Can you still find frogs to eat?

By Joseph Parish

I recently read that the high demand for frog legs for human consumption has been making these creatures a bit on the scarce side. It appears that there is a vast decline in frog population in the wild due to over exploitation of them for foods both in America and Europe. It will not be long before the number of catches that you can have will be limited. In fact I fully expect that you will be required to have a Frog license just the same as a fishing license is currently required.

Years ago Frog Legs were considered to be a French delicacy. This is not the case any longer. You can find Frogs legs on many school cafeteria menus in Europe, in food markets in many Asian countries and readily available in a lot of the more expensive restaurants here in America.

Amphibians are generally the low creature on the food chain and when ever there are drastic impacts to our environment the frogs will be the first to know. Chemical changes in our environment can easily create three legged frogs before mankind even notices that something is wrong. As you can see not only are these creatures hampered by the environmental factures but now their numbers are declining due to man’s massive appetite towards their legs.

Market statistics reveal that there are between 200 million and in excess of 1 billion frog legs consumed each year. Indonesian area represents the largest exporter of these amphibians. The market used to be more of a seasonal one however in recent years it has expanded to year round trading. Unfortunately for the frog population there are no hard and fast records in which we can reference in concerns for the frog harvesting.

In the event that you can still manage to locate some of these tasty morsels I have enclosed a favorite recipe of mind that you are sure to love called Cajun style Frog Legs

Ingredients

16 frog legs

1 cup of oil or shortening

1/2 cup of all purpose flour

3 cups of whole milk

1 teaspoon of paprika

1/2 teaspoon of onion powder, garlic juice and ground cayenne pepper

A dash of white pepper

A dash of oregano

A touch of rosemary

And of course salt and pepper to taste

You will first need to skin, clean and completely rinse your frog legs well. Cover the legs with whole milk which has the garlic juice mixed in with it. Refrigerate these legs overnight.

In the morning pat the legs dry and season them with the paprika, cayenne, onion powder, black pepper and salt. Add the white pepper, rosemary and oregano to the all purpose flour. Heat the shortening in a large skillet. Lightly flour each frog leg and fry it until it takes on a golden brown color.

Copyright @ 2009 Joseph Parish

Original: http://survival-training.blogspot.com/2009/03/can-you-still-find-fogs-to-eat.html