How are snail and frog legs cooked?

Answer 1

Snails are traditionally taken out of their shells, cooked in garlic butter then put back in the shell along with extra garlic butter and parsley.

Frog legs are traditionally fried with garlic butter and parsley.

Snails are almost invariably cooked like this.

On the other hand, frog legs recipes are very diverse (frog curry, frog legs in tomato&basil sauce, etc.).

Answer 2

In French cuisine, snails (escargots) are mostly baked in the oven in their shell upside down, topped with a parsley and garlic butter that will melt and infuse the meat while cooking. Large Burgundy snails (Helix pomatia) are used, although most of them are imported now. This recipe is called "escargots de Bourgogne", which also means the type of snail, or escargots à la bourguignonne.

Another way to cook snails in the South of France is à la provençale, meaning in a tomato-based sauce, with onions, white wine and olive oil. Smaller snails called petits-gris(garden snail, literally small-gray, Helix aspersa aspersa) are typically used for this recipe, for instance collected from the vineyards.

In Spain, snails (caracoles) are part of the tapas, these appetizer or side dishes you can enjoy at a bar with your cerveza (beer), or served in a normal meal. They are usually served in a sauce hotter than the French recipes, for instance the caracoles picantes a la aragonesa from Aragón, or en salsa, with a smoked bell pepper (pimentón) sauce.

Canned snails are an abomination, and taste irony and disgusting, always use fresh snails.

Frog legs (cuisses de grenouilles) are not popular at all in France today, much less so than in Cajun cuisine from Louisiana, for instance. The usual French recipe is to salt and peper them, then bread with flour and pan-fry in oil, and topped with a garlic and parsley butter, or with a lemon and parsley butter. As the saying says, it does taste like chicken!

In Cajun cuisine, Cajun seasoning is used to rub the legs and in the flour breading too, together with paprika and dry onions. A dry-wet-dry breading is frequently used, with plain flour first, then beaten eggs and (butter)milk, then the spiced flour.

The legs can also be marinated with buttermilk to tenderize them, or with mustard and spices. Beer batter can be used instead of breading.