- Joined
- Aug 11, 2003
- Name or Nickame
- Professor Dickweed
I just love chocolate chirpies for the holidays.
Recipe is at the bottom of this post
<snip>
Maryland Beachcomber
Food cover
Edible Insects
July 22, 1994
By Kent Steinriede
It's all a matter of culture. The Chinese find eating with silverware crude,
compared to their chopsticks. Many Africans won't eat lobster because it
lives on the bottom of the sea and eats garbage.
Along the same lines, insects are not considered delicacies in North America.
But such is not the case in most parts of the world. Insects are eaten
regularly in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
In Zaire, the mopanie worm is known as the "snack that crawls" and is a
popular dish, fried, dried or stewed in tomato sauce, according to Darna
Dufour, of the University of Colorado at Boulder.
Closer to home, insects have long been consumed in Latin America. The Aztecs
loved plump agave worms served with fiery guacamole. Even today in southern
Mexico, you can find stir-fried grasshoppers or empanadas stuffed with
larvae.
In liquor stores on both sides of the border, the agave worm can be found at
the bottom of bottles of mescal.
Native Americans ate 60 different kinds of insects. "They were part of the
food rounds," says entomologist Gene DeFoliart, professor emeritus at the
University of Wisconsin.
In earlier times in Europe, the Greeks were crazy about cicadas, while the
French and Italians also considered insects delicacies. The Western aversion
to eating insects slights a cheap source of protein, fat and vitamins,
entomologists say.
Amazonian ants, termites and caterpillars have a higher protein value than
dried fish, and nutritional value that rivals pork sausage and goose liver,
according to a study by Dufour.
That's if you can stomach it.
The only reason it may be difficult to pop a locust in your mouth is because
we were raised that way.
Iowa State University entomologist Donald Lewis, who is a vegetarian, says
our culture's distaste for insects, dogs and cats exposes hypocrisy in the
Western animal-eating diet.
But some entomologists sure can stomach bugs. At bug doctor functions, the
host has been known to set out an elaborate spread (mealworm).
The New York Entomological Society two years ago served as hors d'oeuvres
such delights as mini fontina bruschetta with mealworm ganoush and waxworm
fritters with plum sauce. Dessert included chocolate cricket tarte.
DeFoliart, who publishes the Food Insect Newsletter, with more than 3,000
subscribers, has eaten mealworms, bee pupae, termites and caterpillars.
The only problem he's ever had eating insects was with a giant waterbug from
Thailand, because it was difficult to clean. "I think you need a Thai chef
who knows how to handle those," DeFoliart says.
Hugh Thompson, retired entomology professor at Kansas State University, has
prepared crickets, mealworns and breaded, deep-fried corn borers.
"They taste like shrimp," Thompson says of the borers.
As part of his course "Insects of Home, Lawn and Garden," Thompson used to
bring in a serving of insects for the class to try each semester.
The purpose of the snack was to show that insects, such as small quantities
found in processed foods, are not dangerous, and even beneficial, to humans.
Usually, about half the class would eat them.
Whether they ate the bugs did not affect the students' grade in the course,
Thompson says.
Many adventurous gastronomes who have travelled to Africa, Asia or Latin
America have insect stories to tell.
Kevin Souza, a research coordinator at the University of California at San
Francisco, often ate insects while he lived in the Central African country of
Malawi as a biology teacher.
"As a food lover, I delved into the custom of eating insects," Souza says, in
an electronic mail interview.
"Many Africans view the Western love of shrimp in the same way Westerners
view the eating of insects. When you think of it, they don't look very
different," Souza says.
In Malawi, Souza even prepared giant termites at home. "We could catch those
at our house," he says.
As large termites came out of the ground at the beginning of the rainy
season, Souza would turn on a porch light to attract the termites, which burn
their wings on the bulb and fall into a bucket of water under the light.
After frying the termites in a dry skillet with garlic A they produce quite a
bit of oil, Souza says A these "crunchy delights" taste like "smokey bacon."
"They have the texture of popcorn," Souza says.
As a student at the University of Hohenheim/Stuttgart, Fred Schwohl travelled
to Asia several times and has eaten a few bugs in his day.
Larvae of big beetles, which lay their eggs in sago palms, are eaten in some
parts of Malaysia, Borneo and Sumatra, says Schwohl, in an electronic mail
interview from Germany.
Markets in Asia also carry chocolate-covered ants in cans, as well as bees
trapped in honey.
Schwohl has eaten ants, bees and beetle larvae. The larvae were especially
good, he says.
Insect eating has gotten some publicity with the opening of the Insect Club
restaurant in Washington, D.C. and a Parisian restaurant featuring cooked and
raw insects.
Iowa State has also helped. Each fall the Department of Entomology hosts an
insect horror film festival and serves insect munchies, such as maggot
krispies and corn borer bars.
A couple of Iowa State undergraduate students have even appeared on the
Tonight Show with Jay Leno, says Lewis. On television, it looked like Leno
ate some of the snacks, but who really knows, says Lewis, who saw the
program.
As soon as Leno popped the treats in his mouth, the scene cut immediately to
a commercial.
Maryland Beachcomber
Finding Bugs
July 22, 1994
By Kent Steinriede
Just as your backyard can become a garden for vegetables and herbs, it can
also be a happy-hunting ground for insect chefs.
"What we really need are some field guides," says Gene DeFoliart, professor
emeritus at the University of Wisconsin.
Yes, yo can go out in the backyard and munch most of the tiny critters you
find. Just a couple of guidelines.
"Stay away from bright colored insects," DeFoliart says. In the world
at-large, these marks let other animals, and people, know the insect is not
going to taste good and might be poisonous.
Don't eat insects or larvae with hair. They can cause stomach irritation.
After catching insects, hold them in a ventilated container for at least
four hours to allow them to purge themselves of whatever they've eaten, which
might not taste too good.
If you don't want to use your own bugs, pet stores often have live crickets,
and bait shops sometimes have mealworms. In the area, Salisbury Aquarium and
Pet Center, in the Twilley Shopping Center (tel. 543-0120), is only pet store
with live crickets. Crickets are available at $1 for 12.
There are also a few mail order insect companies.
Grub Company Inc.
P.O. Box 15001
Hamilton, OH
(800) 222-3563
(513) 874-5881
Sells crickets, maggots, mealworms and waxworms. Maggots: $5 for 500;
mealworms: $5 for 1,000; "mighty" mealworms: $8 for 500; waxworms: $9 for
500; crickets: 500 for $12.
Rainbow Mealworms
126 E. Spruce St.
Compton, CA 90224
(800) 777-9676
(310) 635-1494
Sells mealworms and crickets. Crickets: $8 for 500, plus shipping and
handling; Mealworms: $9.30 for 2,000, plus shipping and handling.
Publications
If you're still interested in edible insects, subscribe to the Food Insect
Newsletter, published three times each year. Yearly subscription is $5. To
subscribe write to:
University of Wisconsin
Department of Entomology
1630 Linden Dr.
Madison, WI 53706
Maryland Beachcomber
Recipes
July 22, 1994
By Kent Steinriede
Here are recipes of some of the snacks served at the Iowa State University
insect horror film festival.
Sauteed Larva
(Adapted from a recipe in "Entertaining with Insects" by Ronald L. Taylor and
Barbara Carter, Woodbridge Press, 1976)
1/4 cup butter
4 cloves garlic, crushed
1 cup larvae
Rinse larvae and dry with a cloth. In a frying pan, melt butter and saute
garlic for 5 minutes. Add larvae and stir. Continue to saute for 10 to 15
minutes.
Corn Borer Bread
(Adapted from a recipe in "Entertaining with Insects" by Ronald L. Taylor and
Barbara Carter, Woodbridge Press, 1976)
Add corn borers to your favorite corn bread recipe. Substitute 1/2 cup ground
dry-roasted corn borer larvae for 1/2 cup corn meal. Other larvae will work,
as long as they are not hairy.
To dry roast the larvae, put them in a colander whole, rinse and pat dry. Dry
roast on a cookie sheet in oven at 200o F.
Chocolate Chirpies
(Adapted from a recipe in "Entertaining with Insects" by Ronald L. Taylor and
Barbara Carter, Woodbridge Press, 1976)
2 cups sugar
2/3 cup cream
2 ounces unsweetened chocolate
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup dry-roasted crickets or grasshoppers, chopped
Put whole crickets in a colander, rinse and pat dry. Dry roast on a cookie
sheet in oven at 200o F. Chop the crickets.
Mix sugar, cream, chocolate and salt in a saucepan. Over medium heat, stir
constantly until chocolate melts and sugar dissolves. Continue cooking until
mixture reaches 234o F on a candy thermometer. Remove chocolate mixture from
heat and add butter.
Without stirring, let mixture cool to 120o F. Add vanilla and beat vigorously
with a wooden spoon until mixture is thick, for 7 to 10 minutes. Stir in
insects. Spread mixture evenly in a buttered loaf pan. Let cool until firm.
Cut in 2-inch squares.
Recipe is at the bottom of this post
<snip>
Maryland Beachcomber
Food cover
Edible Insects
July 22, 1994
By Kent Steinriede
It's all a matter of culture. The Chinese find eating with silverware crude,
compared to their chopsticks. Many Africans won't eat lobster because it
lives on the bottom of the sea and eats garbage.
Along the same lines, insects are not considered delicacies in North America.
But such is not the case in most parts of the world. Insects are eaten
regularly in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
In Zaire, the mopanie worm is known as the "snack that crawls" and is a
popular dish, fried, dried or stewed in tomato sauce, according to Darna
Dufour, of the University of Colorado at Boulder.
Closer to home, insects have long been consumed in Latin America. The Aztecs
loved plump agave worms served with fiery guacamole. Even today in southern
Mexico, you can find stir-fried grasshoppers or empanadas stuffed with
larvae.
In liquor stores on both sides of the border, the agave worm can be found at
the bottom of bottles of mescal.
Native Americans ate 60 different kinds of insects. "They were part of the
food rounds," says entomologist Gene DeFoliart, professor emeritus at the
University of Wisconsin.
In earlier times in Europe, the Greeks were crazy about cicadas, while the
French and Italians also considered insects delicacies. The Western aversion
to eating insects slights a cheap source of protein, fat and vitamins,
entomologists say.
Amazonian ants, termites and caterpillars have a higher protein value than
dried fish, and nutritional value that rivals pork sausage and goose liver,
according to a study by Dufour.
That's if you can stomach it.
The only reason it may be difficult to pop a locust in your mouth is because
we were raised that way.
Iowa State University entomologist Donald Lewis, who is a vegetarian, says
our culture's distaste for insects, dogs and cats exposes hypocrisy in the
Western animal-eating diet.
But some entomologists sure can stomach bugs. At bug doctor functions, the
host has been known to set out an elaborate spread (mealworm).
The New York Entomological Society two years ago served as hors d'oeuvres
such delights as mini fontina bruschetta with mealworm ganoush and waxworm
fritters with plum sauce. Dessert included chocolate cricket tarte.
DeFoliart, who publishes the Food Insect Newsletter, with more than 3,000
subscribers, has eaten mealworms, bee pupae, termites and caterpillars.
The only problem he's ever had eating insects was with a giant waterbug from
Thailand, because it was difficult to clean. "I think you need a Thai chef
who knows how to handle those," DeFoliart says.
Hugh Thompson, retired entomology professor at Kansas State University, has
prepared crickets, mealworns and breaded, deep-fried corn borers.
"They taste like shrimp," Thompson says of the borers.
As part of his course "Insects of Home, Lawn and Garden," Thompson used to
bring in a serving of insects for the class to try each semester.
The purpose of the snack was to show that insects, such as small quantities
found in processed foods, are not dangerous, and even beneficial, to humans.
Usually, about half the class would eat them.
Whether they ate the bugs did not affect the students' grade in the course,
Thompson says.
Many adventurous gastronomes who have travelled to Africa, Asia or Latin
America have insect stories to tell.
Kevin Souza, a research coordinator at the University of California at San
Francisco, often ate insects while he lived in the Central African country of
Malawi as a biology teacher.
"As a food lover, I delved into the custom of eating insects," Souza says, in
an electronic mail interview.
"Many Africans view the Western love of shrimp in the same way Westerners
view the eating of insects. When you think of it, they don't look very
different," Souza says.
In Malawi, Souza even prepared giant termites at home. "We could catch those
at our house," he says.
As large termites came out of the ground at the beginning of the rainy
season, Souza would turn on a porch light to attract the termites, which burn
their wings on the bulb and fall into a bucket of water under the light.
After frying the termites in a dry skillet with garlic A they produce quite a
bit of oil, Souza says A these "crunchy delights" taste like "smokey bacon."
"They have the texture of popcorn," Souza says.
As a student at the University of Hohenheim/Stuttgart, Fred Schwohl travelled
to Asia several times and has eaten a few bugs in his day.
Larvae of big beetles, which lay their eggs in sago palms, are eaten in some
parts of Malaysia, Borneo and Sumatra, says Schwohl, in an electronic mail
interview from Germany.
Markets in Asia also carry chocolate-covered ants in cans, as well as bees
trapped in honey.
Schwohl has eaten ants, bees and beetle larvae. The larvae were especially
good, he says.
Insect eating has gotten some publicity with the opening of the Insect Club
restaurant in Washington, D.C. and a Parisian restaurant featuring cooked and
raw insects.
Iowa State has also helped. Each fall the Department of Entomology hosts an
insect horror film festival and serves insect munchies, such as maggot
krispies and corn borer bars.
A couple of Iowa State undergraduate students have even appeared on the
Tonight Show with Jay Leno, says Lewis. On television, it looked like Leno
ate some of the snacks, but who really knows, says Lewis, who saw the
program.
As soon as Leno popped the treats in his mouth, the scene cut immediately to
a commercial.
Maryland Beachcomber
Finding Bugs
July 22, 1994
By Kent Steinriede
Just as your backyard can become a garden for vegetables and herbs, it can
also be a happy-hunting ground for insect chefs.
"What we really need are some field guides," says Gene DeFoliart, professor
emeritus at the University of Wisconsin.
Yes, yo can go out in the backyard and munch most of the tiny critters you
find. Just a couple of guidelines.
"Stay away from bright colored insects," DeFoliart says. In the world
at-large, these marks let other animals, and people, know the insect is not
going to taste good and might be poisonous.
Don't eat insects or larvae with hair. They can cause stomach irritation.
After catching insects, hold them in a ventilated container for at least
four hours to allow them to purge themselves of whatever they've eaten, which
might not taste too good.
If you don't want to use your own bugs, pet stores often have live crickets,
and bait shops sometimes have mealworms. In the area, Salisbury Aquarium and
Pet Center, in the Twilley Shopping Center (tel. 543-0120), is only pet store
with live crickets. Crickets are available at $1 for 12.
There are also a few mail order insect companies.
Grub Company Inc.
P.O. Box 15001
Hamilton, OH
(800) 222-3563
(513) 874-5881
Sells crickets, maggots, mealworms and waxworms. Maggots: $5 for 500;
mealworms: $5 for 1,000; "mighty" mealworms: $8 for 500; waxworms: $9 for
500; crickets: 500 for $12.
Rainbow Mealworms
126 E. Spruce St.
Compton, CA 90224
(800) 777-9676
(310) 635-1494
Sells mealworms and crickets. Crickets: $8 for 500, plus shipping and
handling; Mealworms: $9.30 for 2,000, plus shipping and handling.
Publications
If you're still interested in edible insects, subscribe to the Food Insect
Newsletter, published three times each year. Yearly subscription is $5. To
subscribe write to:
University of Wisconsin
Department of Entomology
1630 Linden Dr.
Madison, WI 53706
Maryland Beachcomber
Recipes
July 22, 1994
By Kent Steinriede
Here are recipes of some of the snacks served at the Iowa State University
insect horror film festival.
Sauteed Larva
(Adapted from a recipe in "Entertaining with Insects" by Ronald L. Taylor and
Barbara Carter, Woodbridge Press, 1976)
1/4 cup butter
4 cloves garlic, crushed
1 cup larvae
Rinse larvae and dry with a cloth. In a frying pan, melt butter and saute
garlic for 5 minutes. Add larvae and stir. Continue to saute for 10 to 15
minutes.
Corn Borer Bread
(Adapted from a recipe in "Entertaining with Insects" by Ronald L. Taylor and
Barbara Carter, Woodbridge Press, 1976)
Add corn borers to your favorite corn bread recipe. Substitute 1/2 cup ground
dry-roasted corn borer larvae for 1/2 cup corn meal. Other larvae will work,
as long as they are not hairy.
To dry roast the larvae, put them in a colander whole, rinse and pat dry. Dry
roast on a cookie sheet in oven at 200o F.
Chocolate Chirpies
(Adapted from a recipe in "Entertaining with Insects" by Ronald L. Taylor and
Barbara Carter, Woodbridge Press, 1976)
2 cups sugar
2/3 cup cream
2 ounces unsweetened chocolate
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup dry-roasted crickets or grasshoppers, chopped
Put whole crickets in a colander, rinse and pat dry. Dry roast on a cookie
sheet in oven at 200o F. Chop the crickets.
Mix sugar, cream, chocolate and salt in a saucepan. Over medium heat, stir
constantly until chocolate melts and sugar dissolves. Continue cooking until
mixture reaches 234o F on a candy thermometer. Remove chocolate mixture from
heat and add butter.
Without stirring, let mixture cool to 120o F. Add vanilla and beat vigorously
with a wooden spoon until mixture is thick, for 7 to 10 minutes. Stir in
insects. Spread mixture evenly in a buttered loaf pan. Let cool until firm.
Cut in 2-inch squares.
