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: