DIY frogs legs.

[Tiger]

Frogs legs are really scrummy but shockingly expensive, considering how easy they are to prepare.
Most gardens have a pond and even a small pond may support a large population  The ideal time is just after the spring spawning when a lot of 1 year old frogs will be hanging out at the pond looking for love.
They can be netted easily and popped into a carrier bag - about 20 will do starters for 4  people.
Despatching the frogs can be a bit of a struggle - chasing them round the worktop with a meat cleaver is likely to create a bit of a mess! The best way is to pop the carrier bag (bouncing away like crazy) into the freezer for 30 mins which will put them to sleep. Once asleep it is easy to pick them up and quickly chop them in half at the waist. The torso (built like Phelps) can be discarded.
The legs can be skinned by simply removing teh frogs trousers and voila! Instant delicacy - dab on some garlic butter and grill.
Enjoy!

[Charlotte]

So you're advising us to eat common or garden pond frogs, right?

...and then, to prepare them, we should chop them in half whilst they're still alive?

[Julian]

Better than the traditional method which is ripping the legs off while they're still alive.

[bobajobrob]

gross

[Fi]

We had cats who were partial to frogs legs.  While we slept, caught them, ate the legs and left the still breathing torso struggling around on the kitchen and utility room floors.  A de-legged frog can, it seems, keep living for quite a while.   The cat flap was locked at night thereafter.

[Pete]

Britain's frogs and toads face threat of extinction - Environment - The Independent

We have noted a significant decline in frog populations, and especially sightings of frog spawn and tadpoles, in our area, over the past couple of years.

'nuff said?

[Julian]

All the more reason to eat them, Pete.  The natural frog population is in decline; how better to support it than to breed your own frogs in the back garden?  A boon to the froggy population and a tasty free-range snack, too. 

[Tiger]

Toads are not good eating at all and far too hard to come by in quantity so I would certainly not put them on the barby!
(Toadskin is however the finest luxury hide for top-of the range purses and wallets having a lovely pale mottled colour and intersting texture).

With frogs one should only eat the adult one year olds post spawning - in fact this can help the tadpoles as the adult frogs are very partial to their own frogspawn. Plus it is pretty messy if you chop a spawn-loaded female. Tapioca explosion!

[geraldc]

I haven't had them in ages, but in Chinese cuisine, frogs are euphemistically called 'Field Chickens'. They really do taste just like chicken, but bones did make a satisfactory pinging noise when you spat the bones onto a plate.

[Tom M]

Given your smoothie recipe too, are we led to believe you're of the Hugh Fernley Eatsitall school of cookery?

What do you take out on a ride? Instead of an energy gel is it a rat in the back pocket instead? Just bite off the head, and squeeze out the innards... 

[RichForrest]

Given your smoothie recipe too, are we led to believe you're of the Hugh Fernley Eatsitall school of cookery?

What do you take out on a ride? Instead of an energy gel is it a rat in the back pocket instead? Just bite off the head, and squeeze out the innards... 

Slugs dipped in sugar have the taste and texture just like jelly babies 

Rich.

[rae]

OK, what about snails?  We've got hundreds in the garden.   

[marna]

Slugs dipped in sugar have the taste and texture just like jelly babies 

Rich.

Oh, you shouldn't eat slugs straight from the roadside! You can get potentially-fatal brain parasites from them. I think you need to purge them by feeding oatmeal, or something - I cannot remember the details - for a few days before you cook them. Also, their slime is nasty and you should de-slime them before dipping them in sugar.

[αdαmsκι]

Garden snail risotto?

[bobajobrob]

Given your smoothie recipe too, are we led to believe you're of the Hugh Fernley Eatsitall school of cookery?

Yeah, what's going on with all the odd meat recipies? We've had badgers too, which I thought was a joke, but it seems people are actually serious about eating this stuff What's next? Rats? Squirrels?

Perhaps we should have a YACF roadkill BBQ, bring your own meaty finds in your carradice

[Regulator]

Given your smoothie recipe too, are we led to believe you're of the Hugh Fernley Eatsitall school of cookery?

Yeah, what's going on with all the odd meat recipies? We've had badgers too, which I thought was a joke, but it seems people are actually serious about eating this stuff What's next? Rats? Squirrels?

Perhaps we should have a YACF roadkill BBQ, bring your own meaty finds in your carradice

You missed it - we had that on the Bug Out for the Zombie Apocalypse, courtesy of Andy Gates.

[Adam]

Another one of Tiger's tall tales. 

Mind you, I've eaten frog's legs. 

Not in France, where you'd expect, but in deepest cowboy country, Wyoming, where they, along with lobster, were seen as the most exclusive items of food.  If you ordered a starter of frog's legs and had a main course of lobster, then the whole restaurant knew you were a important person of taste and good character.

And yes, they did taste like chicken.

[rogerzilla]

Another one of Tiger's tall tales. 

Mind you, I've eaten frog's legs. 

Not in France, where you'd expect, but in deepest cowboy country, Wyoming, where they, along with lobster, were seen as the most exclusive items of food.  If you ordered a starter of frog's legs and had a main course of lobster, then the whole restaurant knew you were a important person of taste and good character.

Is that like going into a chippy and ordering haddock?  Instant respect, that man knows his fish.

[Sergeant Pluck]

Another one of Tiger's tall tales

Tall tales? Tiger? Surely not 

[Pete]

All the more reason to eat them, Pete.  The natural frog population is in decline; how better to support it than to breed your own frogs in the back garden?  A boon to the froggy population and a tasty free-range snack, too. 

The Edible Frog, celebrated in French cuisine (Pelophylax kl. esculentus) is a different species from those prevalent in Britain (mainly the Common Frog Rana temporaria) and is not native to the British Isles.  I would not welcome seeing it introduced in large numbers, escaping into the wild and possibly displacing our native species.  Remember the mink and coypu?  And the grey squirrel?

Under controlled conditions, reared in confined areas from which it cannot escape, and humanely slaughtered for consumption - fine by me if that's what people want - just another form of meat I suppose.

I do not know whether R. temporaria is palatable to eat, compared with P. esculentus.  I have tried neither. 

[Mrs Pingu]

Is that like going into a chippy and ordering haddock?  Instant respect, that man knows his fish.

Nah, that's just cos cod is bogging and full of worms. If you go into a chippy in Scotland and ask for a 'fish supper' haddock is what you'll get.

This thread is starting to make me feel like going veggie....especially the slugs. 

[Robbo5]

Slugs dipped in sugar have the taste and texture just like jelly babies 

Rich.

Oh, you shouldn't eat slugs straight from the roadside! You can get potentially-fatal brain parasites from them. I think you need to purge them by feeding oatmeal, or something - I cannot remember the details - for a few days before you cook them. Also, their slime is nasty and you should de-slime them before dipping them in sugar.

It's meningitis you can get, even from eating lettuce with slug or snail slime. For wild snails the procedure is to starve the snails for a week or so, in an empty wooden box, then rinse under running water, then layer the snails in a bag with salt to get them to disgorge their stomach contents. There is also an organ (like the liver? must ask the cook) that must be removed. A variation with cultivated snails is to feed the snails on herbs to choice, dill, thyme etc., before the fasting.

[Kathy]

What's next? Rats? Squirrels?

I've got a selection of spatchcocked squirrels in the freezer. I was saving up enough to make a pie, but I've been failing to trap any lately.

[rae]

If (and its a big if) we buy our new place, we're going to be eating a lot of wabbit.  There are literally hundreds of them all over the place.  I quite like the idea of getting home of an evening, bagging two with a .22 and barbecuing them for dinner. 

[rogerzilla]

My Grandad refused to buy rabbit in WWII (he worked at Liverpool docks, and mostly handled meat).

The rationale: it's quite hard to spot the difference between a rabbit and a cat when they're skinned and headless