To many people it may seem that eating insects is terrible and disgusting. But if you think about it, it's no different than eating the body parts of cows, pigs, and chickens. Moreover, the eastern civilization has been eating insects for quite some time, and the western civilization is gradually starting to connect to this trend. Find out where you should start if you want to try insects.
An Introduction to Entomophagy, or Eating Insects
Insects are an important source of food in many places on our planet, and they are gradually becoming more recognized and popular where they were usually shunned. Why eat them? Insects are abundant and very nutritious. They contain an impressive amount of fat, minerals, vitamins, and most importantly - protein. What they taste like and what their nutritional value is depends on what they themselves eat, what species they are, what stage of development they are in, and how they are prepared. So an insect that in one situation might taste like a chicken, in another situation might taste more like a fish or even a fruit. If you've tried eating an insect before and didn't like it, it's worth considering giving them a second chance. If you've never tried insects before, this article will provide you with a list of insects to start with.
Grasshoppers and crickets
There are about two thousand edible insect species, but grasshoppers and crickets are the most popular when it comes to eating them. They can be eaten fried, baked, boiled or deep fried. In some countries, they are grown to be ground into an edible protein powder. Crickets, locusts and grasshoppers belong to the order Orthoptera.
mopane caterpillars
Almost every species of grasshopper or cricket is edible, but this is not the case for caterpillars. Caterpillars are the larvae of butterflies and moths. Like adult forms, some caterpillars are poisonous. The mopane worm (which is actually a caterpillar) is one of the species eaten. It has a particularly high iron content - from 31 to 77 milligrams per 100 grams (for comparison, 100 grams of dry weight of beef contains only 6 milligrams). Caterpillars are an important food item in Africa but are slowly gaining popularity in other parts of the world. The agave worm is another edible caterpillar species often found in agave liquor. The same can be said for silk and bamboo worms.
palm larvae
Palm grubs are the larval form of the palm weevil. This delicious delicacy is most often fried in its own fat. The larvae are especially popular in Indonesia, Central America and Malaysia. Cooked grubs taste like sweetish bacon, while fresh they are praised for their creamy texture. Palm larvae are tropical creatures that live in Southeast Asia. Although they are usually harvested from palm trees, they are also cultivated in Thailand under artificial conditions.
flour worms
In Western countries, people are already feeding mealworms to their birds and other pets, and they are slowly gaining acceptance as a human food. Mealworms are easy to grow in temperate climates compared to many other edible insects that prefer the tropics. When raised for food, the larvae are fed oats, grains, and wheat bran, with apples, potatoes, or carrots added for liquid. The nutritional value of these larvae is exactly the same as that of beef. For human consumption, they may be ground into a powder or served baked, fried, or deep fried. Their flavor is more like shrimp than beef, which makes sense because mealworms are the larval form of mealworms. Like shrimp, beetles are arthropods. Many other types of beetle larvae are also edible.
Ants
Certain types of ants are highly prized as delicacies. Lemon ants that live in the Amazon jungle have a lemon scent, as their name suggests. Leaf cutter ants are used for frying and taste similar to bacon and pistachios. Honey ants are not cooked at all and have a sweet taste. In Western civilization, the most common ant species eaten is the wood borer ant. You can eat absolutely everything: adult ants, their larvae and even their eggs. Ant eggs are considered a kind of insect caviar and are usually very expensive. Insects can be eaten raw (even alive), fried or ground in the form of an additive to drinks. Bees and wasps belong to the same order of insects, so they are also edible.
Other edible insects and arthropods
Other edible insects include dragonflies, cicadas, bee larvae, cockroaches, and fly pupae and larvae. Earthworms are classified as annelids, not insects. These edible worms are rich in iron and protein. Centipedes are also not insects, but people eat them too. Although they are not insects, people usually put scorpions and spiders in the same category. Like some previous creatures, arachnids belong to the order of arthropods. This means that they are related to crustaceans such as shrimp and crabs. Scorpions and spiders taste like earthy clams. Lice are also edible, however, if you eat them in front of other people, you may well look strangely. Beetles are also arthropods and are edible.
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Insects for food
In conditions of extreme survival, when a person is without food for a long time, loses a lot of weight, protein food is simply necessary. But it can be very difficult to get it, especially in the absence of skills and the necessary "tools". Lost in the taiga or mixed forest, a person is far from always armed and able to hunt large and medium game. Small game hunting and fishing may not bring the desired results, but this fact does not negate the need for protein. Then, you have to pay attention to insects and their larvae.
Many will twist their fingers at their temples and say I won’t eat it, but most likely only a well-fed person will say this, and when you are on the verge of life and death from hunger, any crawling creature can be seen as an exquisite delicacy.
Insects are rich in protein. This is the main thing! Yes, we are all not residents of Southeast Asia, and insects, worms, larvae are far from a delicacy for us. However, there are times when you should discard disgust and eat. Survival in the taiga is just such a case.
So, what insects are edible and suitable for food, where to look for them
Ants.
Also, most species of scorpions are edible and absolutely edible after heat treatment. But flies, their larvae and other insects that come into contact with animal feces should not be eaten. Even heat treatment will not guarantee getting rid of the infection.
Hi all!
Man is born omnivorous, but few are ready to take it to heart and eat, for example, bugs, crickets, snakes, or some kind of disgusting plant. Meanwhile, insects are eaten all over the globe: they have more protein than chicken meat, are full of iron, magnesium and other important elements, and finally, it's just delicious. Approximately 1700 species of insects are edible. And they are regularly eaten in 130 countries of the world! Basically, these are the countries of Asia and Africa. But the fashion for “fried insects” also reaches European countries.
But we will not talk about the culinary delights of other countries, but imagine a situation when you (God forbid) lost all your supplies and equipment, well, or almost everything. Remained: a knife, matches, etc. And you are not in the jungle, but in your native Russia, presumably in the middle lane, in the summer.
Insects
So, what insects do we primarily encounter in the forest? You can eat mosquitoes and midges, but I think that the efforts spent on catching them will not pay off. Let's look for something more high-calorie.
Carpenter beetle larvae.
There are many dry trees in the forest, under their bark the beetles lay their eggs, from which, in turn, the larvae appear. They feed on wood and it is not difficult to get them from under the bark. If you have the opportunity to strip the bark from living spruces, then enough beetles themselves will flock to the smell of fresh bark, which are easy to collect. And eat.
Ants.
They live almost everywhere. Ant eggs are especially nutritious. The ants themselves are edible. Not for nothing that even bears feed on them. In early spring, it is not difficult to collect ants, they come out to "warm up" in large clusters, just have time to collect! And at other times, with a wet stick, you can collect ants without much difficulty. But in the fall they will have to be dug out of the ground.
Wild bees.
Not bad if you manage to find a hollow with wild bees. You can profit not only by the bees themselves, but also by their larvae, and possibly honey. But if you do not have fire, you should not try to get them. Bee and wasp stings are painful, while hornet stings can be fatal. From a dry tinder fungus that grows on trees in the form of a scallop, you need to make a smokebox. Make a gag out of the grass, enough to close the hollow with the bees. And try, after laying the smokebox in the hollow, to close it with a gag. After a while, the insects will die, it remains only to get them. The nest of wasps is quite noticeable and resembles a paper ball. If you bring fire to such a nest, it will burn very quickly, as it consists of cellulose, at the same time fry the inhabitants of the nest and their larvae. When preying on bees, wasps or hornets, remember that these insects primarily react to movement, do not wave your arms or run (or run very fast and far). And one more thing: when bitten, enzymes are released that serve as a guide for other relatives where to bite! Be careful!
Bumblebees, by themselves, are not aggressive. If you do not wave your arms strongly, then honeycombs with honey can be taken out of the nest with your bare hands. Bumblebees live, as a rule, in abandoned mouse holes. But sometimes they build nests in the grass. Bumblebee honey has an indescribable aroma! Found a bumblebee nest - lucky you!
Grasshoppers.
Grasshoppers are a readily available source of protein and fat.
They are easier to catch in cool weather, which will make them somewhat lethargic.
Flies, horseflies, gadflies and other "aviation".
EAT INSECTS THAT EAT YOU!
Like most insects, flies are an excellent source of fat and protein. In a survival situation, do not skip any food source. All this together will help you get through the next day.
Do not forget that insects are not eaten raw! It's best to roast them. As an option, dry, crush and add to other foods.
Amphibians
Frogs, newts and salamanders.
These small amphibians live around freshwater bodies in both warm and temperate climates. Catch frogs at night, when they are easy to spot by their croaking, and kill them with a stick. Eat them whole with their skins off. Newts and salamanders can be found under rotten logs or under rocks in the same places where frogs usually abound.
Shellfish.
These include invertebrates that live in water and grass: snails, toothless, slugs.
Recipe:
To cook bivalve mollusks in field conditions, you first need to catch them. Although, with their speed of about 10 cm per day, the word “catch” sounds ridiculous ... You should not take very small and very large shells. There is nothing to eat in small ones, and large ones are old and excessively hard. The optimal size is 7-10cm. Before cooking, the outer part of the shells must be thoroughly washed from silt, sand and bottom mud.
A good, cookable sink is defined as follows: if the valves are tightly compressed, then everything is in order. The mollusk is alive and holds the valves tightly.
Next, make a small fire. To cook shellfish, you need a lot of coals and heat, but not an open flame. When the fire is mostly burned out, we put the clams on top of the coals. After 3-5 minutes, turn the shells over with a stick on the other side. A well-done clam makes it easy to open the shells. This is a sign of readiness.
You can, of course, rake up the coals and put the clams inside, and then fill it with hot coals from above. But this method has a drawback. Some shells spontaneously open when roasted. And this means that fragments of coal will get inside.
The so-called leg is eaten from the shell - a muscular process with which the mollusk is repelled from the bottom and moved. This is a small formation of light beige or pink color. Everything else must be thrown away.
I myself have tasted these creatures. The main thing is not to digest and not overcook, otherwise you will chew on a “piece of tire”.
Crustaceans.
Of these "comrades" we can meet only one - crayfish. There are several ways to get these inhabitants of the river bottom. Very often they catch crayfish with their hands, marking a certain place in the reservoir where, by all indications, crayfish can live, they go into the water and carefully move along the bottom, inspect all the pitfalls, snags, look under the trunks of trees lying in the water. as soon as they notice the crawling cancer, they immediately, without delay, grab it with their hand, otherwise the cancer can quickly hide in some kind of shelter (remember that crayfish become surprisingly quick in case of danger threatening them). Catching crayfish with your hands is an old, “old-fashioned” way, and, of course, the most primitive of all the others. in addition, this method can not always be applied - only in those reservoirs where crayfish are caught at a depth of half a meter to one and a half meters. In deeper places, you have to use crayfish, etc.
Crayfish go hunting after dark, so the most suitable period for catching them is from 10 pm to 3 am. in some reservoirs, crayfish come out to fish in the early morning, in the wee hours. so that at such a time the hunt for river "hermits" can be very lucrative.
From myself I recommend to always have a women's nylon stocking in your pocket. Takes up minimum space. We put in a stocking something rotten or the same toothless (her meat), a little scorched at the stake. We throw it into a deep place where we can’t catch it with our hands, and go about our business for 30 minutes, decide for yourself how long. Cancer tries to get food and clings to the stocking with claws, it is difficult to unhook. Pulled out like 9 pieces at one time. You can take several stockings.
Reptiles.
Don't neglect snakes and lizards as a possible source of food. All of them are edible. Remove the scaly skin from them and then boil or roast them. Hold them over a fire before skinning them to make skinning them easier.
When it comes to eating insects, many people see a picture like the one in the photo, followed by an oath: “Never!”. I hasten to reassure you: you won’t have to eat this beautiful Madagascar cockroach. And I will surprise you: we already eat insects, constantly and quite successfully. True, until unconsciously.
- At least 5 kilograms of insects are eaten by a person in his life, for the most part alive, without noticing it at all, - General Director of the State Scientific and Production Association "Scientific and Practical Center of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus for Bioresources" Oleg Borodin is a competent source in this matter: he is an entomologist with a degree, so it is better for the impressionable to put up with it right away.
- Larvae, live insects, worms enter the body in many ways, mainly with food - vegetables, fruits, berries. Many of them do not have hard covers, so we do not even chew them,- continues the scientist. - Recently in the store I saw a picture: a whole colony of aphids sits in a salad. They are green in color due to the fact that their food is rich in chlorophyll. If I wasn't an entomologist, I wouldn't have seen them. I am sure that most people would calmly cut such a salad, and unnoticed insects would easily fall into their plate.
The interest that brought the correspondent of the Belarusian Green Portal to the Scientific and Practical Center of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus on bioresources, oddly enough, is related to food. In short: the world's population is growing, there is not enough food for everyone, as evidenced by numerous studies. Now about 30% of the total area of the Earth is used for livestock breeding. In addition, animal husbandry is one of the main sources of greenhouse gases leading to global warming.
Scientists regard the use of insects as a possible promising direction for solving the food problem, in particular, obtaining protein for nutrition. Of course, the idea of eating worms and larvae in the context of domestic cooking looks wild, but let's figure it out. And Oleg Borodin will help us with this.
In his opinion, the first and main problem on the way of insects to our table lies in the psychological plane. It is difficult to break this barrier, and there is no need, Borodin believes.
- The use of insects in food is not meant in the sense in which it is served in various kinds of media. All insects are only a source of matter. You can prepare such a substance in any convenient form that is accessible to the perception of every person. After all, no one takes a chicken and eats it right in the feathers? In relation to insects, there is a prejudice: since it is eaten, it is taken directly with paws, wings - eat, dear comrade. This is how it is presented in many reports about exotic food. Although such a format is, of course, not excluded, he says. - As part of the work of the student research laboratory of the structure and dynamics of biodiversity, working at the Department of Zoology of the Belarusian State University, sometimes a “Gourmet Day” is held, where we prepare such exotics. Thanks to word of mouth, there were about 80 people at the last event.
The next important issue is the effect of insect meat on human health. Many properly prepared species contain not only a lot of protein and little fat, but also carry many rare and useful elements, a set of which can only be obtained with expensive exotic fruits, and sometimes only in pharmaceutical form.
- We are still working on the question of how to use this resource to obtain feed protein for animal husbandry. Studies were carried out on the chemical composition, energy value of insects as food objects for farm animals, and the effect was very positive. As for the impact on a person, the issue has not been purposefully studied. Therefore, there is no reason to assert any negative impact. But it is also impossible to simply extrapolate the results of the studies carried out to humans, although such work is planned. While the question of funding!- notes the interlocutor.
What exactly is the benefit of eating insects?
- In terms of costs, the rule “1 kg of conditional feed is equal to 100 g of the final product” is observed in any case. But classical animal husbandry requires huge fields, expensive feed, time, energy, water and other resources. In the case of insects, things are different. The biofactory will have an incomparably smaller area, representing a virtually closed box. In a closed ecosystem, with minimal areas and the absence of natural regulators (diseases, predators), the mass of insects grown reaches enormous values, which makes it possible to obtain a large amount of protein in a very short time, says the entomologist.
But speed isn't everything. Instead of expensive food, insects can get something that would still go to landfill: various organic waste. By the way, such a project (entomogradation) was launched within the framework of the 100 Ideas for Belarus campaign, where it reached the final,- the scientist develops the idea.
According to him, different types of waste are intended for different types of insects, which will actually dispose of them. The output will be not only feed protein, but also biologically active substances: chitosan, pigments, components for the pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries.
- What do we have at the moment? We are approached by people who are trying to put these technologies into practice. The problem is that it is necessary to clearly work out a number of questions in a preliminary scientific study. So we will get specific developments that can be implemented with additional funding. Now we are all at the stage of developing these methods, with the selection of certain types, the identification of their energy value, chemical composition, etc., - emphasizes Oleg Borodin. - On the basis of our center for bioresources, we plan to open a laboratory complex, where both a demonstration line for processing organic waste into protein material will operate, and the source material will be accumulated for its subsequent implementation in practice.
Finally, I wanted to ask a couple of personal questions.
- Have you eaten insects yourself?
- I ate everything from annelid worms. The main thing is to cook right.
- And raw and alive?
No, I don't see the need for it. As a biologist, I am well aware that insects are potential sources of pathogens of infectious diseases, even if they are non-specialized carriers.
- And how does it taste? What does it look like?
- It all depends on the preparation. When we did "blind polls", people said that it tasted like shrimp and like fish, and a specific, unlike anything taste. There have never been any negative reviews.
- Reference: There are about 1,400 edible insect species on our planet. In more than 90 countries, they are regularly eaten in one form or another.
Experts from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations agreed with the opinion of scientists that people should be persuaded to eat insects instead of meat. First, crickets and grasshoppers have as much protein as a piece of steak meat. Secondly, their cultivation is much cheaper and requires less space.
Experts note that about 1,400 species of insects are edible for humans. They are eaten in 36 African, 29 Asian and 23 countries in North and South America. Moreover, in some states, insects are considered a delicacy, in others - insects are part of the daily diet.
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1. In many cultures around the world, insects, a protein-rich food, are an important part of the daily diet. And now in Europe there are restaurants that serve dishes from insects.
2. But in China, you can see fried locust everywhere, which is sold on wooden sticks.
3. Many people in different parts of the world consider locusts to be a real disaster. But not the Mexicans. In Mexico, especially in its southern regions, in addition to all kinds of tortillas, you will also find fried locusts wrapped in unleavened cakes.
4. And if in Mexico you can buy fried insects simply from a street vendor's stall, then in other Western countries such dishes are more like a delicacy served in expensive restaurants. For example, the New York restaurant of the Explorers Club hosts an annual reception during which insect dishes are served.
5. The Chinese talk about their gastronomic tastes with humor: “We eat everything that flies, except for an airplane, everything that has four legs, except for a table and chairs.” Of course, China in the use of insects is ahead of the rest. Many restaurants specialize exclusively in dishes made from insects.
6. For many people, just the thought of eating this mountain of larvae can cause a strong disgust.
7. But the Chinese are less squeamish. They are ready to absorb even fried scorpions on skewers. After all, taste is everything...
8. This is a real exotic for tourists, but for locals it is an absolute routine: everything that crawls will be used for food.