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It may have crept into your consciousness recently that raising edible insects is the new green thing to do because they are much more resource-efficient than raising other livestock and emit less greenhouse gas per pound of protein. To put this into perspective, a pound of beef requires almost 1000 times more water to produce than a pound of crickets, and the livestock industry is credited with producing more greenhouse gases (GHGs) than the transportation industry. In contrast, insects are very nutrient-dense (crickets have more iron and calcium than beef), and they are consumed in most cultures, making the United States and our bug-sneering attitudes the minority.
Green is good, agree most folks. But how do they taste?.
It’s difficult to give a simple answer because there are nearly 1500 edible insect species available. Most people never venture beyond the standard dozen or so basics of chicken, beef, pork, lamb, and five to ten varieties of fish when it comes to meat. This is a fairly restricted flavor palette—the “beginner box” of culinary Crayolas—compared to the 250 different insect species that are consumed in Mexico alone. Advertisement.
On the other hand, the majority of the animal biomass on Earth is made up of insects. They live in tens of thousands of different habitats, and many of them are reliant on just one kind of plant for food, which results in an array of flavor possibilities. There are, however, some generalities.
In general, insects have a nutty flavor, especially when roasted. I think that this is caused by the natural fats that they have, along with the crunch of their mineral-rich exoskeletons. For instance, most larvae I’ve tried have a nutty mushroom flavor, while crickets taste like nutty shrimp. Wax moth caterpillars, also known as “wax worms,” and bee larvae are two of my favorites; their flavors are enoki-pine nut and bacon-chanterelle, respectively.
My “Alice in Wonderland” dish of sauteed waxworms and oyster mushrooms was recently served at the LA Natural History Museums Big Bug Cook-off. One of the judges’ children commented that it tasted like macaroni and cheese, while the other judges agreed that my “Bee-LT Sandwich” tasted like it was made with real bacon. Bug-con. Bee-con?.
Despite having a specific taxonomic meaning, the term “bug” is also used to refer to all land-arthropods, including arachnids like spiders and scorpions. The taste of the arachnids is frequently described as a light, earthy version of shellfish, particularly crab and lobster. This makes sense because bugs and crustaceans are biologically quite closely related. However, the group of invertebrates that breathe air has one distinct advantage over their sea-bred cousins: they aren’t bottom feeders. In contrast to a crab, which may be content to eat trash, scorpions, tarantulas, and other edible arachnids all capture their prey live. Advertisement.
These are fairly common examples, and most people can accept the notion of earthy shellfish and nutty mushrooms. However, there are flavors in the world of bugs that are hardly comparable to anything we are accustomed to. As one writer exclaimed after trying one for the first time, “There is simply nothing in the annals of our culture to which I can direct your attention that would hint at the nature of [its] flavor.” The giant water beetle, also known as a toe-biter, practically defies description. “.
However, I will try my best to describe it for the purpose of this article: When fresh, these aggressive beetles smell like a fresh green apple. The filets are small enough to yield, have the consistency of red snapper, and taste like melon soaked in a banana-rose brine. It makes sense that their extract is frequently used in Thai sauces.
Conservative eaters are probably more likely to stick to their tried-and-true favorites, but if you’re anything like me, you’ll find this universe of enigmatic new flavors to be simply too alluring to pass up. In the meantime, the environment will thank you for choosing a more sustainable protein source, and you’ll wonder why you ever thought eating insects was disgusting.
Discover what edible insects taste like. Prepare yourself to learn all about the flavors and textures of different edible bugs.
If you’re curious about how edible insects taste, read this blog post.
Depending on how open you are to trying new foods, you’ll learn which edible bugs to start with.
We will also outline 23 different edible insects, along with their flavors.
Let’s dive into this blog post, which is jam-packed with adventurous flavor.
The only generalization I can make about insects is that their exoskeletons make them very chewy, but that has more to do with texture than taste. I can only roughly compare the following insects to “regular” foods:
Do spiders and insects taste like marine arthropods (crabs, lobsters, shrimp, etc.)? originally appeared on Quora: the knowledge sharing network where compelling questions are answered by people with unique insights.
Answer by Marc Srour, does research on the taxonomy of modern and palaeoinsects, on Quora:
Tenebrionid beetles tend to be extremely bitter on the bad-to-terrible end of the scale, likely because they accumulate quinones through their diet. I drank a cup of fire ants by accident; they tasted awful and gave me the worst drug trip imaginable, which ended in a pool of vomit.
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