In January, the Germans celebrate their domestic-grown apples whilst Indians get to let off the firecrackers and pay homage to Undhiyu, a delicious vegetarian-friendly dish that is a speciality of Gujarat. In total, January has over fifteen internationally, nationally and locally recognised food days, but that number is just a fraction compared to the other eleven months of the year.

Take February, for example. This month started with National Tater Tot Day, featured Ice Cream for Breakfast Day (our absolute favourite) and typically ends with National Chocolate Soufflé Day on the 29^th.

Unlike traditional holidays – think Valentine’s, Mother’s Day and Christmas etc. – these celebratory days do not have any religious or political associations. Some are the by-products of crafty marketing campaigns initiated by producers and suppliers, but many simply plucked from the ether of people’s imagination.

Are you staring at a calendar and like chocolate spread sandwiches? Great, you could now decide that October 8^th is Chocolate Spread Sandwiches for Supper Day.

Now, the eagle-eyed out there will be aware that 2016 is a leap year. So, what food would best be celebrated only once a blue moon?

Frog legs.

America & National Frog Legs Day

National Frog Legs Day is the brainchild of John-Bryan Hopkins, a blogger and social media consultant from the U.S state of Alabama who claims to have created “about 173” of the food holidays that we ‘celebrate’ annually.

But aside from being a bit of a jokey creation, amphibians’ appendages is a popular menu item in many cuisines and cultures and is – according to the ever-reliable Wikipedia – big in the south of the U.S. With this popularity in mind, it probably explains why the town of Fellsmere in Florida plays host to the world’s biggest annual Frog Leg Festival.

The festival’s origins go as far back as 1990 when a small group of Fellsmere residents decided to organise a recreational event that would amuse the town’s children and garner some positive, local publicity. After a couple of brainstorming sessions, the group decided that a weekend celebrating frog legs would do the trick

The locals managed to catch some 400lbs of frogs in the marshes surrounding Fellsmere, expecting that to be enough. Naturally, they were wrong and frog leg dinners sold out within hours after the town, for one day, became the centre of the universe.

Twenty-six years later and the festival has grown into a huge three-day-long shindig. Recently, the festival attracted over 80,000 people over the course of one weekend and served up 7,000lbs of frog legs to hungry (and hopping mad) customers.

Did you know? In 1930, there were 24 named frog farms in the United States. That number now stands in the hundreds.

From the Aztecs to the French

Away from our transatlantic friends, humans have been consuming frog legs for centuries. Records show that as far back as the first century AD our ancient Chinese brethren were tucking into some amphibious rear ends. According to Jon Henley’s short history of frog eating, ‘the Aztecs, too, are known to have been partial to them’.

Yet, one nation has been strangely absent thus far: France.

Our Gallic neighbours are the ones most commonly associated with frog legs. However, research suggests that there is no documented evidence that the French enjoyed chomping on some hind legs prior to the 12^th Century when a reference appeared in the annals of the Catholic Church.

It is down to the Catholic Church that frogs became a staple of French cuisine. The tale goes that at one point, monks were becoming too big for their belt buckles. In response, the authorities decreed a number of meat-free days in order to thin out their congregation.

Chef Alexandre Moreau picks up the tale: “Luckily, the monks had qualified frogs as fish, so they were allowed to enjoy this delicacy. The many religious French peasants dutifully followed their example and the national dish was born.”

However, due to the large quantity of frogs consumed, and native species dwindling due to hunting, disease and the loss of natural habitat, commercial frog farming in France has been banned since the 1980s. Today, if you nibble of some frog legs in France you are likely chomping away on a frog that originated thousands of miles away in East Asia.

The Brits & Their Frogs

As you might imagine, seeing frog legs on a menu in the United Kingdom is something of an irregular occurrence. We Brits have decreed that they are a culinary oddity, yet we are content with serving up deep-fried chocolate bars and mounds of heart-clogging processed foodstuffs….

But, if you (literally) do a little digging and you unearth a rather unusual fact: We were eating frogs’ legs long before the French ever contemplated it.

A couple of years ago, a team of archaeologists working on a site near Stonehenge unearthed an ancient cooking area. Dated somewhere between 7,600 and 6,250BC, the excavators found a bunch of charred animal bones. Naturally, they sent them off to the National History Museum for testing.

“We were completely taken aback. [The inhabitants were eating everything that moved, but we weren’t expecting frogs’ legs,” said David Jacques.

“They would have definitely eaten the leg because it would have been quite big and juicy,” he added, before calling them the “Mesolithic equivalent of fast food.”

Thousands of years later, frog legs made a return to British menus when the famed chef Auguste Escoffier reintroduced the hind quarters at an exclusive meal put on in honour of the Prince of Wales at London’s famous Savoy Hotel.

Despite cooking the bullfrog legs in a court bouillon and a mixture of herbs, it did not catch on.

There is always next time, though…

French Style Frog Legs

Ingredients

• 20 Frog legs
• 128g Flour
• 125ml Brandy
• 125ml Dry white wine
• 75ml sour cream
• 6 tbsp Mixed herbs (finely chopped)
• 4 tbsp clarified butter
• 3 Garlic cloves (crushed)

Recipe

• Dry the frog legs and lightly flour.
• Add brandy to a saucepan and heat on a low height.
• In a separate pan, melt the butter, add the garlic and gently fry the frog legs
• Add the herbs, warm brand and wine.
• Turn up the heat and shake the pan to mix the ingredients together.
• Reduce the heat, cover and cook for 4-5 minutes.
• Season to taste.
• Add the sour cream, stir and the serve in a shallow soup bowl.

photo: Global X (Creative Commons)