Frog Legs

While frog legs are widely considered in the U.S. to be a defining dish of French cuisine -- and are often derided along with snails as an item that only the French consider food -- they are in fact a longstanding regional-American dish of great cachet and esteem. Frog legs are also widely eaten in Asia, Southern Europe, and the Mediterranean, and were probably once eaten even in frog-averse regions of the Old World: Their remains have been found in Stone Age archaeological sites.

Fast Facts

1. Taste is mildly sweet and meaty
2. Normally fried quickly for best flavor
3. America imports 1.25 million pounds of frog legs each year
4. Frog-gigging provides fresh-caught frog legs in the American South
5. Especially popular in Louisiana
6. A national frog leg festival is held every January in Fellsmere, Florida

Culinary Use

Despite the custom of saying that everything reptilian or amphibian 'tastes like chicken,' frog legs have a distinct mild flavor that leans toward the seafood end of things. At their worst, they can be fishy. Frog legs almost always appear as a separate dish. They are often breaded and fried with salt and pepper as seasonings, otherwise usually cooked with garlic. The meat of the upper hind leg is served while the essentially meatless remainder of the frog is discarded.

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