Chapter
9
WESTERN
ATTITUDES TOWARD INSECTS AS FOOD: EUROPE,
The early Greeks and
Romans wrote about insect consumption not only in their own lands but in others
as well. Herodotus, 4th Century BC Greek
historian and sometimes called the "Father of History," wrote that a
tribe of nomads of Central Asia called the Budini are "the only people in
these parts who are vermin eaters" (cited by Burr 1939, p. 211). According to Burr, the word used by Herodotus
means "louse-eaters," and Burr credits Nazaroff with the
information that the Kirghiz and Kayaks are the descendents of the Scythians
and their relatives the Budini of Herodotus' time. The habit of "nibbling their own personal fauna," as
Burr puts it, was and still is widespread among primitive peoples. Herodotus (cited by Hope 1842, p. 129) also
described how the Nasamones "hunt for locusts, which having dried in the
sun, they reduce to powder and eat, mingled with milk."
In one of the earliest
references to the eating of insects in Greece, Aristophanes, a foremost Greek
poet of the 4th Century, quotes poulterers who sell "four-winged"
fowl on the market (cited by Keller 1913, p. 455). According to Bodenheimer (1951, p. 42) these four-winged
fowl were grasshoppers which apparently were cheap and consumed by the poorer
classes. Young shepherds in the fields
also enjoyed eating them.
While the lower-class
Greeks ate locusts or grasshoppers, the upper-class Greeks apparently
preferred cicadas. According to
Aristotle (3rd Century BC) (cited by Holt 1885, p. 38), the most polished of
the Greeks considered cicada nymphs the greatest of tid-bits. Aristotle hinted that they were not an
uncommon food in Attica (Athens) and wrote (cited by Bodenheimer 1951, p. 39):
"The larva of the cicada on attaining full size in the ground becomes a
nymph (tettigometra); then it tastes best, before the husk is broken
[i.e., before the last moult] . . . . [Among the adults] at first the males are
better to eat, but after copulation the females, which are then full of white
eggs."
In the 1st Century AD
a statement by the Greek philosopher, Plutarch (cited by Bodenheimer 1951, p.
40) indicates that many Greeks believed that cicadas should not be eaten:
"Consider and see whether the swallow be not odious and impious . . . . ,
because it feeds upon flesh and kills and devours the cicadas, which are sacred
and musical."
Pliny the Elder, 1st
Century AD Roman natural history author, mentions that cicadas are eaten in the
East (vide Bodenheimer 1951, p. 39).
Pliny also records (cited by Holt 1885, pp. 38-39; Burr 1939, p.
213; Bodenheimer, pp. 42) that Roman epicures of his day highly esteemed the Cossus
grub and fattened them for the table on flour and wine. There has been much confusion
about the identity of the Cossus, which Pliny stated feeds in oak.
Bodenheimer (pp. 42-43) lists several species that have been put forward
by various authors as the Cossus of Pliny, but credits Mulsant (1841)
with settling the question, and concludes that almost certainly it was the
larva of Cerambyx heros Linn.
Cowan (1865:
27) discussed the Cossus as follows:
The Cossus of the Greeks and Romans, which, at
the time of the greatest luxury among the latter, was introduced at the tables
of the rich, was the larva, or grub, of a large beetle that lives in the stems
of trees, particularly the oak; and was, most probably, the larva of the
Stag-beetle, Lucanus cervus. On this subject, however, entomologists
differ very widely . . . . But the larva of the Lucanus cervus, and
perhaps also the Prionus coriarius, which are found in the oak as well
as in other trees, may each have been eaten under this name, as their
difference could not be discernible either to collectors or cooks. . . . Pliny
tells us that the epicures, who looked upon these cossi as delicacies,
even fed them with meal, in order to fatten them.
Diodorus, Greek
historian of the 2nd Century AD, wrote (cited by Bodenheimer 1951, p. 41) about
a people in Ethiopia called the Acridophagi or locust-eaters and whom he
described as small, lean and spare, and extremely black men (see under Ethiopia
for details). Bodenheimer cites several
other early writers on the Acridophagi who apparently relied heavily on this
account by Diodorus.
Athenaeus, about 200
AD, mentions cicadas as dainties in Greek banquets, being served to stimulate
the appetite (cited by Bodenheimer, p. 39).
Athenaeus' opinion should possibly carry extra weight as he was a Greek
grammarian and rhetorician who wrote extensively on Greek contemporary life,
including cookery.
Third Century AD Roman
sophist naturalist and author Aelian sounds another discordant note regarding
cicadas when (cited by Bodenheimer, p. 39) he reports with discontent that he
saw people selling small parcels of cicadas for food. Aelian also tells (cited by Holt 1885, p. 39; Bodenheimer, p. 43)
that the King of India served as dessert for his Greek guests a dish of roasted
grubs from palm trees, which Holt believes to have been the palm weevil, Calandra
palmarum. The locals considered these grubs a great delicacy, but the
Greeks did not enjoy them.
St. Jerome, in his
Treatise against Jovinian, Festus and others, mentions that wood-boring
larvae are eaten as delicacies by some people while others refuse them in
disgust (cited by Bodenheimer, p. 42).
According to Bodenheimer
(1951, p. 44), the New Age of entomology begins with the appearance in
1602 of Aldrovandi's "De Animalibus Insectis Libri
Septem." Aldrovandi mentions
various insects as food, quoting from earlier sources the consumption of
locusts and cicadas. He mentions the
eating of bees by the inhabitants of Cumana, the eating of fried silkworms with
obvious delight by German soldiers in Italy, and from contemporary travel
reports the eating of ants in parts of India and the Genusucian Islands. Moufetus (1634; vide Bodenheimer,
p. 45) utilizes earlier sources in describing the use of locusts and their eggs
in many mainly tropical or arid localities, and the consumption of cicadas by
the Greeks.
De Réaumur (1737, II,
2, pp. 113-120) discussed the edibility of insects in his "Memoires
pour servir a l'Histoire des Insectes" in reference to the severe damage
produced in France by Plusia gamma.
In summarizing this, Bodenheimer (1951, p. 45) says: "During that
period some people who had eaten these caterpillars with salad or in soup
claimed that they were poisonous. Yet,
as with all other smooth caterpillars, they are actually harmless. However, the
prejudice against this insect has been so great that when one of its
caterpillars has been swallowed, it has been immediately held responsible for
any symptoms of poisoning." De
Réaumur is quoted, "One may eat as many of our vegetable caterpillars as
one wishes without fearing the slightest damage, swelling or
inflammation."
De Réaumur follows
with a discussion of entomophagy in general (vide Bodenheimer, p. 46):
If large, smooth caterpillars were
here as common as are locusts in certain regions, and especially if they were
abundant in a year of famine, perhaps the peasants of France would eat them as
locusts are eaten in Africa. And perhaps they would subsequently be regarded as
an agreable and wholesome dish! We know a number of wood-boring beetle
grubs which appear much less palatable than smooth caterpillars, yet the
ancient Romans regarded these cossi as a first-class
delicacy. We need not even go back as
far as that. Similar beetle grubs, which also live in the interior of trees in
our West Indian possessions, are considered when fried as a succulent and
splendid meal. And the grubs of the common Oryctes-beetles, which
are white, plump, and fat, like those of the Cerambyx-grubs or
cossi, would perhaps make an excellent entremet, if our prejudices would permit
us to introduce them into our menus.
One would look for these grubs in the soil, as one looks for truffles,
and the number of the beetles of this injurious species in this way could be
much diminished.
We could perhaps in due time
overcome our repugnance at eating insects and accept them as part of our diet,
and then realize that there is nothing terrible about them and that they may
perhaps even offer us agreable sensations.
We have grown accustomed to eating frogs, snakes, lizards, shell-fish,
oysters, etc. in the various provinces of France. Perhaps the first urge to eat them was hunger. In conclusion, while leaving the
caterpillars for the time as food for the birds, we need not accuse them of
poisoning. In 1735 thousands and
thousands of these caterpillars have been eaten by cattle, horses, sheep,
asses, etc., which suffered no harm as a result.
De Réaumur (1737, III,
p. 416; vide Bodenheimer 1951, p.67) discusses the galls of ground-ivy (Glechoma
hederacea) which are produced by Aulax latreillei Kieff. (= A.
glechomae Latr.) and have been eaten as food in France. They have an agreeable taste, but Réaumur
expresses doubt that they will ever be as popular as good fruit.
Brooks (1772; vide
Bodenheimer 1951, p. 48), in his "On the properties and uses of
insects," wrote:
The palmworms are eaten in the West-Indies
by the French, after they have been roasted before the fire, when a small
wooden spit has been thrust through them.
When they begin to be hot, they powder them with a crust of rasped
bread, mixed with salt, a little pepper and nut-meg. This powder keeps in the fat or at least
sucks it up. And when they are done
enough, they are served up with orange juice.
They are highly esteemed by the French as excellent eating.
The first use of a
Latinized name for the palmworm of the Caribbean was by Linnaeus in the later
editions of his Systema Naturae. Linnaeus was well-aware that not only Rhynchophorus
palmarum L., but also the grubs of Macrodontia cervicornis L. were
considered great delicacies (cited by Bodenheimer 1951, p. 48). Linnaeus also
mentions Locusta cristata L. being eaten by the Arabs (cited by Hope
1842, p. 137).
Roesel von Rosenhof (1779, Dutch
ed., vol. 2, para. 37, p. 297 f.; cited by Bodenheimer 1951, pp. 46-48)
tried two recipes that he found among older reports on locust-eating. Rosenhof didn't wind up an admirer of insect
dishes, but he apparently deserved an "A" for trying. He reported as follows, as summarised by
Bodenheimer:
The one is to tear off the legs and
the wings, and to dry them in the sun (i.e. in the weak sun and humid air of
the North!), until they ferment. They are eaten and it is claimed that they
make an agreable dish. The other way is to boil the locusts in salty water and
then to eat them seasoned with vinegar, salt and pepper. I have tried to
prepare them in both ways. yet when they began to ferment after preparation by
the first method, the smell of the fermenting insects is so bad that any desire
to eat them disappears; this has also been reported by Frisch of locusts which
died in the fields. The second method, however, was equally unpleasant to my
palate. They then smell like shrimps, but their taste is repellent and
unpalatable. When Roesel was once busy boiling locusts for one of these feeding
experiments, one of his friends entered his house. This friend had always
encouraged Roesel to overcome his prejudices and to taste them. Thus he asked
him if he would accept an invitation to a dish of boiled locusts. He agreed but
when the famous dish was set upon the table, he lost his appetite, and as did
other friends, he lost all desire to taste them. Some affected to feel no
repugnance, yet immediately the locusts had entered their mouths, everyone of
them spit them out or vomited them, while their faces showed their fear of
swallowing them. It was just as if they had taken a drug for vomiting.
Foucher d'Obsonville (1783, pp.
43 ff), in his "Philosophical Essays on the Habits of Various Strange
Animals," recounts that locusts are eaten with relish by most Africans,
some Asiatics and especially the Arabs.
Bodenheimer (1951, p. 49) summarizes the account as follows:
On their markets they appear roasted
or grilled in great quantities. When salted, they keep for some time in
storage. They are used for supplying ships, where they may be served as dessert
or with coffee. This food is in no way repugnant to look at or by association.
It tastes like prawn, and is perhaps more delicately flavoured, especially the
females when filled with eggs. Certain people assume this food to be the cause
of the eye-diseases which are so common in some of these regions.
d'Obsonville says he could easily imagine that excessive use would impoverish
the blood and have dangerous consequences; but blindness and eye-diseases
are probably caused by the salty and fiery particles transported by the winds.
The Turks, Persians and Christians, who in the same regions do not eat locusts
or only rarely, are subjected to the same eye-troubles, while some
African peoples who eat locusts in great quantities have excellent eye-sight.
Consett (1789, p.
118; vide Bodenheimer 1951, p. 67) states that in some parts of Sweden, ants
are distilled with rye to give flavor to "their inferior kinds of
brandy," and ant pupae are used for the production of good gin. Consett mentions a young Swede who ate live
ants with the greatest relish.
Erasmus Darwin (1800, p.
364), in his "Phytologia; or the Philosophy of Agriculture and Gardening
With the Theory of Draining Morasses and With an Improved Construction of the
Drill Plough," deduces that since turkeys and wild birds eat Maychafer
beetles, if properly cooked they might be as good as the locusts, termites and
silkworm pupae of the east. He says:
And probably the large grub, or
larva of it, which the rooks pick up in following the plough, is as delicious
as the grub called groogroo, and a large caterpillar, which feeds on the palm;
both of which are roasted and eaten in the West Indies . . . . Nevertheless all
the caterpillar tribes may not be equally innocuous; as in this climate the
hairy caterpillars, if laid between the fingers, where the skin is tender, I
have observed to produce an itching, and leave some of the pointed bristles in
the skin.
Immanuel Kant in his
"Physical Geography" (1802; edition quoted, 1905, p. 236),
devoted a paragraph to edible locusts, which is given as follows by Bodenheimer
(p. 48):
Big locusts are roasted and eaten in
Africa by various peoples. In Tonkin they are salted as stores for future
consumption. Ludolph, who knew this, cooked the great locusts which devastated
Germany in 1693 like crayfish, ate them, preserved them with vinegar and pepper
and with this dish treated the Council of Frankfurt.
Illiger (1804; vide
Bodenheimer 1951, p. 49) provides recipes for preserving may-bugs (Melolontha),
partly taken from old cookery books, and mentions a variety of insects that are
eaten elsewhere: the palmworms of the West Indies, the Cossus and
locusts known from antiquity, the inclusion of locusts among the regular
provisions of the Barbary pirates, consumption of termites and locust hoppers
by the Bushmen, and the eating of a large "praying mantis" on
Amboina.
Westermann (1821, p.
419; vide Bodenheimer 1951, p. 66) reported cock-chafers and related
species are eaten by the mountain inhabitants of Europe. The brothers Villa are
credited with the information that the peasants of Lombardy eat the abdomen of Melolontha
aprilina Duft. Similar beetles are also eaten in other provinces of Italy,
and in Moldavia and Walachia both cock-chafers and Rhizotrogus pini
Ol. are eaten (vide Bargagli 1877, p. 6; vide Bodenheimer, p. 66).
Kirby and Spence (1822, I,
pp. 297-310) devoted a chapter to the direct benefits from insects,
including their use as food by peoples in other parts of the world, mentioning
palmgrubs, locusts, caterpillars, silkworm pupae, termites, bees, ants, gall-apples
and honey. Many of the early authors
cited above are cited by Kirby and Spence, although we have cited them as from
Bodenheimer, Holt or others whose writings may be available to more readers. This work is stated by Bodenheimer to have
served as a source for many later compilers.
Kirby and Spence begin their discussion, saying (pp. 297-298):
Crustacea . . . are
universally reckoned amongst our greatest dainties; and they who would turn
with disgust from a locust or the grub of a beetle, feel no symptoms of nausea
when a lobster, crab, or shrimp is set before them. The fact is, that habit has reconciled us to the eating of these
last, which viewed in themselves with their threatening claws and many feet,
are really more disgusting than the former.
Had the habit been reversed, we should have viewed the former with
appetite and the latter with abhorrence, as do the Arabs, 'who are as much
astonished at our eating crabs, lobsters, and oysters, as we are at their
eating locusts' [quote from Clarke's Travels]. That this would have been the case is clear, at least as far as
regards the former position, from the practice in other parts of the world,
both in ancient and modern times, to which, begging you to lay aside your
English prejudices, I shall now call your attention; first observing by the
way, that the insects used as food, generally speaking, live on vegetable
substances, and are consequently much more select and cleanly in their diet
than the swine or the duck, which form a favourite part of ours.
Cuvier, the great French
naturalist, in his "Animal Kingdom" (Insecta II, p. 205), mentions an
earlier report by Latreille that children in southern France are very fond of
the fleshy thighs of grasshoppers. He also notes that, according to travellers'
reports, grasshoppers preserved in brine and with wings removed are an item of
commerce toward the coasts of Barbary.
J.J. Virey, physiologist and
pharmacologist, and a member of the French Academy, appeared to vacillate on
the question of entomophagy. In his
"Histoire Naturelle du Genre Humain" (IX, I, p. 256; vide
Bodenheimer, pp. 50-51), he writes:
Temperature regulates our diets,
determining whether much meat or more vegetables are eaten. I shall not discuss
locusts and other insects which are consumed by the Arabs and some Africans as
good meals. At Tonkin also man and monkeys eagerly seek insects as food. Pliny
and other ancient writers claim that the acridophagous peoples are weak, thin,
precocious and do not live longer than 40 years (Pliny, Hist. Nat. 6: 29 and 4;
Strabo 16). It is certain that the insects which are usually eaten are
unwholesome and an irritant. In general, foods which have the same type of
organization (i.e. mammals for man) prove the most satisfactory.
In the second edition of the same book (1824, II, pp.
319, 329), Virey mentions the cicadas of the Athenians, the cossus, and
various insects eaten elswhere, and writes, "The Moor, starving in his
deserts, devours locusts or feeds on the gum of its acacias, or on some pinches
of cous-cous."
The concluding
paragraph of a paper by Virey, titled "Whether man may eat insects and
whether he should eat them," is quoted by J. Bequaert (1921,
p. 200):
Man may eat insects: nothing in his
anatomical organisation or his physiological functions is opposed to it. He
should eat insects: in the first place, because his cousins the monkeys and his
ancestors the bats, or in short the primates, eat them. In the second place,
because insectivorous animals are superior to the other species of their order,
both in their more perfect organisation as well as in the superiority of their
intelligence.
F.W. Hope (1842)
contributed a valuable paper, parts of which are incorporated elsewhere in this
volume. After citing many of the ancient records pertaining to food insect use,
both in Europe and elsewhere, Hope states (p. 130):
It appears then . . . . that insects
live on cleanly diet, and consequently afford us more wholesome food than some
of the animals that are usually served at our tables. It is not my intention here to recommend insectal food to nations
living in northern climates, although I am aware that there are naturalists who
have done so; the supply in summer accidentally might be abundant, but in
winter certainly always must be scanty and precarious. I see no reason, however, why in the warm
and well wooded regions of the world they should not be eaten, as the supply
there is generally abundant. The New Hollander, or even the European settler in
those parts, may derive much benefit by adopting the larvae of insects as food,
for the very worms regaled on, if left to themselves, in time might multiply so
as to endanger the crops of future years, entailing ruin on the grower, and perhaps
famine on the settlement. In case of
scarcity in our own country, and certainly in milder regions of the world where
famine has been known to spread over the land, insectal food may be adopted. It is probable that want and hunger may have
been the original cause of introducing to notice several of the insects which
have been taken as food, although I am unable at present to adduce any
particular instance to substantiate the fact.
Insectal food, which I here recommend in case of necessity, will certainly
not be so revolting to man as the animal gelatine of pulverised old bones, or
even as insipid as sawdust bread, recommended by the French in similar
emergencies.
Freeman (1858, p.
524), in "The History of Cape Cod," reported:
One of the commissioners above named
related to the writer that, when on this service at West Point, the attention
of the commissioners was arrested by certain inexplicable movements among the
French troops encamped at some distance from the American. Perceiving that they had kindled numerous
fires in the adjoining fields, and were running about in strange disorder, Maj.
Osgood and himself, accompanied by Gen. Washington and other officers, mounted
horses and rode to the encampment. It was
found that the Frenchmen were enjoying rare sport in a campaign against the
grasshoppers which were unusually numerous at that time. These insects, as soon as captured, were
impaled upon a sharpened stick or fork and held for a moment over the fire and
then eaten with great gusto. The
fires were furnished with fuel of deposits from cattle in the fields, made by
the excessive heat and drought of the autumn sufficiently dry and combustible.
Motschulsky (1859)
summarized the various methods used, primarily in Europe, for controlling
locusts. Natural control agents were also discussed, for example: "Frogs,
lizards, and various birds, especially of the starling, blackbird, lark, crow,
jackdaw, stork, and other species, devour them with great avidity." He
notes that, "In ancient Egypt, the ibis was counted sacred, because it
destroyed quantities of reptiles and injurious insects, especially
locusts." Further (p. 215):
In the Neopolitan dominions, the
landholders on the appearance of the locust place their chief reliance on the
birds. In Asia Minor and other southern
regions, the locusts make their appearance so frequently and in such vast
quantities, that the birds alone cannot meet the requirements of the
inhabitants. In North America, the
young turkeys are trained to seek out and feed upon the larvae of grasshoppers
and locusts, especially when they begin to hatch from the eggs, whereby great
numbers of them are destroyed.
Domestic fowls, as geese, ducks,
turkeys, and chickens, are exceedingly fond of such food. About Temeshvar, in Hungary, the locusts
were once got rid of by driving into the place where they had alighted 15,000
head of swine, which in a single night and morning devoured them all.
After further
discussion of the "training" of goslings, chickens and young turkeys
to feed on locusts, Motschulsky adds: "The breeding of large numbers of
Guinea-fowl (Numida meleagris), which multiply rapidly in the steppe
cantons of the Caucasus, would have the effect of diminishing the swarms of
locusts; since this bird is all its life constantly running to and fro, and
would vigorously pursue the insects."
Motschulsky's description of other, often herculean, efforts to destroy
locusts, such as trampling them with herds of cattle, sheep or horses, crushing
them with logs or weighted harrows, frightening them away by making noise,
including the firing of cannon, use of specially designed sacks, fire, etc.,
etc., and their disposal by drowning, burning or burying, makes interesting
reading, and presents a sharp contrast to the harvesting of the insects as food
by populations on other continents.
Cowan's (1865)
"Curious Facts in the History of Insects" contains much information
from original sources which has been incorporated at appropriate places in this
volume. Cowan states (p. 51) that the Greeks “commended the Buprestis in food.”
According to Cowan (p. 65), Fabricius reported that Turkish women ate the
beetle, Blaps sulcata (Tenebrionidae), cooked with butter, to make
themselves fat. Cowan (p. 98) says “Athenaeus tells us the ancient Greeks used
to eat the common Grasshopper and the Monkey-grasshopper as provocatives of the
appetite,” while Aristophanes said, “How can you, in God’s name, like
Grasshoppers. . . .” Cowan (p.127)
states, “In the southern parts of France, M. Latreille informs us, the children
are very fond of the fleshy thighs of Locusts.” Also, regarding France, Cowan (p. 145)states: “The galls of the
ground-ivy, produced by the Cynips glecome [Cynipidae], have been
eaten as food in France; they have
an agreeable taste, and to a high degree
the odor of the plant which bears
them. Reaumur, however, is doubtful whether
they will ever rank with good fruits.”
Cowan (p. 145) mentions that galls of
the sage (3 species of Salvia) are very juicy,
like apples, and are gathered every year as an article of food by the
inhabitants of Crete, and form a “considerable item of commerce from Scio to
Constantinople, where they are regularly exposed in the market.” Cowan (p. 254)
states: “The Greeks, notwithstanding their veneration for the Cicada, made
these insects an article of food, and accounted them delicious.” And he cites (p. 255) an earlier report that
Athenaeus and Aristophanes mentioned cicadas being eaten, and Aelian was angry
that “an animal sacred to the Muses should be strung, sold, and greedily
devoured.”
Henri Miot (1870, p.
89; vide Simmonds 1885, p. 348), in the Gazette des Campagnes, gives the
following recipe which has been adopted in certain parts of France for
cockchafer grubs:
Roll the vers blancs, which
are short and fat, in flour and bread crumbs, with a little salt and pepper,
and wrap them in a stout piece of paper, well buttered inside. Place it in the
hot embers and leave it to cook for twenty minutes, more or less, according to
the degree of heat. On opening the
envelope a very appetising odour exhales, which disposes one favourably to
taste the delicacy, which will be more appreciated than snails, and will be
declared one of the finest delicacies ever tasted.
Glover (1875, pp.
135-140) mentions that locusts are used as an article of food in several
countries, and that they are eaten greedily by hogs, turkeys, ducks and
insectivorous birds. He states that, "a large flock of turkeys will soon
clear a field of these pests."
Various other recommendations for destruction of locusts are described,
and Glover states (p. 138):
As the migratory western
grasshoppers occur in such vast numbers in certain localities and can be taken
in such immense multitudes, it is possible that some enterprising individual
may find out a means of making them useful to mankind and of utilizing them
either as a substitute for guano or manure, or of drying them as food for
fowls, hogs, &c. In Europe during
the cockchafer season, a kind of oil was expressed from the bodies of the
captured insects, and possibly some use may yet be made of the vast swarms of
locusts or grasshoppers that now devastate our western plains and destroy the
hopes of the western husbandmen. The
suggestion has merely been mentioned to induce some of our chemists to make
experiments in utilizing the insects, and should they succeed in making a
profitable article of what has been hitherto a great injury to the farmers,
they will deserve the gratitude of the whole country.
C.V. Riley (1876) conducted
extensive studies and mounted a strong advocacy effort on the food potential of
the Rocky Mountain locust, Melanoplus spretus. In addition, he discusses entomophagy in general, giving a number
of original examples supplied by contacts in other countries (which we have
discussed under the appropriate geographical area). Packard (1876, pp. 438-441) and Bodenheimer (1951, pp. 57-59)
both quoted extensively from the parts of Riley's report that are
duplicated below (pp. 145-147):
It had long been a desire with me to
test the value of this species (spretus) as food, and I did not lose the
opportunity to gratify that desire, which the recent locust invasion into some
of the Mississippi Valley States offered. I knew well enough that the attempt
would provoke to ridicule and mirth, or even disgust, the vast majority of our
people, unaccustomed to anything of the sort, and associating with the word
insect or 'bug' everything horrid and repulsive. Yet I was governed by
weightier reasons than mere curiosity; for many a family in Kansas and Nebraska
was last year [1874] brought to the brink of the grave by sheer lack of food,
while the St. Louis papers reported cases of actual death from starvation in
some sections of Missouri, where the insects abounded and ate up every green thing
the past Spring [1875].
Whenever the occasion presented I
partook of locusts prepared in different ways, and one day, ate of no other
kind of food, and must have consumed, in one form and another, the substance of
several thousand half-grown locusts.
Commencing the experiments with some misgivings, and fully expecting to
have to overcome disagreeable flavor, I was soon most agreeably surprised to
find that the insects were quite palatable, in whatever way prepared. The flavor of the raw locust is most strong
and disagreeable, but that of the cooked insects is agreeable, and sufficiently
mild to be easily neutralized by anything with which they may be mixed, and to
admit of easy disguise, according to taste or fancy. But the great point I would make in their favor is that they need
no elaborate preparation or seasoning. They require no disguise, and herein
lies their value in exceptional emergencies; for when people are driven to the
point of starvation by these ravenous pests, it follows that all other food is
either very scarce or
unobtainable. A broth, made by boiling
the unfledged Calopteni for two hours in the proper quantity of water,
and seasoned with nothing in the world but pepper and salt, is quite palatable,
and can scarcely be distinguished from beef broth, though it has a slight
flavor peculiar to it and not easily described. The addition of a little butter improves it, and the flavor can,
of course, be modified with mint, sage, and other spices ad libitum. Fried or roasted in nothing but their own
oil, with the addition of a little salt, and they are by no means unpleasant
eating, and have quite a nutty flavor.
In fact, it is a flavor, like most peculiar and not unpleasant flavors,
that one can soon learn to get fond of.
Prepared in this manner, ground and compressed, they would doubtless
keep for a long time. Yet their consumption in large quantities in this form
would not, I think, prove as wholesome as when made into soup or broth; for I
found the chitinous covering and the corneous parts - especially the spines on
the tibiae - dry and chippy, and somewhat irritating to the throat. This
objection would not apply, with the same force, to the mature individuals,
especially of the larger species, where the heads, legs and wings are carefully
separated before cooking; and, in fact, some of the mature insects prepared in
this way, then boiled and afterward stewed with a few vegetables, and a little
butter, pepper, salt and vinegar, made an excellent fricassée.
Lest it be
presumed that these opinions result from an unnatural palate, or from mere
individual taste, let me add that I took pains to get the opinions of many
other persons. Indeed, I shall not soon
forget the experience of my first culinary effort in this line --
so fraught with fun and so forcibly illustrating the power of example in
overcoming prejudice. This attempt was
made at an hotel. At first it was
impossible to get any assistance from the followers of the ars coquinaria. They could not more flatly have refused to
touch, taste or handle, had it been a question of cooking vipers. Nor love nor
money could induce them to do either, and in this respect the folks of the
kitchen were all alike, without distinction of color. There was no other resource but to turn cook myself, and
operations once commenced, the interest and aid of a brother naturalist and two
intelligent ladies were soon enlisted.
It was most amusing to note how, as the rather savory and pleasant odor
went up from the cooking dishes, the expression of horror and disgust gradually
vanished from the faces of the curious lookers-on, and how, at last, the head
cook - a stout and jolly negress - took part in the operations; how, when the
different dishes were neatly served upon the table and were freely partaken of
with evident relish and many expressions of surprise and satisfaction by the
ladies and gentlemen interested, this same cook was actually induced to try
them and soon grew eloquent in their favor; how, finally, a prominant banker,
as also one of the editors of the town joined in the meal. The soup soon vanished and banished silly
prejudice; then cakes with batter enough to hold the locusts together,
disappeared and were pronounced good; then baked locusts with or without
condiments; and when the meal was completed with dessert of baked locusts and
honey a la John the Baptist, the opinion was unanimous that that
distinguished prophet no longer deserved our sympathy, and that he had not
fared badly on his diet in the wilderness. Prof. H.H. Straight, at the time
connected with the Warrensburg, (Mo.) Normal School, who made some experiments
for me in this line, wrote: 'We boiled them rather slowly for three or four
hours, seasoned the fluid with a little butter, salt and pepper, and it made an
excellent soup, actually; would like to have it even in
prosperous times. [Prof. and Mrs. Johonnot] pronounced it excellent.'
I sent a bushel of the scalded
insects to Mr. [John] Bonnet, one of the oldest and best known caterers of St.
Louis. Master of the mysteries of the
cuisine, he made a soup which was really delicious, and was so pronounced by
dozens of prominant St. Louisians who tried it. . . . and Mr. Bonnet declared
that this locust soup reminded him of nothing so much as craw-fish
bisque, which is so highly esteemed by connoisseurs. He also declared that he would gladly have it on his bill of fare
every day if he could get the insects.
His method of preparation was to boil on a brisk fire, having previously
seasoned them with salt, pepper and grated nutmeg, the whole being occasionally
stirred. When cooked they are pounded
in a mortar with bread fried brown, or a puree of rice. They are then replaced in the saucepan and
thickened to a broth by placing on a warm part of the stove, but not allowed to
boil. For use, the broth is passed
through a strainer and a few croutons are added. I have had a small box of fried ones with me for the past two
months, and they have been tasted by numerous persons, including the members of
the London Entomological Society and of the Société Entomologique de
France. Without exception they have
been pronounced far better than was expected, and those fried in their own oil
with a little salt are yet good and fresh [after several months]; others fried
in butter have become slightly rancid -- a fault of the butter. . .
.
Locusts will hardly come into
general use for food except where they are annually abundant, and our western
farmers, who occasionally suffer from them will not easily be brought to a due
appreciation of them for this purpose.
Prejudiced against them, fighting to overcome them, killing them in
large quantities, until the stench from their decomposing bodies becomes at
times most offensive - they find little that is attractive in the pests. For these reasons, as long as other food is
attainable, the locust will be apt to be rejected by most persons. Yet the fact remains that they do make very
good food. When freshly caught in large
quantities, the mangled mass presents a not very appetizing appearance, and
emits a rather strong and not overpleasant odor; but rinsed and scalded, they
turn a brownish-red, look much more inviting, and give no disagreeable
smell.
Also, Riley wrote
regarding locusts (p. 144) that "Radoszkowski, President of the Russian
Entomological Society, tells me that they are also, to this day, extensively
used as food in southern Russia." Bodenheimer, p. 66, states that similar
information has been repeatedly reported of the Tarters in Crimea.
Simmonds (1877, 313-344;
vide Bodenheimer 1951, p. 53) discusses a number of edible insects (p. 338)
including hautle in Mexico, insect larvae eaten in China, India and
Madagascar, locusts from Algeria (where they are also used as bait for the
sardine fishery), and termite oil from Gaboen, etc.
In February, 1878, The
French Senator Tesselin published the following "recipes," in
contesting a proposed law for the destruction of agricultural pests and the
preservation of birds (vide Brygoo 1946, p. 61; vide Bodenheimer, p. 54):
"Catch the may-bugs, pound them, put them through a sieve. For
making a thin soup, pour water over them. For making a fat soup, pour bouillon
over them. This gives a delightful dish, esteemed by the gourmets."
A.S. Packard (1878, pp.
437-443) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture spoke favorably of insects
as food in what were called "Mr. Packard's Half Hours with Insects,"
stating (pp. 437-438):
. . . the flesh of insects is, upon
the whole, repugnant to our feelings.
This is certainly unreasonable, for multitudes of the locust or grasshopper
of the East are eaten by Arabs and the savages in other parts of Africa. We look with repugnance upon a roasted
grasshopper, but an Arab is said to have expressed his abhorrence at our eating
raw oysters . . . . The writer has found by experience that grasshoppers fried
in butter taste no better and no worse than shrimps.
Packard, who quoted extensively from
Riley's 1876 report, discusses the results of analyses and the potential
of locusts as a commercial source of
formic acid. Noting the use of African
locusts as bait for the sardine fishery (see under North Africa), Packard
arranged for analyses of Melanoplus spretus, stating: "Should a
demand for similar bait arise on the Atlantic or Pacific coast of the United
States, large quantities of fish-bait could be prepared by Western
farmers in locust years."
Provancher (1882)
observed children in Quebec gathering ants from under the bark of an old stump.
The ants, Formica pensylvanica, were for later eating. This is the species, according to Provancher, reportedly eaten "with gusto" by
lumberjacks in the countryside.
Simmonds (1885, pp.
208-209, 347-375), in "The Animal Food Resources of Different
Nations," provides an extensive compilation on food insect use, most of
which is incorporated elsewhere in this volume. Simmonds relates (p. 348):
A few years ago at the Café Custoza,
in Paris, a grand banquet was given for the special purpose of testing the vers
blanc, or cockchafer worm. This
insect, it appears, was first steeped in vinegar, which had the effect of
making it disgorge the earth, etc., it had swallowed while yet free; then it
was carefully rolled up in a paste composed of flour, milk, and eggs, placed in
a pan, and fried to a bright golden colour.
The guests were able to take this crisp and dry worm in their fingers.
It cracked between their teeth. There
were some fifty persons present, and the majority had a second helping. The larvae, or grubs, generally, not only of
the cockchafer, but those of the ordinary beetles, may, according to some
naturalists, be eaten safely. Cats,
turkeys, and different birds devour them eagerly.
Vincent Holt (1885) is
extraordinarily forthright in his promotion of insects as food (this summary
first appeared in The Food Insects Newsletter I(2): 3, 1988). The title of his little book puts the
question bluntly, "Why Not Eat Insects?" Then, he summarizes the reasons for eating insects. The
herbivorous insects (the only ones he recommends) are cleanfeeding compared to
the lobster, crab, eel, and pig; "The lobster, a creature consumed in
incredible quantities at all the highest tables in the land, is such a foul
feeder that, for its sure capture, the experienced fisherman will bait his
lobster-pot with putrid flesh or fish which is too far gone even to
attract a crab" (p. 12). Relative to aesthetic appearance, Holt says (pp.
18-19),
As things are now, the chance
caterpillar which, having escaped the careful eye of the scullery-maid,
is boiled among the close folds of the cabbage, quite spoils the dinner
appetite of the person who happens to receive it with his helping of vegetable,
and its loathsome (?) form is carefully hidden at the side of his plate or sent
straight out of the room, so that its unwonted presence may no further nauseate
the diners. Yet probably these same
diners have, at the commencement of the meal, hailed with inward satisfaction
the presence on the board of more loathsome-looking oysters, and have
actually swallowed perhaps a dozen of them raw and living as quite an appetiser
for their dinner!
Frustration shows on pp. 16-17: "It may require a strong
effort of will to reason ourselves out of the stupid prejudices that have stood
in our way for ages; but what is the good of the advanced state of the times if
we cannot thus cast aside these prejudices, just as we have caused to vanish
before the ever-advancing tide of knowledge the worn-out theories of
spontaneous generation and barnacle geese?" A few pages later (pp. 29-30): "Fashion is the most
powerful motive in the world. Why does
not some one in a high place set the common-sense fashion of adding
insect dishes to our tables? The flock would not be long in
following." Holt states that
chemical analyses indicate that insects are nourishing and suggests (p. 15)
that farmers could be aided in their battle against insect pests if the insects
were collected by the poor as food (not that he suggests the poor could live
entirely on insects). After calling
attention to the consumption of insects by the Greeks and Romans of yore and by
people in far-away lands, Holt concludes the second of his three chapters
as follows (p. 47): "We pride ourselves upon our imitation of the Greeks
and Romans in their arts; we treasure their dead languages: why not, then, take
a useful hint from their tables? We imitate the savage nations in their use of
numberless drugs, spices, and condiments: why not go a step further?"
In the final chapter,
Holt mentions a number of insects in Britain that would be suitable for the
table. Relative to the Orthoptera, he
relates the following:
The Rev. R. Sheppard, many years
ago, had some of our common large grasshoppers served up at his table,
according to the recipe used by the inhabitants of Morocco in the cooking of
their favorite locusts. Here it is, 'Having plucked off their heads, legs, and
wings, sprinkle them with pepper and salt and chopped parsley, fry in butter,
and add some vinegar.' He found them excellent. From personal experiment I can
fully endorse his opinion; and there are few who would not, if they would but
try this dish. . . . The above recipe is simple; but any one with a knowledge
of cookery would know how to improve upon it, producing from this source such
dishes, say, as 'Grasshoppers au gratin,' or 'Acridae sautes a la Maitre
d'Hotel.'
From among the
Coleoptera, Holt mentions in particular the grub of the stag beetle, Lucanus
cervus, and the larva and adult of the common cockchafer, Melolontha
vulgaris. Mentioning the pest
importance of the latter, he states,
Literally tooth and nail we ought to
battle with this enemy, for in both its stages it is a most dainty morsel for
the table. . . . Again I endorse from personal experience. Try them as I have; they are
delicious. Cockchafers are not only common, but of a most serviceable size and plumpness,
while their grubs are, when full grown, at least two inches in length, and fat
in proportion . . . . What a godsend to housekeepers to discover a new entre
to vary the monotony of the present round! . . . Here then, mistresses, who
thirst to place new and dainty dishes before your guests, what better could you
have than 'Curried Maychafers' - , if you want a more mysterious title,
'Larvae Melolonthae a la Grugru?'
L.O. Howard (1886)
reported continuing work begun by Dr. Riley on the edibility of the periodical
cicada:
With the aid of the Doctor's cook he
had prepared a plain stew, a thick milk stew and a broil. The Cicadas were collected just as they
emerged from the pupa and were thrown into cold water, in which they remained over
night. They were cooked the next
morning and served at breakfast-time.
They imparted a distinct and not unpleasant flavor to the stews, but
were not at all palatable themselves as they were reduced to nothing but bits
of flabby skin. The broil lacked
substance. The most palatable method of
cooking is to fry in batter, when they reminded one of shrimps. They will never prove a delicacy.
M.W. de Fonvielle,
Vice-President of the Societe d'Insectologie de Paris, proposed in his
opening speech at the Exposition d'Insectologie in 1887 the destruction of the
maybugs by "absorption," and illustrated this by swallowing some
before the audience, giving signs of high satisfaction, as if he had taken some
excellent chocolate lozenges (vide Brygoo 1946; vide Bodenheimer, p. 54).
Dr. Trouessart (vide
Daguin 1900, p. 27; vide Bodenheimer, p. 66) saw children in France catching
Orthoptera on the River Loire, pulling off their wings and cracking their
hindlegs with evident pleasure.
Lugger (1897, p.
126) makes one of the few references to the use of cockroaches (Blattidae) as
food (and medicine):
Few people are aware that
cockroaches are of some use; they are a popular remedy for dropsy in Russia,
and both cockroach tea and cockroach pills are known in the medical practice. Salted cockroaches are said to have an
agreeable flavor - for those that like highly flavored sauces. These insects have also the one redeeming
character - they will eat the festive bed bugs.
Caudell (1904)
relates the following:
Cockroaches thrive in British
Columbia as they do almost everywhere.
The common species there seems to be the German roach or croton bug, Blatella
germanica. They are in everything,
even the food. On this trip I had them
served to me in three different styles, alive in strawberries, a la carte with
fried fish and baked in biscuit.
In a humorous
descripton of "hot winds, grasshoppers and government aid" in 1874 in
Oklahoma, Callison (1914) relates (pp. 25-26):
After the grasshoppers had eaten
everything, we turned in and ate the grasshoppers. One old fellow said he used to live with the digger Indians in
Idaho, and they considered a grasshopper equal to or better than oysters,
crawdads, clams, chili, or chop suey.
So we all learned to eat grasshoppers, and I can say from experience
that they were fine; but I do not want to live long enough to eat them three
times a day again. After that we had
grasshoppers for about six weeks and had them cooked and served in every way
that could be thought of.
Ealand (1915)
devoted a section of his book, pp. 203-214, to insects as food and sometimes
applies an interesting twist. He notes (p. 203) that many "North American
Indian tribes were in the habit of consuming large quantities of the Rocky
Mountain locust," and when "the red man was at his zenith, the Rocky
Mountain locust was practically innocuous; since his subjugation, it has
increased and spread to such an extent that it has come to be viewed in the
light of a serious pest." In another example, Ealand (p. 204) points
out that, "to the natives of Uganda, the allied crickets, Curtilla
africana and Acheta bimaculata, have a double use, being kept in
warm ovens, on account of their musical note, to induce sleep, and, presumably,
when the pangs of hunger outweigh the discomforts of insomnia, they are used as
food." Ealand notes (p. 210) that "the peasants of Lombardy are
partial to the abdomens of [a beetle], Rhizotrogus assimilis. In
Moldavia and Valachia, the beetle, Rhizotrogus pini forms a common
article of food."
Howard (1915),
lamenting that there has been very little work recently on the edibility of
insects, reports results obtained at his suggestion by J.J. Davis and D.G.
Tower at Lafayette, Indiana, on the eggs and larvae of Lachnosterna:
They find that Lachnosterna eggs
crisply fried in butter are excellent, having a taste very much like a fine
grade of bacon. The larvae, fried in
butter and eaten with bread in the form of a sandwich, were not at all
disagreeable, having a fresh fatty taste.
They ate the heads and all, and the heads were crisp and caused no
inconvenience. This line of
experimentation seems to me very well worth while, and field agents having the
opportunity and disposition are urged to experiment in this direction when it
can be done easily and without loss of time.
Howard's last statement suggests that he was acutely aware of how
taxpayers would view such research by a government agency.
Howard (1916)
suggests that, with many nations facing food shortages because of war
conditions, it is a propitious time to consider new and cheap food
supplies. He notes that although there
is an extensive literature on the historical use of insects as food, there has
been little modern experimental work:
These facts point out the
desirability of just such experiments, and practically all our colleges of
agriculture, with their departments of home economics and of entomology, are in
excellent position to do just this work.
First, the edibility of the principal species abundant enough to furnish
a good supply must be tested, and when the edibility of any one or more of them
has been established, careful scientific work on their relative food value must
be carried out. Two kinds of insects
from the viewpoint of abundance and possible food value at once suggest
themselves, namely, grasshoppers and the larvae of Lachnosterna in this
country and of Melolontha in Europe - the so-called 'white
qrubs.'
Howard describes a
salad and a broth prepared by Dr. C.F. Langworthy, Chief of the Office of Home
Economics, USDA, from Lachnosterna larvae shipped from Madison,
Wisconsin, by Mr. J.J. Davis and Professor J.G. Sanders. Howard describes the informal taste panel
that was assembled:
The salad was eaten by Messrs. C.H.
Popenoe, W.B. Wood, F.H. Chittenden, E.B. O'Leary, R.C. Althouse, W.R. Walton,
C.E. Wolfe, and Herbert S. Barber of the Bureau of Entomology and Vernon Bailey
of the Bureau of Biological Survey, as well as the writer. It was found very palatable, although in
chewing, all of us discarded the tough chitinous skin. Dr. Chittenden
discovered a disagreeable taste which none of the rest of us noticed. He tried only one, and possibly that one may
have been a little spoiled. The broth
was drunk by Mr. O'Leary and the writer, and we both agreed that it was not only
perfectly unobjectionable but really appetizing.
Shortly afterward, Mr.
Davis collected a sample of Lachnosterna grubs in Lafayette, Indiana,
more than 100 of which were sent to Washington, and the remainder of which were
made into a stew (described by Howard) which Davis and his colleagues, Messrs.
Fenton and Mason, pronounced as delicious:
They prepared the grubs as they
thought oyster stew was prepared, and of course ate the grubs as well as the
broth. Mr. Mason thought it tasted very
much like boiled crab meat and not much different from lobster. Mr. Fenton thought that it tasted much like
lobster, but had not eaten crab and so was not in a position to judge whether
they were more like the latter. Mr.
Davis had never eaten either fresh crab or lobster, but thought that they had a
decided seafood taste. All thought it
'agreeable' and 'were sorry when it was all gone.'
From the grubs sent to
Washington, a stew (described by Howard) was made in Dr. Langworthy's
laboratory which was found to be "very appetising." It was eaten by Messrs. E.B. O'Leary, C.E.
Wolfe, C.H. Popenoe, Joseph Jacobs, A.B. Duckett, C.H.T. Townsend, C.S.
Menaugh, W.R. Walton, W.B. Wood, and by Howard. Howard states that analyses and digestibility experiments were
planned to determine their food value (Lachnosterna is now considered a
synonym of the genus Phyllophaga).
In concluding, Howard states that he is "sure that the prejudice
against insects as food is perfectly unreasonable." In a footnote to this article, Howard mentions
that, "Miss Colcord, the Librarian of the Bureau of Entomology of the
United States Department of Agriculture, is preparing a complete bibliography
of this subject [insects as food] for publication in the near future." So far as known, however, the bibliography
was never published.
A.N. Caudell (1916), upon
his retirement from the presidency of the Entomological Society of Washington,
delivered an interesting paper titled, "An Economic Consideration of
Orthoptera Directly Affecting Man."
He discusses both the good and bad aspects of these insects insofar as
they affect humans physically and psychologically. He provides some new references to insects as food (noted
elsewhere in this volume), but, in addition, some of his other material is of
the kind needed to help upgrade the status of insects in the public mind. For example, on page 91: "The songs of
insects have been enjoyed and applauded by man since the dawn of history and
among our musical insects the Orthoptera are dominant. So musical are the notes of some of our
orthopterous songsters that it is difficult to express their melody. The rhythmic beat of the tree-cricket
has been termed by Burroughs as a 'slumberous breathing,' while Hawthorne
describes it an 'audible stillness' and declares that 'if moonlight could be
heard it would sound like that'" (McNeill 1889; vide Caudell 1916).
F. Netolitzky's paper (1920),
"Beetles as food and medicine," is important because of the wide
range of original papers consulted.
Netolitzky states that entomophagy is more than a mere curiosity. Bodenheimer summarizes as follows:
Primitive man could neglect no
source of food. Through insect-eating
he discovered certain stimulations and side-effects which ensured for a
number of insects their place in popular medicine. The weak stimuli of many other insects were attractive, and they
became a favourite food or delicacy, including even lice. Yet the consumption
of large and fat beetle grubs in the tropics is not based on their taste, but
on their protein and fat contents.
People with a predominantly vegetable diet are in great need of proteins
and fats, of which insects are an important source, especially before the
stages of agriculture and husbandry have been reached. The extensive list of beetles used as food
or medicine [provided by Netolitzky] is valuable for the exactness of the
determination of the species.
J. Bequaert (1921)
refers to the recent wartime suggestion by Howard (1916) that the food value of
insects should be ascertained, then states: "Favorable as the results may
have proved, one can well imagine the storm of protest that would have resulted
had the adoption of such a program by the general public been advocated. Yet to
many it is surprising and can be attributed only to prejudice, that civilized
man of today shows such a decided aversion to including any six-legged
creatures in his diet." Then Bequaert ranges widely discussing the past
and, at that time, present uses of insects as food in other cultures.
J.H. Fabre (1922, V,
pp. 262 ff.; 1924, X, pp. 102 ff.), the French entomologist, believed in
testing for himself the famous Greco-Roman insect dishes. Bodenheimer (1951, pp. 62-63) described two
such occasions as follows:
One hot July morning the larvae of Cicada
plebeja emerged from the soil for the nymphal moult. Fabre with all his family started to collect
them. After two hours of intensive
search four cicadas were found.
Following the advice of Aristotle that they are best before their skin
bursts for the moult, they were killed by being submerged in water. These were fried in oil with a pinch of salt
and a little onion. The dish was found
enjoyable but tasted less like grasshoppers than like shrimps. Its consistency, however, was so thin and to
chew it was so much like parchment that Fabre resolved not to accept any of the
other dishes recommended by Aristotle.
The village club, consisting of
Julian, the teacher, Guigue, the blind man, and J.H. Fabre decided one day to
try the taste of the larvae of Cerambyx heros, which they quite properly
took for the cossus of Pliny.
They grilled the grubs over a fire, seasoning them with salt and let
them turn to a golden colour. The club
approved the dish unanimously, its taste recalling that of roasted almonds and
vanilla. They admired the refinement of
the old Roman gourmets. Only the skin
had to be discarded. Yet Pliny had also recommended fattening the cossi in
flour. Against his own expectation
Fabre found that the larvae, although not getting fatter, did at least remain in
excellent condition for a long period.
After mentioning the
protozoa and other diverse fauna and flora in the intestines of termites, and
that termites are eaten cooked, uncooked or alive by native populations in some
tropical countries, Snyder (1927) remarks (p. 339), "Think
of the teeming intestinal fauna and flora, the nematodes, filaria, fungi and
moulds!" In contrast to the dour outlook of Snyder, Verrill (1937) notes that "many races or nations eat
and enjoy certain articles which others consider wholly unfit for human
consumption" (p. 183), then lauds a number of insect foods (we've
discussed in earlier chapters) which are used in various countries of the
Western Hemisphere (pp. 185-186, 278-279).
C.H. Curran (1939),
Associate Curator of Insects at the American Museum of Natural History, opens
by relating that:
One evening while dining at the home
of an entomological friend the talk got around to the eating of insects. To prove my argument that all food was
liable to contain insects I picked up a piece of lettuce from the salad. With no waste of time I picked off two or
three plant lice and displayed them before my host and hostess. My host grinned weakly but my hostess was
embarrassed beyond all reason. She
protested that she had washed the lettuce personally and had really seen no
insects on it. I was the only one
present who ate the salad.
Curran mentions a
number of foods and the kinds of insects that are almost assuredly to be
infesting them as unwanted contaminants.
In many cases it is almost impossible to detect the potentially
offending insects. After a brief
discussion of the intentional use of insects as food in other countries, Curran
closes with the following:
During the past few years there have
been a number of people who have suggested that we should eat insects. They
were probably seeking notoriety or being facetious. Some of them have gone so
far as to publish menus. There is no
'should' or 'should not' about the advisability of people eating insects. If they wish to do so there is no reason why
they should not, since there are hundreds of different kinds that are perfectly
edible. However, it is absurd to urge
upon a people blessed with a super-abundance of good, delectable food,
the advantage of eating something which is likely to prove less agreeable to
the palate than the things to which we are now accustomed.
As we have seen, in making this statement Curran himself was not
squeamish about eating insects.
Weston Price (1939, pp.
147, 184, 186, 283) mentions insects as among the traditional foods of cultures
in Africa and Australia and decries the reduced access to, and use of these
foods. He states (p. 186):
While the Aborigines are credited
with being the oldest race on the face of the earth today, they are dying out
with great rapidity wherever they have changed their native nutrition to that
of the modern white civilization. For
them this is not a matter of choice, but rather of necessity, since in a large
part of Australia the few that are left are crowded into reservations where
they have little or no access to native foods and are compelled to live on the
foods provided for them by our white civilization. They demonstrate in a tragic
way the inadequacy of the white man's dietary programs.
Malcolm Burr (1939, pp.
208-225), "sometime Vice-President" of the Royal
Entomological Society of London, discusses insects as food and medicine, citing
examples that we have noted under the appropriate geographical region in this
volume. Burr says:
It is a curious thing that civilised
man does not draw upon the insect world for food. Probably the real objection is that they are so small that it is
difficult to catch enough to make a substantial meal, or even an appetiser. Many insects are beautiful, aromatic, pungent,
or oily, and there is no logical reason why men, who do not mind drinking
animals' milk, should draw back at the notion of eating an insect.
Burr, like others before him, notes that when it comes to arthropods
there seems to be some saving grace in marine association.
S.W. Frost (1942), in
his book, "General Entomology" (pp. 62-64), briefly discusses
insects as food, using sources cited before, and also insects in music and art.
J.R. de la Torre-Bueno (1944)
similarly discusses examples of food use with which we are now familiar, as
does C.T. Brues (1946) in the "Insect Dietary" (pp. 417-422). In Curran's (1951)
"Insects in Your Life," pages 205-224 are a reprint of his 1939
article in "Natural History" while pages 271-285 include a few
additional remarks about insects as food, primarily in Mexico. Gaul (1953, pp. 14-15),
in "The Wonderful World of Insects," also gives the usual examples of
insects eaten by primitive cultures abroad and by American Indians and notes
that, "We 'civilised' people are inclined to say 'ugh!' when thinking of
eating insects." But, according to
Gaul, cockroach abdomens were formerly used on prescription by the entire U.S.
medical profession.
Roald Dahl (1945 [1983,
pp. 212-236]) builds an eerie tale around royal jelly, the material that
is fed to bee larvae that are destined to become queens.
E. Brygoo (1946), in a
thesis "Les Insectes comestibles," furnishes many original sources of
insects as food, distinguishing between the gathering of every available food,
as by the primitive food gatherers, and the selective gathering of certain
insects which are an appreciated food (vide Bodenheimer 1951, p. 65). Brygoo
also discusses the nutritive value of insects in the human diet.
In a short section on
"Insects as Food" (pp. 109-110), Jensen (1953) mentions
insects as a "food of minor importance," but then cites several
examples of their use in other countries and data on the nutritive value of
locusts, concluding, "Perhaps the economists of the future, if
hard-pressed to maintain an ever increasing population, may well turn their
attention to the utilization of certain kinds of insects as human food."
Lucy Clausen (1954) of
Columbia University and the American Museum of Natural History, and the author
of "Insect Fact and Folklore," makes numerous brief references to
insects as food in different countries as follows: caterpillars (pp. 17-19),
beetles (pp. 32-33, 43-44), grasshoppers (pp. 58-59),
crickets (p. 63), dipterous larvae (p. 82), honey (pp. 96-102), bee
larvae (pp. 101-102), ants (pp. 111-112), cicadas (p.l29), aquatic
Hemiptera (p. 139), dragonflies (p. 143), and termites (p. 151). Relative to modern-day use in the
United States, Clausen mentions (p. 18) that people in the United States are
eating fried "gusanos" (skipper butterfly larvae from Mexico)
with relish. "Close to the Mexican
border, 'gusanos' are served as thirst-producers at cocktail
parties. In recent years Mexico has
been canning and exporting 'gusanos' and they may now be purchased in
the better delicatessen and department stores of our larger cities. They are advertised as 'delicious
delicacies, especially with cocktails.'"
She mentions (p. 58) that in one of the handbooks published by our armed
forces during World War II cooked grasshoppers were recommended as food in case
of emergency. It was emphasized that
they should be cooked in order to destroy any parasites they might harbor
although there is no evidence that any grasshopper parasites can be harmful to
humans.
Parker (1954, p. 8)
mentions the use of grasshoppers as fish bait, saying that only angleworms are
more widely used in trout fishing. When
plentiful, they are eaten in great numbers by game birds and unconfined
poultry. While grasshoppers have never
caught the public's fancy as food in the United States, they were eaten by the
North American Indians and are used by people in many other lands. The author
notes the efforts of C.V. Riley in behalf of gaining public interest in
grasshoppers as food.
In his book on how to
survive in the woods, Angier (1956, pp. 20-21) quotes George
Leopard Herter, of Herter's Inc., sporting goods manufacturer, importer and
exporter: "Insects are wonderful
food, being mostly fat, and far more strengthening than either fish or meat. It does not take many insects to keep you
fit. Do not be squeamish about eating
insects . . . . If the weather is too cold for flying insects, kick open some
rotten logs or look under stones and get some grubs. They keep bears fat and healthy and will do the same for
you." Herter mentions several
insects such as grasshoppers, cicadas, termites and crickets, also that a most
nutritious flour is made from eggs of aquatic insects in Mexico, and that
dragonflies, which are a delicacy in Japan, have a "delicious, delicate
taste."
Merle (1958)
states that canned gusanos de maguey (agave worms) are sold in France,
"not only at the common vendor's shop, but also, for example, in a gourmet
shop at 'la Place de la Madeleine' in Paris."
Shotwell (1958, pp. 5-6),
in discussing the grasshopper problem in Missouri, mentions that they are used
as food in many parts of the world and quotes from some of Riley's work aimed
at qeneratinq interest in their use in the United States.
D.M. DeLong (1960)
discusses the beneficial aspects of insects including their use as food,
stating: "Indirectly, insects are of great importance to the food supply
of man the world over as they supply the basic or initial food materials that
are transformed into the bodies of food animals, especially birds and fishes,
whose flesh later finds its way to our tables.
These insects are as much a part of the food chain for fish and fowl as
corn is a part of the food chain for bacon, ham, or beef we eat. While the value and acceptibility of the
bodies of insects as food for man might be questioned, there are many instances
where they have been or are being used. Our close neighbors, the people of
Mexico utilize several types of insects as food. The larval stage of a large hesperid skipper which lives in the
maguey or century plant may be purchased alive in the markets in lots of ten or
twelve, tied in a small sack made from the thin membrane of the maguey plant,
or they may be purchased in cans placed in groceries or food stores by
commercial canning companies. At one of
the regular meetings of the Columbus [Ohio] Entomological Society in 1941 these
larvae were served as refreshments and some seventy-four of seventy-five
persons partook of them upon this occasion." DeLong makes brief reference to several other food species.
Marston Bates (1960), the
zoologist, discusses a number of insects used as food in other countries and
provides some personal anecdotes:
[p. 43] In our household, I am left
in charge of one department -- the things to eat with drinks. In
the store where I do most of the buying, there is a wonderful assortment of
temptations: fish eggs of many kinds other than the authentic but impossibly
expensive caviar; fish themselves of many species, prepared in many ways; a
wide range of cheeses and sausages, of crispy fried things, of olives and nuts
and minced clams and smoked oysters.
Lately several kinds of insects have appeared on the shelves --
canned ants and silkworm pupae from Japan, maguey worms from Mexico, fried
grasshoppers -- the can doesn't say where they are from. Insects are an important element in human
diet in many parts of the world, but they have long been taboo in European
civilisations. It is possible that they
will get back into the Western diet by way of the cocktail hour.
[p. 51] The maguey worms have been
canned for the local market in Mexico for some time, and now they are being
imported into the United States by the stores that specialize in fancy
foods. The canned worms are best if
eaten hot; they have a pleasant, nutty flavor, which blends as well with a
martini as with mescal, the potent drink that the Mexicans distill from the
fermented pulque. In my home we have
been trying these worms on cocktail guests.
As yet we haven't found anyone who disliked them, although our guests
have shown considerable variation in the degree of their enthusiasm. The worms at least provide a topic of
conversation.
From these experiments of ours with
guests, I get the idea that while Americans may be prejudiced, they are far
from being proud of their prejudices. . . . [p. 50] I used to live in a small
town in the interior of South America where, at the right season, bags of the
toasted sexual forms of the leaf-cutting ants were sold at the movie
theater. They had the same quality, and
served the same function as popcorn.
The Japanese now export canned fried ants to this country, but these
canned ants seem to me quite tasteless, lacking the crisp, toasted quality that
I remember from South American experience.
Catherine Philip (1960)
reports an interview with Professor Brian Hocking relative to research on bees
in Canada and quotes him, "We have about 50 more years of steaks and then
perhaps we'll have to explore other sources of animal protein." The bee brood was found to have the protein
content of beefsteak, 10 times the vitamin D equivalent of cod liver oil, twice
the amount of vitamin A as egg yolk and 1/10 that of cod liver oil. Philip mentions various flavors attributed
to the brood, such as "nutty," etc., but, "Hocking says they
taste like bees." The light flaky
texture would make it an ideal fish food and the adult bees might make an
excellent animal food.
Reitter (1961), in
his book about beetles, devotes a section to "Beetles in Myths, Folk-lore
and Folk Medicine" (pp. 48-55), in which are included a few examples of
their use as non-medicinal food.
Remy Chauvin (1967), in
"The World of an Insect," published originally in French, includes
some discussion of insects as food.
Howard Ensign Evans (1968, p.
204), in his "Life on a Little-Known Planet," quotes from
Riley's accounts of his efforts to interest Americans in western locusts as
food, and then provides an interesting summary of locust harvesters that were
invented (for control, not food harvest) and of laws and politics relating to
locust control in the late 1870's. For
example, as described by Evans:
At Riley's urging, the states of
Missouri and Minnesota enacted laws awarding bounties for the collection of
locust eggs and hatchlings. In
Missouri, a bounty of five dollars, half paid by the state and half by the
county, was awarded for each bushel of eggs collected during the fall or
winter. Hatchlings collected in March
were valued at one dollar a bushel, the slightly larger hoppers in April at
fifty cents, the still larger ones in May at only twenty-five cents a
bushel. The locusts had to be presented
to the county clerk, who then issued a certificate to be presented to the
county treasurer. The office of county
clerk was not an enviable one! It is
said that on a few occasions grasshopper eggs were actually passed as currency.
According to Evans:
The Kansas legislature, in 1877,
passed quite a different law, one that has become something of a classic in
legal history. This is the so-called
'grasshopper army' Act, which was apparently never enforced, although still on
the books until 1923. This law required
every able-bodied male between the ages of twelve and sixty-five to
assemble for the purpose of fighting locusts, under the supervision of the road
overseers, whenever so ordered by the town officials. Persons over eighteen could avoid duty by paying a dollar a day
to the overseer, but anyone not paying or serving in the 'grasshopper army'
could be fined three dollars a day.
Brothwell and
Brothwell (1969, pp. 67-72) briefly discuss a number of insects used
as food (discussed in this volume under the appropriate geographic regions).
Pirie (1969, pp.
161-175) offers advice on how to overcome obstacles in gaining acceptance
of new foods, thus his topic is pertinent to any efforts that would be made to
gain acceptance of insects in the Western world. One of the points made that seems particularly appropriate in the
case of insects is that an "introduction should proceed from the
privileged towards the underprivileged rather than vice versa. A stigma, however acquired, is not easily
rubbed off. It follows from this that a novelty should never be used at first
in orphanages, prisons, or refugee camps."
Marcel Leclercq (1969, pp.
125-127), in "Entomological Parasitology," notes that world
nutritional sources are becoming inadequate to meet the burgeoning world
population and states that, "It could seem surprising to state that
entomophagy should have at all times constituted a vast chapter in medical
natural history." He refers briefly to various insects used as food in
different regions, examples that we have noted previously.
In a chapter titled,
"Recipes we Shall Never Use," in his book, "Exotic Food," Rupert
Croft-Cooke (1969, p. 150) mentions locusts: "These have
been eaten immemorially and are said to taste rather like prawns which are,
after all, a sort of maritime locust. Wild honey is the traditional and
Biblical garnish but they are better fried, after the head is removed, in
butter in which a chopped clove of garlic has been browned." Locusts are included with "better-known
improbabilities" such as albatross, bulrush shoots, camel, iguana, llama
and parrot pie. Then, there are
"lesser-known improbabilities" such as agouti, crocodile,
porcupine, tiger and zebu.
As compilers and
editors of "The Explorers Cookbook," Douglas and Douglas (1971)
offer "an international potpourri of recipes and tales from world
adventurers." Included in this
potpourri are several insects. As
compiled from one club member (p. 34), raw witchetty grubs in Australia
"have a flavor reminiscent of soft almonds and are eaten by being grasped
firmly by the head . . . . and then bitten off. The cooked ones are rolled in the hot ashes and sand until they
'pop.' These taste like crisp chicken fat.
. Very nutritious and a major source of vitamin C." Another recipe is for "Periodical
Canapes" which can be prepared every 17 years when the periodical cicada
emerges. Instructions are as follows
(p. 102):
Go to the woodland in the evening
when the cicadas are emerging from the soil and climbing the tree trunks. Pick them from the bark just after they have
shed their hard larval skins. At this
stage they are white, soft-bodied, and have beautiful red eyes. When you have a hundred or so, take them
home and fry them in deep fat until crisp.
A clove of garlic will help.
Remove from fat, drain on paper toweling, salt and serve. They are best accompanied with chilled vodka
or Geneva gin.
Other recipes to be
found in Douglas and Douglas include "fried Katanga termites" from
Zaire which go "wonderfully well with ice cold tequila" (pp. 108-109);
"matiti bugs" which are dug up in cattle kraals in Botswana, roasted,
and are delicious with a taste "much like shrimp" (p. 129);
"migratory locust Arabiene" which sells for 70¢ a pound, the same
price as for camel meat (p. 153); "Cherokee yellowjack soup" made
from the grubs (p. 210); and "locust cakes" in Africa, which are
"very nutritious and tasty" (page unnumbered). G.W.B. Witten, who
describes the preparation of the latter, says, "The first time I ate
locust cakes I had a two-day hunger to flavor them with, but I have eaten
them many times since and enjoyed them."
James Trager (1972), in
the preface of "The Food Book," states: "The world of foods is
changing faster than most of us suspect. . . . Why don't we eat some of the
perfectly edible things most of us never think of eating? . . . While most of
the world is forced to live on monotonously limited diets, the scope of our own
diets is limited by stale habit and familiarity." Trager discusses insects under the heading,
"Mmm, grasshoppers" (pp. 336-339) and begins by saying:
"Western society abhors the idea of eating insects (though we do not
hesitate to eat honey, an insect-manufactured food) and regards insect
eating almost as an unnatural act.
Arabs, and other Africans and Asians who do eat insects, for their part
can scarcely believe Westerners would eat shellfish which, like insects, are
invertebrate arthropods. (Put a lobster
beside a grasshopper and note the similarity of construction.)." Trager continues: "We eat lobsters,
crabs and shrimp, but how about land crabs?
They are a great delicacy at Las Croabas, in Puerto Rico, but in
Florida, where land crabs abound, nobody will touch them. North Americans will evidently eat
arthropods, but only if they come out of the water."
Trager briefly
discusses the usual examples of insect use as food around the world, then says:
But the only insects in American
supermarkets, at least the only kinds offered for sale, are fried grasshoppers,
Japanese ants, bees and silkworm pupae, and Mexican maguey worms (the larva of
a butterfly, Aegiale hesperialis).
All are sold in cans, ostensibly as cocktail snacks but basically for
their entertainment value. Americans'
propensity for 'impulse purchases' is prodigious.
Food habits can change
though; Trager mentions (pp. 331, 333-334) that, "Until the American
diplomat Townsend Harris went to Japan in 1856, no Japanese ever ate beef. . .
. Today Japan is America's biggest export customer for meat, though the
Japanese are famous for their own Kobe beef . . . ." The enormous shift that is needed in
Western attitudes about insects, however, is indicated by the following episode
related by Trager (p. 338):
During the Nigerian-Biafran
war, when thousands of Biafrans were dying of starvation, a London group in the
summer of 1968 appealed for funds to aid the hungry Biafrans. Their full-page
advertisement in the Manchester Guardian showed a large winged insect
and carried the ironic headline, 'Fresh food is now flying in to Biafra.'
Good nourishing stuff it
is, too [said the copy].
Sausage-flies
are full of protein.
So Biafran
mothers feed them to their children. It's the only way to keep them alive.
And if
they can't stomach sausage-flies, there are always rats and lizards.
But
sausage-flies are the easiest meat.
At night they flock to any bright light they see.
Which is
more than can be said of relief planes.
"It was an
effective ad for a just cause, but its strength lay in the shock with which its
readers must have regarded eating insects. African readers would not have been
so shocked."
Reay Tannahill (1973), in
"Food in History," mentions a number of familiar examples of the uses
of insects as food (pp. 48, 244, 252) and states:
The destructive nature of early
American hunting and seafoodgathering may be partly explained by prehistoric
man's inbred taste for flesh food. But
fortunately, even with meat, fish and seafood in short supply, there were insects
he could fall back on. An analysis of
digestive remains from a prehistoric site in Mexico suggests that early man
there was not averse to a meal of grasshoppers, ants or termites. Indeed, there is no good reason why he
should have been. Several insects were
considered delicacies in classical times in Europe, and a number are still
eaten with pleasure in China, Africa and Australia today.
Regarding the arrival
of Columbus in the Caribbean, Tannahill says:
One thing they learned was that the
people ate many foods which appeared revolting to Europeans, among them 'large
fat spiders, white worms that breed in rotten wood, and other decayed
objects.' The peoples of tropical
America had, in fact, a long tradition of eating the plump insects which abounded
in those latitudes, and the agave worm (meocuilin) was a delicacy
greatly favored at the Aztec court and still relished in Mexico in the
twentieth century.
J.K. Loosli (1974),
animal nutritionist at Cornell University, authored an article on "New Sources
of Protein for Human and Animal Feeding" which is different from most such
articles in that he at least mentions insects -- although barely.
Discussed are efforts to develop mixtures of vegetable protein foods to extend
or replace milk; increases in crop production resulting from the Green
Revolution; new protein sources including fish and fish protein concentrate;
soybean protein including soyflour, soymilk, and isolated soybean protein;
amino acid fortification of foods; single-cell protein including dried
brewers yeast, bacteria, algae and something called chlorella in Taiwan;
animals as sources of protein including cattle, goats and other conventional
forms of livestock, and a variety of game animals such as buffalo, zebras and
antelope. Even giraffes, elephants,
rhinoceros and hippopotamus are mentioned as utilizing leaves and small
branches not used by conventional livestock (this would have been a good place
to mention with some emphasis African caterpillars and quite a number of other
edible insects). Loosli's coverage of
insects is found in this excerpt:
Food habits differ widely in various
areas of the world. In addition to the items listed in US food composition
tables, the FAO (1968) table for use in Africa includes the following as foods
of animal origin which are accepted by some groups: animal organs, ants
(flying), ass, baboon, bat, beetles, blood, bushpig, camel, cane rats,
caterpillars, chimpanzee, cranes, crickets, crocodile, dog, donkey, elephant,
flies (lake), frog, gorilla, grasshoppers, hippopotamus, horse, iguana, lemur,
locust, mouse, pigeon, porcupine, rat, rhinoceros, snakes, sparrows, termites,
turtle, wildcat.
In 1974, almost ninety
years after publication of Holt's book, a newspaper reporter, Bud Gordon,
interviewed Eric Classey, owner of the London publishing company that had just
issued its third reprinting of Holt's book (1967, 1969, 1973). "We,ve already printed three editions -
about 6,000 copies - of the book and orders are still coming in," said
Classey. He continued, "Eating
tastes are becoming more adventurous every day and some people are actually
trying the recipes. But the main reason
for the book's success is all the talk about the world's food supplies running out. People seem to want this book on their shelves
just in case worst comes to worst and eating becomes a matter of survival
rather than pleasure." The
reporter, Gordon, listed a few of Holt's recipes, then rendered his conclusion,
"Ugh!"
In his book,
"Butterflies in My Stomach," Ronald Taylor (1975)
discusses a number of aspects pertaining to the food potential of insects. In the first chapter examples are given
showing that there is no logic in the matter of food prejudices and preferences
of different peoples. It is stated
that: "There is nothing inherently wrong, of course, with a preference for
a diet of 'meat and potatoes,' but it is sad when we regard such a diet as
somehow 'superior' or even preferable to the diets of other peoples. The world
contains many nutritious, tasty foods that Western peoples --
because of our prejudices -- have never eaten." It is noted in the second chapter that
insects function both directly and indirectly in the human diet, indirectly
through pollination of food crops, production of honey, and as food for animals
whose flesh is found on our tables, and, directly, when eaten either
intentionally or unintentionally.
Several examples are given of the ways in which insects or insect parts
slip into the Western diet despite the best efforts of government and the food
industry. Taylor says, "It is my
belief that many of the 'Maximum Permissible Levels of Insect Infestation or
Damage' prescribed by the Food and Drug Administration are set as low as they
are not necessarily because more insects would represent a hazard to human
health but because they would be noticed by a public sensitized against insects
in any shape or form." Taylor
notes the environmental cost of this over-sensitivity in the expanded use of
pesticides. The world protein crisis,
the reasons for it, and approaches that are being taken to try to alleviate it
are discussed in the third chapter, and the potential of insects as one of the
viable approaches in the fourth chapter.
Insects are nutritious, have a high food conversion efficiency, have a
high reproductive capacity, and they are mass-producible. Several recycling systems are hypothesized,
one, for example, being the use of termites for recycling the millions of tons
of paper and other wood-derived wastes that are burned or buried daily. Problems of marketing are discussed. The fifth chapter is devoted to methods of
obtaining and preparing insects, the sixth chapter to the use of insects in
wilderness survival, and the seventh chapter to the medicinal role of insects.
Part II of the book is a summary of the insects that are used as food somewhere
in the world. There are a number of
appendices and a bibliography of approximately 150 titles.
Dr. Taylor's book is a
useful introduction to this vast subject for both the scientist and layperson,
although the frequent lack of text citations detracts somewhat from its value
for the former. As stated by the
author, however, it was intended for the general reader rather than the
specialist.
"Entertaining
with Insects. Or: The Original Guide to Insect Cookery" by Ronald
Taylor and Barbara Carter (1976) is an attractive booklet with 85
recipes that incorporate insects as part of hors d'oeuvres, savories, soups,
salads, vegetable dishes, entrees, desserts and candies, breads and pastries or
butters. They carry such enticing names
as cricket crisps, cricket rumaki, sauteed bacon-pepper bees, chirping
stuffed avocados, cricket pot pie, jumping melon salad, mealworm chow mein,
chocolate chirpies, honey bee granola bars and jumping jubilee (prepared over
flaming brandy). The recipes center
around the mealworm (a beetle larva, Tenebrio molitor), and the cricket
(Acheta domesticus), both of which are commercially available, and the
honey bee (Apis mellifera) which can be obtained from your nearest
beekeeper friend. Some of the tastiest
insects were excluded because they were not commercially available although
they can be home-grown. (One of these, the larva of the greater wax moth,
Galleria mellonella, is now commercially available.) Commercial sources are given for mealworms,
crickets and praying mantises, as well as instructions for home-rearing
of mealworms, crickets, bees, and wax moth larvae among others. Also given are instructions for cleaning and
preparing the insects. The last 10 pages of the book are qiven over to
earthworm cookery.
The insect is
unrecognizabe as such in most of the recipes, and your guests would be unaware
of their presence if not told, the
authors say. "This of course, is not to advocate 'tricking' your guests. Rather, it simply emphasizes that objections
to eating insects have little or nothing to do with their taste or food
value. If there is a problem, it arises
from what we bring to the insect rather than what the insect brings to us." A section called "Basics"
describes various ways of treating the insects before their application in the
recipes. These basic preparations
include "basic" cooked insects, dry roasted insects, basic insect
flour, pastry, insect broth, insect marinade, garlic butter fried insects, and
candied insects, as well as sauteed mushrooms and garlic butter which contain
no insects.
Taylor and Carter not
only offer 85 recipes, but they have created complete menus for practically
every gastronomic occasion, to wit: the cocktail party for 30 and the more intimate
party for six; the Bloody Mary brunch and the champagne brunch; the formal
lunch and the California lunch; the French dinner and a hearty dinner; the late
evening supper (for after the theater); and for more kinds of national
celebratory occasions than we knew existed, i.e., the Chinese New Year, a Mardi
Gras party; Birthday of Rome; Florentine Cricket Festival -- a
picnic; Indian Independence Day; and the Japanese Moon-Viewing Festival.
If insects do not soon
gain a foothold in American cuisine, it will not be for lack of exciting
recipes from which to choose. Taylor and Carter say of their Insect Quiche:
"This recipe suggests a whole new dimension in quiche cooking. We're up front about the insects; they're
not camouflaged." Of their
Melanzane Italiano, they say: "We recently served this dish at a small
dinner party. All went well even after one lady asked for the
recipe." Of their Szechwan
Supreme: "A spicy Oriental dish we named after one of the largest
provinces in China. A guest recently called
it 'supremely good.'" Of their Siu
Mai: "A friend of ours describes our Siu Mai as 'bundles of gustatory
excitement.'" Of their Cricket Pot
Pie: "Don't be surprised if this dish is picked up by the manufacturers of
frozen foods." Finally, of their
Egg Foo Yung (see the recipe at the end of this summary of Taylor and Carter),
they say: "Disguised among the bean sprouts, you will find our addition of
mealworms. This is an excellent dish to
serve to those who would like to try insects but feel they 'just
couldn't.' The bean sprouts and
mealworms both crunch and are indistinguishable. We regard this creation as our pièce de résistance."
Of the greater wax
moth larva, Taylor and Carter say (p. 135),
"If only they were commercially
available, we would probably have centered most of our recipes around them.
They are our favorite insect. They are
thin-skinned, tender, and succulent.
They would appear to lend themselves to commercial exploitation as snack
items. When dropped into hot vegetable oil, the larvae immediately swell,
elongate and then burst. The resulting
product looks nothing like an insect, but rather like popcorn. Anyone who enjoys the flavor of potato chips,
corn puffs, or the like would delight in the taste of fried wax moth larvae. We can imagine them fried as above, salted,
packaged in cellophane, and displayed in the supermarket alongside the other
snack items.
"Entertaining
With Insects" is a totally delightful little book, stylishly illustrated
(by John Gregory Tweed) with scenes of happy people of obvious intelligence,
class, charm and substance. None show the slightest hint of mental strain, even
though we know what they have been up to.
As the authors say in their introduction, Bon Appetite!
Recipe for Egg Foo Yung, from Taylor and Carter (1976, pp.
80-81; an example of recipes presented):
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 medium green pepper, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
½ cup cooked mealworms, chopped (see Basic Cooked Insects in Basics)
1 cup bean sprouts
1 can (8-ounce) water chestnuts, drained and thinly sliced
3 tablespoons soy sauce
5 eggs
Hot Soy Sauce (see below)
Barbara Ford (1978, pp.
250-258), in a chapter called "Eating the Unthinkable" in her
book "Future Food," summarises several accounts from the popular press
and interviews with several people who are into insect-eating, mentioning
termites, bees, grasshoppers, and crickets, among a few others. Dewey M. Caron (1978) reminds
that one-third of the American diet comes from plants requiring or
benefitting from insect pollination and that honeybees are responsible for 90%
of the planned pollination. Caron notes
that most of the students in his apiculture class at the University of Maryland
find bee brood to be better than they expected.
Ruth Adams (date?, pp. 169-175),
in a chapter titled "Let's Eat the Bugs!," is an outspoken advocate
of doing just that. She notes the
ravaging of our forests in the northeastern United States by the gypsy moth,
and says:
Our early ancestors and many groups
of primitive people alive today regarded insects as very good food, delicacies,
you might say. Why shouldn't we? Why
should we continue to devastate our land with poisons, year after year, in
order to destroy what is surely one of our best sources of protein - in a
protein-hungry world! Surely
anyone who has ever eaten a snail, an oyster, or a dab of caviar has no excuse
for feeling squeamish or queasy over a fine fat grub.
Adams provides
numerous examples of insect-eating from around the world. As a sampler: "Restaurant keepers in
China in the days of Marco Polo served silkworms made into pies, which were
much like their shrimp pies.
Grasshoppers were eaten by poor Chinese peasants, although they were
called 'brushwood shrimp' as a euphemism, much as a Chinese peasant, sitting
down to a meal of fried rat, called it 'household deer.'" Another: "So important are caterpillars
to the Bantu people in Africa that, when they migrate from the bush into town,
it has been found necessary to ship in caterpillars, cook and package them, and
sell them in food stores. They provide protein, as all food of animal origin
does, plus B vitamins in abundance, and many minerals. It's safe to say, if the Bantu town-dwellers
are faced with eating the refined, processed, carbohydrate-rich foods
which are so inexpensive and easily available in markets, the caterpillars may
well be the single most nutritious item in their meals." And for ingenuity, referring to Mormon
crickets: "Indians in Northern Nevada hunted crickets in somewhat the same
way. They dug trenches 30 feet long, joined at the ends, facing uphill and
covered with stiff grass. Then swinging
fans of grass, they drove the crickets toward the trenches. As the insects
crawled into the grass for cover, the Indians set fire to the grass - and
presto - roast crickets for dinner!"
Adams notes that
experts "all over the world are working feverishly with brewer's yeast,
powdered milk, soybeans, fishmeal, leaf protein, petroleum products and dozens
of other relatively inexpensive foods and non-foods, trying to concoct
some highly-concentrated nutrients which will be acceptable to people who
appear to be the ones who will go hungry or starve before the rest of us do -
primarily the people in the undeveloped countries. . . . If African pygmies can
devise ingenious ways to capture practically all the termites in a given hill,
and Nevada Indians had methods for luring enough crickets to roast and eat for
many days, surely the engineers of our modern technological world can contrive
ways of capturing the insect pests that devastate so much of the
earth." And finally: "And
surely American food technology, which gave us the Space Bar, the candy bar,
the muffin mix and Seven-Up, can invent ways to make this highly
nutritious insect windfall palatable to almost anyone anywhere."
Klausnitzer (1981)
discussed "Edible and curative beetles," citing a number of examples
from around the world (pp. 71-73). He states:
In every age, insects have played a
greater or smaller part in providing food for human beings. Analysis shows that insect protein has a
composition which is of great value to man. The same is true of insect fat. . .
. It is generally accepted that in primitive societies, insects were a valuable
item of diet. . . . Even today in many parts of the world, insects are prized
as a valuable food. A completely
illogical, purely emotionally based aversion to the idea of eating insects is
in essence to be found only among Europeans, although Linné in his Systema
naturae remarks (translation): 'Roast larvae are considered a
delicacy.'
Regarding insects as
Western fare, Klausnitzer mentions:
In the best French restaurants, even
toward the end of the last century it was still possible to eat Cockchafer
Bouillon. The raw material used was
generally the abdomens, although other opinion specified the thorax. Cockchafer Bouillon was said to strengthen
the nerves. In an old cookery book, the
recipe can be found for Cockchafer soup which is recommended in a special diet
for anaemia. 'Take 1 pound of cockchafers, remove the wing cases and legs, fry
bodies in 2 ounces of butter until crisp, add chicken stock and boil; add a
small quantity of sliced calf's liver and serve with chopped chives and
croûtons.'
Kent Martin (1988)
describes a lunch in which Whitney Cranshaw, extension entomologist at Colorado
State University, and several students tried grasshoppers. They were prepared in two ways (after
removing wings and legs), either roasted and salted or dipped in tempura batter
and soy sauce. Results: "Overall,
the roasted males of both species proved tastiest, everyone concurred. Then
again, no one volunteered to take home the leftovers, and Cranshaw hasn't had
requests to repeat the trial. So the
group's unanimous conclusion stands: For the near future, at least, controlling
grasshoppers by eating them isn't likely to catch on in the States." Cranshaw, personally, has tried cabbage
loopers (while a graduate student at the University of Minnesota working on pest
problems for commercial canned-pea growers) and compares their flavor and
texture to shrimp. "People pay
$7.99 a pound for lobster and shrimp, and you don't even want to know what
those crustaceans eat off the ocean floor," he says. "These insects just get to the peas a
little before we do, but we wouldn't dare eat them. Ironically, I think they taste a lot better than canned peas in
the first place."
In a brief discussion
of insects as a source of nutrients (pp. 214-215), Peters (1988)
points out that all major vertebrate groups have representatives that consume
insects on a regular basis and at least one representative that lives
exclusively on insects and other arthropods. For example, partially
insectivorous Pisces include trout, sunfish; Amphibia include salamanders,
frogs; Reptilia include gecko, garter snake; Aves include robins, thrushes,
shrikes, creepers, sparrows, starlings; and Mammalia include moles, skunks,
shrews, bears, foxes, rodents and primates.
Brief tabular data on protein, fat, ash and calorie content are
presented as a basis for saying that, compared to beef and dried salt-fish,
insects are the richer source of nutrients, overall. Peters states:
The point to be made is not that we
should all start eating insects, just because other peoples consume them, but
they do constitute an acceptably nourishing material. The food industry has made great progress in increasing the
palatability of many nutrients. A food
technology sophisticated enough to make spiney dogfish flesh into such
appetizing and acceptable foods as 'hot dogs,' 'corn curls,' 'shrimp roll,' and
shrimp should be able to meet the challenge offered by insect proteins without
difficulty.
Pemberton (1988)
reported finding the Thai giant waterbug, Lethocerus indicus
(Hemiptera), for sale in a Thai food shop in Berkeley, California. The bugs, imported from Thailand and known
as "mangda" in Thai, had been preserved by boiling in salt water.
They were priced at $1.50 each, and, according to the shop owner, are popular
with Thai and Laotian customers who use them to make bug-paste condiments. The bug-paste, called "nam prik
mangda," is usually prepared by combining and mashing a whole bug with
salt, sugar, garlic, shallots, fish sauce, lime juice and hot Thai capsicum
peppers in a mortar and pestle.
"Nam prik mangda" is commonly used as a vegetable dip and as a
topping for cooked rice.
Pemberton found a
commercial preparation of the bug-paste in a San Francisco Thai market, and
clear alcohol extracts of the bug, called "Mangdana essence," in
Southeast Asian markets in Berkeley, Oakland and San Francisco. A few drops of "mangdana essence"
is used as a substitute for a whole bug in the preparation of "nam prik
mangda." These commercial
products, made in Thailand, were priced between 79 cents and $1.20, and are
considered to be inferior in taste to
home-made "nam prik mangda" made from whole bugs. The product labels made no mention of the
bug, and Pemberton speculates that the manufacturers were concerned that openly
marketed insect foods might be culturally offensive in the United States. Pemberton was unable to find L. indicus
in California's Chinese markets as reported by R.L. Usinger in 1956, but
suspects that it is still used by some California Chinese. The author concludes, saying, "The
presence of L. indicus and its products in California markets is
indicative of the great diversity of Asian food entering America."
The Food Insects
Newsletter began publication in 1988 with two issues. Since 1989, there have been three issues per year, in March, July
and November, with 8 or 10 pages per issue in the early years and 12 pages in
subsequent issues. For the first six
years, the Newsletter was free, circulation increased to nearly 3,000 with
recipients in 82 countries. The
founding editor was this author (DeFoliart); in November 1995, he was succeeded
in the editorship by Dr. Florence V. Dunkel.
The Newsletter publishes feature articles, shorter articles and notes,
summaries of technical papers, letters, recipes and other items on every aspect
of entomophagy. It serves as a valuable
forum and source of information for both scientists and laypersons, students,
writers and the mass media.
With regard to insects
imported as food to the United States,
as most American consumers do not think of insects as food, Brickey
and Gorham (1989), Food and Drug Administration, explain that,
". . . .insects fall under FDA's definition of food if that is the
proposed usage by the importer."
More broadly, they state that:
The fact that a food product
consists largely or entirely of insects intentionally processed and packaged
for use as human food does not automatically bar it from commercial
distribution to the American consumer.
Usually, all that FDA requires under the law is that the food, whether
imported or manufactured domestically, must be clean and wholesome (i.e., free
from filth, pathogens and toxins), must have been manufactured, packaged,
stored and transported under sanitary conditions, and must be properly labeled
in English.
"Fried cow or
fried locust -- What's the diff?" is the title of a short article in the
newsletter published by the Department of Entomology at the University of
Minnesota (Anon. 1989). Entomology students, apparently refusing to be
overcome by cultural bias, provide recipes for fried locusts and grasshopper
fritters.
Following a 1988
reprinting by the British Museum (Natural History) of Vincent Holt's 1885 book,
"Why Not Eat Insects," R.I. Vane-Wright, of the Museum,
reviews the subject (1991) and concludes, "Why not eat insects
indeed!" He states:
To many people the idea of eating
insects evokes only feelings of disgust. . . . But what does biology tell
us? A wide range of vertebrates are
insect eaters. The common ancestor of
primates is thought to have been an insectivore. Most monkeys and apes eat
insects -- including the chimpanzee, our closest living relative. In contrast, many humans restrict their
choice of meat to a few vertebrates, molluscs and crustaceans."
Noting that western
European cultures, and nations derived from them, are the only ones which do
not use insects as food, Vane-Wright says, "Food habits are not
conditioned by nutritional tables, calorie counts or balanced diets. What we eat is conditioned by religion, by tradition,
by fashion -- in a word, by culture."
Once established, food preferences are highly resistant to change. Mentioning a number of insects consumed in
Africa, Asia and the Western Hemisphere, including the famous mopani worm, Gonimbrasia
belina, in Africa, Vane-Wright asks: "Could such insects become
acceptable to western palates?
Perhaps. My three-year old
daughter finds fried mopani worms irresistable; her food preferences have yet
to become fixed."
Unpredictability of
supply is a major problem with wild insects for feeding urban societies, even
though many insects are locally or periodically abundant. Advanced culture techniques will be needed
if city dwellers are to be reliably fed on a large scale. Vane-Wright notes that, "the very fact
that eating insects belongs to the hunter-gatherer stage of human evolution may
be a major factor in their rejection by western people; we may unconciously
reject entomophagy as primitive."
Relative to safety, the author notes that unicolorous larvae are generally
thought to be the most suitable, hairy or spiny insects may irritate, and
brightly colored species may be poisonous.
Cooking is always desirable because some insects carry parasites.
Vane-Wright asks
whether, despite insects being a wholesome source of protein, fats and other
nutrients, there is any compelling economic reason for using them as food. His
answer: "Well, there may be.
Raising conventional protein animals, such as cattle, is having a major
effect on the surface of the planet -- large areas of forest burned to make way
for ranching, with all the problems that this short-term economic solution
brings -- including greenhouse gases released by cattle effluent." Also, stimulating the idea that insects are
desirable food could promote additional concern for the conservation of biodiversity,
as well as reducing pesticide pollution and returning grazing land to forest.
Vane-Wright concludes:
"Insects have an undeservedly bad reputation. A handful of noxious species has meant that, too often, they are
all seen as enemies. In their most
infinite variety, insects could yet be our salvation. Is it not time for economic entomologists to develop a more
positive view of their value?"
In Europe, Comby's
(1990) Delicieux Insectes sold so well that German and Italian
translations of the original French edition have been published.
Schmidt and Buchmann (1992)
point out that honeybee brood (larvae/pupae) is not only relished as food in
many indigenous cultures, but has proven nutritional value in the feeding of
non-human animals, particularly songbirds.
In the form of drone powder, brood has proven valuable in rearing
certain insectivorous predators used in biological control programs. There are
other modern products of the hive: honey, beeswax, pollen, propolis, royal
jelly and venom (for treatment of severe sting allergies). These products, when
added to their immense importance as pollinators, make honeybees an excellent
example of a multiple-product food insect that increases economic and
environmental efficiency (see DeFoliart 1997, pp. 120-122).
In a report by the
World Conservation Monitoring Centre, Smith (1992, pp. 361-364)
presents four tables with data relevant to the use of edible insects: Selected
insects used as a human food resource (showing scientific names [63 species or
genera], life stage normally consumed, and area(s) where eaten); Countries with
honey production at or in excess of 10,000 tons in 1989; Nutritional values of
selected vertebrate and invertebrate products (proximate analyses of 8
vertebrate and 19 insect species), and; Efficiency of food conversion for
selected animals (6 vertebrates and 29 insects). From the tabular data, the author notes that, nutritionally,
insects compare well with other animal products, and that efficiency of food
conversion to biomass is also favorable.
Other points made by
Smith include: "Some species are dried and sold to quite a large market
and are important in the local economy"; "The seasonal abundance of
certain species makes them especially important at times of year when other
food resources may be lacking"; "Despite the widespread use of
insects and other invertebrates for food, they represent an under-exploited
resource"; and, "Many species which are agricultural pests are also
used as a food resource in some part of their range, or have the potential to
be utilized." The sources of
insect data cited are among those familiar to students of the subject, but the
report is significant because it is another demonstration that organizations
such as the WCMC are increasingly recognizing the global importance and
potential of edible insects. The WCMC is a joint-venture between partners who
developed the World Conservation Strategy: The World Conservation Union, United
Nations Environmental Programme, and World Wide Fund for Nature (World Wildlife
Fund). It's mission is to support
conservation and sustainable development through providing information on the
world's biological diversity.
DeFoliart (1992)
states:
During the past few years there has
been a new upsurge of interest in insects as food. One factor that may be responsible is an increasing awareness in
the western world that insects are traditional and nutritionally important
foods for many non-European cultures . . . Other factors may be increased pride
in ethnic roots and traditions, increased concern about environment and overuse
of pesticides, and better communication among scientists who are interested in
the subject. Edible insects may be
closer now than ever before to acceptance in the western world as a resource that
should be considered in trying to meet the world's present and future food
needs.
The author treats the subject under four major headings: Traditional
use and economic importance in non-European cultures; Nutritional value;
Relevance to environmentally compatible pest management and sustainable
agriculture; and Economic implications for industrialized countries.
Subheadings under Nutritional value are Protein, Fat, Vitamins and minerals,
Fibre, and Potential hazards.
In a sequel to their
book, Future Stuff, published in 1989, Abrams and Bernstein (1993,
pp. 281-282) predict that edible insect products will arrive in stores or
become otherwise available nationwide in the U.S. by 1995, and they set the
odds at 50:50 that this will happen by 2001. The authors start by saying:
"It's time Westerners got wise.
Most of the rest of the world knows how delicious and nutritious insects
can be. In Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Western Pacific insects are
valuable and traditional food sources.
So what gives with Europeans and North Americans?" Abrams and Bernstein then go on to note that
insects are high in protein, unsaturated fatty acids, vitamins such as
riboflavin and thiamine, and minerals such as iron and zinc (the latter
important for vegetarians). They note
that the flavors of insects are varied and good. Food conversion efficiency of many insects is high, and
therefore, their environmental compatibility, and insect harvest bolsters rural
economies. Furthermore, the edible
insects are clean feeders, unlike shrimps, crabs and lobsters. It is noted that the main obstacle to
commercialization is the need for methods of mass production.
Relative to use of the
mud nests of wasps (mud-daubers, potter or mason wasps), in medical infusions, Starr
(1993) mentions that "Dirt Dauber Blues" is one of two songs
about stinging insects mentioned in a recent book on the blues by Paul and Beth
Garon ("Woman with Guitar: Memphis Minnie's Blues," 1992). The first verse lyrics go like this:
Everybody worrying me, want to know
why I'm so crazy about dirt dauber tea.
Everybody worrying me, want to know
why I'm so crazy about dirt dauber tea.
Because when I was young, they built
their nest on me."
According to Starr, Garon and Garon cite several uses in southern folk
medicine for mud-dauber nests and a tea prepared from them. Starr says the species must be Sceliphron
caementarium or the organ-pipe mud dauber, Trypoxylon politum
(Sphecidae), both of which are common in the southern U.S. According to Starr: "Minnie's remark
that they built their nest on her may be taken almost literally. If Minnie was bed-ridden in an unscreened
house in the summertime, a mud dauber may well have taken to making a nest
right on her bedpost or headboard.
Lying immobile, she would have seen the wasp come and go many times,
gradually building up the nest."
Starr provides further interesting analysis about the song, the mud
dauber's unthreatening buzz, and the easy familiarity between rural southerners
and their wasps.
In an article titled
"Every 17 Years, Like Clockwork" in the Old Farmer's 1995 Almanac, Deborah
Papier (1994, pp. 46-48, 50) reports that "Sometime in the
spring of 1995, residents of Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia,
and North Carolina will begin hearing an incredible and constant racket the
likes of which they will not have heard since 1978." The article gives a good summary of
periodical cicada biology. It notes that
there are approximately 15 broods of Magicicada, each with a 17- or
13-year cycle, and that each year, somewhere, a brood is making its rare
appearance. "In 1995 its showtime
for Brood I, a 17-year cicada that has staked out a portion of the mid-Atlantic
region," says the author, who points out that only the males make music,
and a single cicada can make itself heard a quarter of a mile away. "A chorus of the insects can produce a
din that will register at 100 decibals - the equivalent of a
jackhammer." The cicada is
discussed as a taste treat in a sidebox, under the heading "Bet you can't
eat just one" (p. 50):
Just the right size for popping into
your mouth, with a satisfying crunch and a flavor that has been compared to a
cross between a potato and an avocado, cicadas would seem to be the perfect
snack food. The Native Americans were
quite fond of the crispy critters, but the settlers could never be persuaded to
munch along, and few people today appreciate this rare taste treat. Cicadas are easily prepared: Just dip in
batter until golden brown. Serve with cocktail sauce.
The final annual
meeting of the USDA's Grasshopper Integrated Pest Management (GHIPM) Project,
held in Boise, Idaho, opened with a grasshopper social featuring
laboratory-reared 'hoppers supplied by the Rangeland Insect Laboratory, an
Agricultural Research Service facility in Bozeman, Montana (Sampson 1994). The head chef at the hotel in Boise prepared
stir-fry grasshoppers, grasshoppers tempura, and chocolate-covered
grasshoppers. According to Sampson,
most of those attending the meeting sampled the entomological cuisine,
"but some diehards said they would rather 'treat than eat' the
'hoppers." Preparing grasshoppers
to tempt the palate was credited with helping to draw attention to the
grasshopper problem, especially from local and regional media, and a television
station in Albuquerque, New Mexico, even aired a short film feature about
cooking and eating grasshoppers as a result of covering the meeting. The GHIPM Project involved 8 Federal
agencies, 10 universities, and a number of State departments of agriculture,
private industry and public interest groups in a 9-year effort to improve and
refine grasshopper management techniques.
The GHIPM Project staff in Boise will continue to implement technology
transfer in the western rangeland states and close out the project, according
to Sampson, "perhaps feasting on a final meal of 'hoppers before saying
goodbye." This would seem, in the
opinion of this writer, a most appropriate way to end a government project on
grasshopper pest management.
The Insectarium de
Montreal (1994) published a free leaflet (available in English or
French) on how to rear and prepare your own mealworms (Tenebrio molitor
[Tenebrionidae]). Following some
general discussion on the global use of insects and their quality as food, the
4-page leaflet is arranged under the following headings: How to raise
mealworms, subdivided into sections on equipment, preparation and maintenance;
When can you begin eating the larvae from your "farm"?; Preparing
your insects for use; Start your ovens.
Recipes are provided for mealworm cookies and Mealworm canapes. A similar leaflet on crickets was published
subsequently.
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Ruth Adams date?
Get copy of Chauvin (1967) from Library
Need a new translation of Fabre 1922/1924