Insects for Food-Prep. 101

Intro: Insects for Food-Prep. 101

Many peoples around the world eat insects without batting a lash, gagging or thinking of childhood dares.They eat insects as snacks or main dishes as an abundant source of protein, healthy fats and minerals. Another plus is raising and harvesting insects for human consumption requires much fewer resources than livestock and releases much less greenhouse gases. There are more than 1,900 edible insects on Earth but I will be focusing on three easily accessible ones in this Instructable. This technique works well with many insects though. This Instructable is designed to show you the very first step in preparing insects to get them cleaned and cooked. How you prepare them after is completely up to your creative self.

Crickets
Mealworms
Waxworms

STEP 1: Basic Starting Point

With live insects, it is best to put them in the refrigerator for at least an hour or until you are ready to use them. This will immobilize them by slowing their metabolism. This helps in the collecting and cleaning process. If you prefer, you can place them in the freezer for an hour which will kill them and then you can proceed without fear of reanimation.

I like to make stocks. Stocks of any kind, to infuse or to use for soups. You can use plain salted unflavored water if you like but why not give them a little extra flavor. Depending on what you are using them for, sweet or savory stocks.

In these examples, I used a mushroom stock, a persimmon- Keffir lime leaf and orange zest stock and a basic salted water bath.
After cleaning your insects, which i will show you how to do in the following pages you will put your insects in the boiling water or stock for one to two minutes.

Crickets - 2 minutes
Mealworms- 1 minute
Waxworms- 1 minute

STEP 2: Crickets

I placed the crickets in the freezer for an hour because i didn't want to take the chance of any escape artists.
I picked them out of their container being sure to leave any squished ones behind.
I cleaned them by rinsing them under cool water.
Once the salted water came to a boil, I set my timer for 2 minutes and put the crickets in the boiling water.

STEP 3: Drying Crickets

After 2 minutes, I drained them, put them in a bowl and quickly put them in the fridge to coo, about 15 minutesl.
When the crickets were cooled i placed them on a dehydrator sheet on top of the tray and dehydrated them until they were fully dry but not crunchy.
Store in a mason jar until ready to use

STEP 4: Mealworms

Mealworms are the larvae from the mealworm beetle. They have a very earthy flavor.

Mealworms generally come in a bag with newspaper in it for them to crawl around in.
Empty them into a deep bowl, something they can't crawl up and out of and remove them from the newspaper.

STEP 5: Cleaning Mealworms

I like cleaning these guys while they are still alive and a little slow from the fridge.
You will find that there will be plenty of shed skin and a few dead worms.
It is easy to find the dead ones because they are generally darker in color.
Cleaning. A trick that I found that is a huge help is blowing.
Go outside where you can make a bit of a mess.
Put a handful in a shallow bowl and blow. You will blow all their shed skin away.
After all the dead and shed skin are separated, give them a nice rinse and stick them in the fridge or freezer for an hour.

STEP 6: Cooking Mealworms

For this batch of Mealworms, I used a mushroom stock.
I used mushroom stems and salt and simmered for 2 hours. Again, this is a preference thing and is not necessary. You can use boiling salted water.

I set my timer for 1 minute and put the mealworms in boiling stock for 1 minute then drained them but do not rinse them, put them in a bowl and into the fridge until they cooled, about 15 minutes.

STEP 7: Drying Mealworms

When cooled i put them into the dehydrator until dried but not crispy.
When dried I let them cool and put them in a vacuum sealed bag and into the fridge for a future recipe.
If you are planning to roast them you can skip the dehydrator and stick them directly onto a baking sheet and into the oven.
Set the temperature to 200 degrees F for 2 hours or until desired crispiness

STEP 8: Waxworms

Waxworms are the Caterpillar larvae of the wax moth. They have a very neutral flavor and take on what you cook them with. Perfect for infused water.

They are pretty easy to clean. They arrived in sawdust so I took a large strainer and sifted.
Some of them squeezed through but it was a pretty painless process of cleaning.
Pick out any black dead ones or ones that look like they are on their way out.
Give them a nice rinse and put them back in the fridge for an hour.

STEP 9: Cooking Waxworms

I chose a persimmon- Keffir lime leaf and orange zest stock for this one.
I cooked the persimmon and orange zest separately from the Keffir leaf so I could add in the desired amount of Keffir stock. (totally a preference thing)
Strain stock and bring back to a boil.

STEP 10:

Ok, were ready to cook them.
Set your timer for 1 minute and go.
Pull them out of the refrigerator or freezer and pour them into the boiling stock.
Cook them for one minute, drain them but do not rinse.
Put them in a plate or bowl and put them in the refrigerator for 15 minutes to cool.

STEP 11: Storing

When cooled, stick them in the dehydrator on a dehydrator sheet until dried but not crispy.
Pull them out, let cool before storing.
If you have it, I recommend a vacuum sealer. If you don't a ziplock bag will work. Try to remove most of the air from it
Store in the refrigerator or freezer until ready to use.

Comments

[Virgo85]

Hi, what about their escrementi? Do they get cleaned too? How? Thanks

[willfortflo]

I tried to dry my frozen mealworms in a dehydrator and they all turned black (dark brown). Are they still good to eat ? how can I dry them so they stay nice and golden color ?

[rookie1]

I have a friend who used to own a pet shop, until she retired. She had lizards and other meat eating creatures.Birds love them. She filled a large bucket half full of sand and placed cut up potatoes cut side down and it didn't take long before the meal worms (or maybe they were potato worms came out). She sold them, as well along with crickets. I'm just saying, you can grow your own worms with little trouble.

[abottoms]

i boiled then fried some mealworms in butter... not much left when fried but it ends up tasting like popcorn

[holymoses]

The future of human nutrition will depend on insects and the less vertebrates get killed for it the better it is!

Go on publishing it!

:-)

[Guapi]

Having traveled the Far East extensively I have personally eaten and enjoyed many species of insects and worms which are commonly sold in street stalls, night markets, and in some restaurants. Fried crickets are particularly edible and are good accompaniment to sticky rice and as beer snack. I truly hope more people in the West get over the yuk factor and help make this mainstream. Thank you rimamonsta for "tastefully" making this instructable.

[rimamonsta]

Thank you for the comment. I really appreciate the feedback. I, unfortunately have not yet traveled the far east but intend to one day. It's funny, I actually had the yuk factor too and that is one of the reasons I started experimenting... to get over it.

[MrFrancis]

Thanks for posting this info. Being that the bugs are low on the food chain means less chance of contamination. I have been all over Asia and resisted due to my own gross factor. You are right about preparedness.

[cspann560]

Intriguing... I'm not too sure I can get over the yuck factor but I have inadvertently eaten my share of bugs on long summer bicycle rides

[lbrewer42]

BTW - I have seen where some crickets have tapeworms - seriously. I have seen some stepped on and a long white worm comes out - amazingly long. I guess they are tapeworms. This really adds to the ick factor when i think about eating them. I know if I was starving it would likely mean nothing though.

[Asa J]

Probably not a literal tapeworm

In popular science they just had a short blurb about parasitic nematodes living in ants. Super creepy. Then again (I'm googling it....... still googling......) trichinella that lives in bacon is also a nematode. We forgive bacon it's nasty parasitic little secret, why not insects? Heck, wrap the bugs in bacon and it should be all good!

[rimamonsta]

Yup, that is YUK for sure, especially cause you need to cook meat with tapeworms very well to kill them and cooking a cricket is quick. Thanks for that information. I did not know that was a thing. I'll have to look into that.

[lbrewer42]

I found a Youtube video of exactly what I am talking about:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Njxv1nPiKEk

yuck!

Now of course if it was cooked long enough it probably would just mean more protein - the parasite become the prey LOL!

[kracken42]

Yum! Looks great!

[RedKnight57]

Haven't tried these worms yet, but have had roasted crickets with lime & chili,, while drinking beer. Pretty tasty, have had roasted grasshoppers, we just speared them and roasted them over coals. have also had them roasted in an oven until crisp, then dipped in honey. They had a mild corn nut taste to them.. Good job on the instructable.

[rimamonsta]

my pleasure. heehee...

[Branebot]

Love this idea and would love to try this...

Keep up the great work!

[rimamonsta]

Thank you

-r

[Eromanga]

Cool instructable - thanks.

[rimamonsta]

Thank you