frogspawn

n. jocularly, tapioca or similar starchy pudding. Subjects: English, United Kingdom, Food & Drink

Editorial Note: The appearance of tapioca does very much resemble egg masses laid by amphibians.

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Citations: 1991 Jonathan Meades Times (London, England) (Apr. 13) “Artificial colouring”: A sago pudding served with palm sugar. This last item combined school-lunch frog’s spawn with school-treat Callard & Bowser molasses flavour. 1992 [Rosa Michaelson] Usenet: soc.culture.celtic (Dec. 19) “Re: What is sago?”: Sago—vulgur form “frogs’ spawn”—is one of those nice glutinous round pellets which comes as a dried little nodule and cooks into stuff that, well, looks like frogs’ spawn. 1994 Hattie Ellis Times (London, England) (Feb. 26) “In praise of tasty tarts”: When Alfred Bird created his famous powder in 1846 (because his wife was allergic to the eggs found in real custard), he started a tidal wave of packet custard which, for some, is a childhood trauma on a par with tapioca frogspawn. 1995 Alex Berlyne Jerusalem Post Mag. (Israel) (Sept. 22) “Toad-hair Vetoed ‘Brekekekex-coax-coax’” p. 31: The nearest I ever came to the subject was to shudder whenever my schoolmates ate their tapioca pudding, usually referred to as frogspawn. 2005 Express & Star (Wolverhampton, U.K.) (Aug. 2) “Back to school for the dinner ladies”: Anyone who remembers dry faggots with brown mushy peas, rock hard treacle tart or a mushy tapioca commonly known as “frogspawn” will be in for a shock.

Posted 5 Aug 05 | Permalink | Tell a Friend

Reader comments:

Your earliest cite may be 1991, but the usage is much older - I first came across it in relation to the school dinners at grammar school in 1946!

by Tom Wilson 12 Jul 06, 0919 GMT

Yes, of course. As I note on the about page (the equivalent to a print dictionary’s frontmatter), I do not make an exhaustive effort to track down the first cite ever for entries.

by Grant Barrett 12 Jul 06, 0923 GMT