Subject: Why not eat insects?

From: [email-masked] (Mindy Wallis)
Date: Tue, 11 Oct 1994 13:29:25 -0500

I was just reading a rather interesting article in an old edition of
Scientific American (August 1992) about eating insects.  Apparently
Europeans and North Americans are the only ones so squeamish about eating
insects.  The question is: why?  When did Europeans become so finicky?  Do
Native Americans eat insects?

Any answers or speculation are appreciated.

-- 
Mindy
Institute for the Learning Sciences
Northwestern University
[email-masked]

"Don't try and engage my enthusiasm, I haven't got one."
     -- Marvin, the Paranoid Android.

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From: [email-masked] (Leah Jolovich)
Date: 11 Oct 1994 19:43:31 GMT

Mindy Wallis ([email-masked]) wrote:
: I was just reading a rather interesting article in an old edition of
: Scientific American (August 1992) about eating insects.  Apparently
: Europeans and North Americans are the only ones so squeamish about eating
: insects.  The question is: why?  When did Europeans become so finicky?  Do
: Native Americans eat insects?

Well, as for Europeans, I honestly don't know. As for Native Americans, I 
can't quote a reference because I learned this a long time ago:
A tribe of these people (sorry, can't name which) would beat the grass to 
chase the crickets of a general area into a prepared site. Then they 
would set fire to the site, 'toasting' the crickets there. The crickets 
were then collected and used as food (no clue of how they were prepared)

: Any answers or speculation are appreciated.

: -- 
: Mindy
: Institute for the Learning Sciences
: Northwestern University
: [email-masked]

: "Don't try and engage my enthusiasm, I haven't got one."
:      -- Marvin, the Paranoid Android.

Hope this is even remotely helpful.

Hawke

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From: [email-masked] (Todd D. Ellner)
Date: 12 Oct 1994 23:05:26 GMT

[People other than Western Europeans and N. Americans eating insects]

A couple of years ago Natural History magazine had an article about 
the Indians around the Great Salt Lake eating Mormon crickets. Apparently,
the numbers worked out such that it was the most efficient food gathering
strategy during its season in terms of protein and calories received.

Raymond Sokolov, who should be the patron saint of r.f.h, had an article
at about the same time on beetles as food in Central and South America.
Apparently there are lots of people in that part of the world who did, or
still do, eat insects. His recipe ground beetles with corn meal and spices
was not, err, for the European at heart. "Start with five handsful of
large <mumble> or other large flat beetles..."

---
Todd Ellner        | The man who never alters his opinion is like the
[email-masked] | stagnant water and breeds Reptiles of the mind.
(503)557-1572      | --William Blake "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell"

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From: [email-masked] (Peter Chubb)
Date: 16 Oct 1994 22:29:42 GMT

There's an interesting book by Vincent M. Holt called `Why Not Eat
Insects?' published by the British Museum in 1885 (reprinted 1978,
ISBN 0 565 01072 7).  It contains such gems as:
	
	`I shall not ask my readers to consider for a moment the
propriety or advisability of tasting such unclean-feeding insects as
the common fly, the carrion beetle or _Blaps mortisaga_ (teh
churchyard beetle).  But how can any one who has ever gulped down the
luscious oyster alive at three-and-sixpence per dozen  turn up his
nose and shudder at the clean-feeding and less repulsive-looking
snail?'

(and he ggoes on to compare the foul-feeding lobster with the clean
feeding slug, etc).

He goes on to give some interesting sample menus (after explaining how
to collect, prepare and cook various insects and molluscs).  Here's
one to whet your appetite:

	Potage aux Lamaces a la Chinoise  (slug soup)
	Morue bouillie a l'Anglaise, Sauce aux Limacons (Boiled cod
					with Snail Sauce)
	Larves de Guepes frites au Rayon  (Wasp grubs fried in the comb)
	Phalenes a lHottentot (Moths sautes in Butter)
	Boeuf aux Chenilles (Braised Beef with Caterpillars)
	Petites Carrottes, Sauce Blanches aux Rougets (New Carrots
						with Wireworm sauce)

	Creme de Groseilles aux Nemates (Gooseberry cream with
							Sawflies)
	Larves de Hanneton Grillees.	(Devilled Chafer-Grubs)
	Cerfs Volants a la Gru Gru	(Stag beetle larvae on Toast)

And of course, in any top Australian Restaurant specialising in
Australian native foods, Witchetty Grub will be on the menu.

			Regards,

				Peter Chubb

Softway Pty Ltd, P.O. Box 305, Strawberry Hills, NSW 2012, AUSTRALIA
Phone: +61 2 698 2322;  Fax: +61 2 699 9174;  Email: [email-masked]

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From: [email-masked] (Jane Beckman)
Date: 18 Oct 94 23:59:54 GMT

Well, insects aren't on the menu, but my collection of 18th
century cookbooks seem to have a rather large number of
"medicinal" recipes for snails and/or earthworms.  

(In college, when a certain series of Grape-Nuts commercials
were on, I used to joke "Hi, I'm Euwell Gibbons!  Did you know
earthworms are an excellent source of protein?"  And he
actually *said* that last line, in his column in Organic
Gardening.  However, he then went on to state he would have to
be hungrier than he'd ever been before he ate one...)

However, snails and worms fixed with various aromatic herbs
seem to show up in concoctions aimed at consumptives.  (One is
instructed to clean all the dirt out of the earthworms before
beating them up in a mortar to make into a worm/herb gruel.)
--
  Jilara the Exile   [[email-masked]]
That's how freedom will end: not with a bang, but with a rustle of file
folders.  If you love any of your rights, defend all of them!
-Joe Chew, on the net