Entomophagy Discussion & Experimentation

jared

jared

Fourth Instar
Has anyone on this forum ever cooked and eaten invertabrates, or grown them for the purpose of being a food source?

SInce I entered the hobby I've been looking to farm species of isopods, roaches, and snails for food. It's an alternative source of protein I would really like to experiment with. Especially living in drought-stricken southern California I think it would put my conscious to rest eating food that I've grown that doesn't require a ton of water.

The species of isopods I've collected to eat are A vulgare (very slow growers) and Porcellio laevis (abudnant fast reproducers). I'm leaning towards eating the Porcellio since they are so abundant and quickly reproducing and I think they would be much easier to farm on a larger scale. I'm waiting until all the offspring have matured to cook them as I don't want to be imbibing any of the heavy metals or insecticides the wild caught may have been exposed to. The only sources for recipes I'm going off of are for vulgare, so I have no idea what taste differences might be between species. I think the fact that Porcellio are soft bodied may improve the texture.

As far as roaches go, I'm going to be trying Panchlora nivea large first. I'm really interested to see how the green may subdue or come out after cooking, and how I can make them more aesthetically pleasing than, say a G portentosa. I'm definitely not ready to eat anything that big or meaty.

I'm also going to be collecting local invasive Cornu aspersum and raising them for a generation.

It will be a little while before my colonies are at a point at where I'm comfortable culling them, but I'll be posting the results here when I do.

 
I've never had them... but we eat other invertebrates, so why not roaches? And actually, in the grand scheme of things it sounds very practical. Any idea how the roaches in that video are prepared? the hissers were clearly gutted or something. I Imagine there should be a process you can use to clean them.

 
Im a big fan of this topic i worked for aspire food group for a short time. I saw a youtube video of roaches being farmed for food in china. I believe they use german roaches the big ones we call water bug/roaches here. I think wings and legs are normally removed as its prominantly chiten and has little protien and not paletable. From the insect eaters i have talked to meal worms are best and i bet lesser mealworms and other small darkling beetles would be good to. Superworms not so much in my expience they have a tartness to them.

 
Oh also important is people with shell fish allergys should avoid insects as there are cases of insect allergys for these people.

 
I've tried dubias. If you don't remove their entrails by freezing, thawing, and carefully pulling off the head they taste absolutely disgusting. It's the same as that defensive odor they produce when threatened. If you do, they still don't taste very good.

Wild grasshoppers and locusts, on the other hand, are delicious.

 
I did it. I was cooking some stuff, and after I was done, I froze some banana roaches (adults and nymphs), sow bugs, mealworms, and baby hissers and then fried them with whatever leftover grease was in the pan. I didn't hate it, but I didn't love it either. They tasted kind of nutty, and the exoskeleton bits reminded me of the little pieces of popcorn kernel shell that sometimes get dislodged from the test of the popcorn. Some of the bugs maybe had a bit of juice in them, but it wasn't a lot. In the end, I don't feel like I have a need to do it again. They weren't gross in taste or texture, but they weren't amazing either. I think the meal worms and sow bugs had the best texture. I could see those being sprinkled in dishes for flavor and texture like dried shrimp is sometimes used.

 
Wow, thanks for taking the plunge Varnon. That's comforting knowing that the panchlora are safe to eat. I'm going to be cooking them with soy sauce and sugar to caramelize in my first experiment. I'll post pics when I get the chance.

 
Yeah, I wasn't sure either! But I'm definitely happy for you to step up and be the guinea pig heh. I figured they were fine since they're such common feeders. But still, you're probably the first to eat them. :P

 
So I found an interesting fact and thought this would be the perfect place to share it. Credit goes to curiosity.com- "Scientists found that the protein crystals in the gut of the Diploptera punctata cockroach is 4x more nutritious than cow's milk."

 
Yeah, apparently they want to try and make cockroach milk, definitely weird but as long as it's synthetically made then I would have no problem trying it out.

 
Honestly, seeing that no roaches are being pumped with steroids id be happy to have a bowl of frosted flakes and roach milk lol although it seems the collection process would involve the death of the roach. I assume only the females have this milk but I'm not positive.

 
Only female produce "milk" for thier young but you mentioned a gut protien. Im wondering if the gut protien is in both genders. It will be interesting to see where it goes im concerned they will gmo them to produce more. Btw isnt that how ivory head roaches happened? Sorry for getting to far from entomophagy

 
I would assume that because the protein is being compared to milk and called milk that its only from the females and I have no clue, I've never researched ivory heads lol

 
Hmm fun. :)

One day im gonna try eating roaches. Ive had cricket powder, superworms, and wax worms. So far the best is superworm humus my wife made. We cooked em and used a food mill to seperate meat from shell. Mixed with beans and had a protien rich humus. Will prolly try the same method with roaches one day.

 
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