste,” Grimod de la Reynière noted in his Almanach des Gourmands in 1806. To overcome resistance, Escoffier disguised frog’s legs in a whimsical pink sauce coated with Champagne aspic and called them nymphes à l’aurore.

The truth is, frog’s legs are inoffensive. The greater problem is that their meat — white and delicate, much like chicken — can lack all taste, which is why recipes often compensate by adding white wine, garlic, herbs, and cream. In the Lyonnais and the Massif Central around Riom, frog’s legs are deep-fried, while in the Jura, they turn up in soup (their carcasses make excellent broth). But most popular of all, they are sautéed in butter or oil with quantities of garlic, shallot, and parsley. Frog’s legs used to be a favorite dish in Languedoc, where they were once cheaper than butchers’ meat and where a frog seller walked the streets of Béziers crying, “La gragnota, la gragnota.”