Edible Insects . . . It's What's For Dinner
Yummy!
More Protein Than Beef
With soaring food prices and a limited budget I have learned to be creative when trying to get more protein in my diet. In Edible Insects . . . It's What's For Dinner I will explore a great way to gain more protein while promoting Green Living.
Insects have a real bad reputation as a food source and I for one just don't understand the prejudice. Sure there is the sickening crunch with the first bite, but the juicy insides more than make up for a little texture and fiber. Trust me the taste will literally grow on you and in you for that matter!
After all the hardest part about eating bugs is catching them however with a little creativity that can easily be solved. If you leave bread crumbs, leftover pizza or rotting fruit in a jar overnight inside or outside by the next day you will have plenty of tasty morsels to choose from in the morning.
One of my favorite edible insects is roaches, because as a single guy I'm not the greatest housekeeper, so all have I to do is turn on the light and be quick to have a midnight snack. Since I enjoy the crunch, I do my best to capture them live and then just pop them in, still twitching!
Once you pop, you can't stop!
Say for instance you start a crock pot full of veggies to cook overnight but are a little light on the meat, not a problem . . . just turn out the lights, wait for the little buggers to show themselves, hit the switch and start grabbing them. You don't even need to kill them just thrown them in with the veggies and the heat will kill them if they don't drown first.
On a more serious note . . .
"It's estimated that the average human eats one pound (half a kilogram) of insects each year unintentionally,"
Cricket Anyone?
Frugal Lifestyle
I love to fish and often use crickets, grasshoppers and worms for bait, but I never knew what to do with the leftover bait. Well, learning to live a Frugal Lifestyle I decided what the heck, whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger, right?
Entomophagy: Is the consumption of insects as a food source. I kid you Not!
Now grasshoppers and crickets pose one significant digestive problem, although the legs go down fairly easy, they don't come out all that great. So I have learned to spit them out before swallowing, kind of like sunflowers seeds. Sure there is an art form to this but you can get the hang of it fairly quickly.
Now I don't care for worms but on the other hand I hear they slide down easily! You will probable want to chew them first as feeling them crawling around in your stomach could be quite unsettling.
I haven't tried minnows, but what are sardines after all and since we are talking about insects, I will stay on point.
Now since some of you might think that getting your protein in raw form is a little gross, I would suggest that you simple take your leftover bait home using them in stir fry, baking them in the oven or as I mentioned throwing them in the crock pot! They can also be used to spice up any roast as a garnish or putting them on pizza.
The sheer diversity of recipes edible insects can be used for is simple staggering and most often your guest will never know the difference.
One of my all time favorites is to mash up a bowl of roaches (crickets if you prefer) and when they have reached a gooey texture making them into patties for the grill. Your neighbors will love you and be asking for your recipe, of course if they are prejudicial as mine are they may never talk to you again and threaten you with a lawsuit.
I have found that most humans are very finicky with their food, so I would suggest that you don't tell any dinner guest what they have just eaten edible insects until after dinner. Be sure to have your camera ready as the look on their faces is usually priceless.
However be fore-warned that some of my dinner guest have gotten quite hostile and of course some still don't know, so don't tell anyone it'll be our secret, Shhhh!
Maggots
Buy Online
Grubs, Larva and Maggots
I saved the best for last, larva, grubs and maggots are quite possible the best tasting edible insects you can find. Like a delicious veal, these are the delicacies of the edible insect world and are to die for, literally, kind of taste like shrimp
Most insects prefer to lay their eggs in rotting vegetation or corpses to supply their offspring with nutrients when they hatch. So when looking for these delicacies kick over a bloated corpse or rotting log and you can usually find a smorgasbord of tasty morsels.
Finding bloated corpse's can be problematic, but I have a simple solution . . . road kill. You heard it here first, why let a perfectly good corpse rot in the Sun or become buzzard bait, after all the Native American's used what nature had to offer. Simple pull your car over and if you're a little squeamish about getting your hands dirty, kick the smooshed corpse over and reap the bounty!
I call it Kick A Corpse For Protein, catchy huh?
Maggots are my favorite and you will be tempted to eat them on the spot but try to refrain as the rotting flesh you retrieve them from can sometimes taint their succulent meat. I have found the best way to prepare them is like shrimp, by steaming them with just a light coating of garlic butter they can be scrumptious!
Did you know that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) allows for a certain amount of insects in all processed food as long as it doesn't pose health risks. What is known as micro-livestock often finds its way into vegetables and other food and is deemed unavoidable.
For example, chocolate can have up to 60 insect fragments per 100 grams, tomato sauce can contain 30 fly eggs per 100 grams, and peanut butter can have 30 insect fragments per 100 grams (3.5 ounces), according to the FDA.
So in conclusion if soaring food prices have you down or the budget doesn't allow for your favorite meat, learn to eat Insects . . . It's What's For Dinner.
Insects . . . It's What's For Dinner
Comments
There is a push for people to accept eating bugs for protein and calling it “mini-livestock”, since the world's cattle is so expensive.
You can take my New York Strip steak outta my cold dead hands!! I seen maggots on squashed furry bodies - how do you get somebody to overcome the Gag Factor?
Not so long ago my mum told me how she used to eat raw sausages, because back in those days it was completely safe. The way that food is processed these days causes way too many problems which didn't exist back then.
Then there's also the fact that foods are genetically modified, stored in tins, there's fluoride in our drinking water, etc. For this reason I believe that taking up a diet such as you have described here would probably be extremely beneficial to health (as you've also pointed out).
When I moved to Cambodia in 2007, I was served a delicious salad. I politely picked an ant out of it and then another and another. Everyone smiled and told me they were part of the dish. I ate it, but felt a little squeamish afterwards. Just the other day I had that same salad again and wondered why I had found eating ants so strange. Much stranger is how we become conditioned to think some things are acceptable as food and some are not.
Ok thank you...I will not publishing till tomorrow...need to rest my eyes and reread in the a.m. :)
I would like to provide a link to your hub on my hub on the same topic. Do you mind? If you do I will not include it. Thanks either way.
I wouldn't mind trying snake.
Oh my...! That video you attached at the end, man that was really unbelievable! I mean, those worms were still alive when they were tossed into the frying pan! What were they anyway, worms... or some appetizing kind of maggot specie?
My take on insects for food is, sometimes you ain't got a choice and you need 'em to survive. I was actually vegan for 2 years, but I have no problem having to resort to 'alternate' sources of food, just in case of a catastrophe. I wouldn't try carnivores like cougar, though. Because the higher you go up the food chain, the more toxic it gets...if I remember correctly from Biology class. Cheers!
So you've actually tried these out then? You're a better person than I!
Hmm maybe one day!
I read last week about the new menus we will all be eating very soon and as my brain is resting today ! Can't remember the name ,you are close though. Some sort of fly/maggot.
Going after them in a big way for supermarkets,
jandee
"it is a day of resting the brain" - your brain is at rest every day, Nutard! If insects were good for us, they would be on the FDA's food pyramid and available in supermarkets and fast food outlets.
Fishing with your split-cane rod,
Who ???
Martin? Michael? Steve?
Meet up in Cuba my friend! eh!
jandee
You caught a catfish using a spinner bait? That's cool, and is about as strange as me catching my biggest smallmouth bass ever, using a freakin' bread ball on a barbed hook!
Yep, the water around here is quite polluted, oops, I mean dirty.
Hey, I don't think Jandee is down with your insect salad & maggot stir fry. She might prefer the lobster, crab, or some exotic fish that you speared in the Atlantic with a sharpened wooden stick, though, unless you use some type of insect dipping sauce for that, as well. Ha!
Thank you for your kind invite for Dinner.
Unfortunately I have to go a really classy Bistro where they have the very best red from South West Fr.
I shall think of you though and maybe some other time, when your economic situation has improved! I will reconsider.
Enjoyed your invite,
from your friend jandee....
Holy shit! Oops, I mean, yeah, this was very informative! I've heard of chocolate-covered grasshoppers before and people eating worms or insects in the wild for survival, but dang, you really hit home here and covered this subject quite well.
In all honesty, you make the Chinese look better when people are fearful of eating cat teriyaki as opposed to the fictitiously claimed chicken-on-a-stick! LOL! At any insect-like rate, you made a good point when you said "For example, chocolate can have up to 60 insect fragments per 100 grams, tomato sauce can contain 30 fly eggs per 100 grams, and peanut butter can have 30 insect fragments per 100 grams (3.5 ounces), according to the FDA."
Just think, I enjoy store-bought peanut butter and most of us know that there is a certain amount of rat shit in that, how sad, I know... So, when compared to fecal matter in our commonly sold food products, a few worms or grasshoppers never hurt us as of yet, ...yeah, surely not...
The maggot thing threw me for a whirl, though... You at least cook 'em first for ya guests, right?
After hearing about the maggots, the roaches at least sound better!
LOL!
This has got to be the most caveman-like eccentric hub, known to HubPages, ever... LOL! Yikes! Uh, well, I commented on it like I promised, good luck with the others... Hey, lets try cooking some catfish for starters, next time, before you introduce me to your insect salad, eh? Ha-ha!
29