Insect-eating advocates face a culinary challenge: taste
www.bbc.com
Insects are touted as an option for a healthier, greener diet. Is that enough reason for people to bite?
  • Pyr_Pressure
    2·
    4 months ago

    I would not get over the fact that you can’t really ‘gut’ an insect.

    When you eat an insect, you are also eating insect poop.

  • southsamurai@sh.itjust.works
    1·
    4 months ago

    I mean, I occasional eat insects because they’re tasty when prepared well.

    And I’ve eaten them just to see if there was any internal “ick factor” that I couldn’t figure out how to disassemble and understand. And I’ve eaten them in the context of doing so while exploring the most primitive survival situation I could arrange safely (a bit of an oxymoron, but still).

    Most of them are edible with minimum preparation. Not yummy, but no worse than something like a badly cooked mushroom, or maybe something like pickled pigs feet that’s not bad, but is an acquired taste.

    But then you’ve got crickets that are nutty and umami, be it sauteed, roasted, or fried. You’ve got ants that are delightfully peppery when dry roasted or fried, and provide pleasant crunch as well. Mealworms aren’t horrible, but I don’t like them; but they’re fairly widely enjoyed by people that eat insects.

    Most insects, if you dry them and roast them, then grind them, they’re like adding protein powder to something. You’ll notice the taste there, but it won’t be identifiable as “bug”, it’s more akin to mushroom salt or dried mushrooms, sometimes more like dried shrimp. There’s an earthiness and a hint of “game” to things, but not in a bad way.

    Seriously. You might not want to try free range critters, unless you enjoy risk; but there’s a good bit of truly nice eating out there.

    My advice to anyone wanting to see if they can handle the idea of it, order some of the roasted crickets online, pick the flavor you want (and they’re kinda like potato chips, it’s really about the flavoring dust), and try a handful (or a couple of them if you wanna start slow).

    My bet? If you can overcome the learned “that’s not food” barrier, you’ll probably either enjoy it, or be pleasantly surprised that it isn’t bad. But, and I think this is very important to say, if you can’t overcome that barrier, that “ick factor”, that’s okay. It’s there for a reason, and we aren’t obligated to break it down. It doesn’t make you a better person for breaking it, nor a lesser person for deciding not to. Eat what you want, don’t eat what you don’t.