Tag Archives: Entomophagy

Edible Insects are Awsome… What can you do to help?

Is Cricket Flour Actually Tasty?

The short answer is not really. That does mean we shouldn’t eat. Is there something we can do to make cricket flour taste better?

Cricket Salad on Sesame Cracker

Cricket flour is low in fat, high in insoluble fiber, high in cooked protein, and has a ‘distinctive’ flavor. These characteristics are generally not well liked.

Here is what to do about it:

Add Fat – if making snack bars or cookies, make sure there is a good amount of fat in the system. Aim for at least 10%. Some classic and addictive foods like potato chips and pepperoni contain around 30% fat. Sources of fat can simply be vegetable oils. Nuts butters are high in fat. Coconut oil is great because it has a high melting point which can add to a creamy mouth-feel.
Pulverize flour to a very fine particle size – this will decrease the perception of the chitinous shell. Cricket flour sometimes has a sandy mouth feel. A smaller particle size will improve the texture. And the fat added above will lubricate the particles.
Balance taste for optimum cravablility – cricket protein can alter the taste of your favorite recipe. Protein can add bitter and umami tastes. Play around with the amount of salt and sweetener in your recipe. Dont hesitate to add salt. Salt can really improve the overall taste and flavor. Protein can also contribute to a chalky texture like in high protein energy bars. Look at other products to see what they have done to help improve the texture.
Bam! – Use lots of flavoring components to over power the flavor of the cricket flour. This is the oldest and best flavor masking technology in the book. Herbs, spices and other flavorings can provide your product with a unique fingerprint and really improve the overall likability. Keep it simple by using one spice or use a complex blend like pumpkin spices. Dont forget the vanilla.

Natural Habitat Farming of Grasshoppers

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There are grasshoppers everywhere in the Dallas-Fort Worth area of Texas. You see them during the day as they jump away from as you go about your business. And you hear them at night as they sing you to sleep. They thrive in the open plains and short grass.

How can we capitalize on the fact that grasshoppers love it here?

The consensus is that harvesting insects from the wild is risky because we don’t know where they have been (As in the neighbor’s yard where they just sprayed fertilizer and pesticides). What if I go out into a state park and catch some tasty treats there? What if we farm grasshoppers in the ‘middle of nowhere’ Texas?

The Plan

Buy, rent or borrow a large plot of prairie land away from other cultivated land.
Select a grasshopper species that is already successful in that area. Differential Grasshopper?
Foster shrubs and grasses that accommodate that species of grasshopper. Mow the perimeter to prevent inward or outward migration.
Add the grasshopper to the field. You probably need to farm eggs/nymphs in a controlled setting like they do for crickets. I understand this can be difficult but it may be easier if the grasshoppers only live part of their life cycle in a man-made environment.
Sit back and relax as the grasshoppers mature.
Harvest by attaching nets to traditional farming tractors and sweep the plot in an inward spiral. They do this by hand in Asia.
Freeze for storage.

Plan B:

Just go to a middle of nowhere field and harvest. Depending on the time of year there may be plenty to catch. Then send a sample out to a lab for analytical testing including heavy metals, pathogens and pesticide residue. The contamination issue is solved assuming the results come back negative for any bad stuff. Make huge profits with little work by selling the catch to restaurants or processors.

Plan C and more: This Mother Earth News article has great insight on grasshopper harvesting.

Key Points:

Farm insects in their natural habitat and climate.
Instead of controlling the entire farming operation, let grasshoppers be grasshoppers and ensure safety and wholesomeness of the product with post-harvest testing. Companies such as Certified Laboratories specialized in doing such safety analyses.
What insect thrive in your area?

How To Freeze Crickets

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Put them in the freezer… but how long will they remain good for?

The shelf life of a product has been reach when one of the quality attributes (flavor, texture, color) is no longer at an acceptable state. Food products change during storage but only when the changes reach a certain point do we say the shelf life has been reached. Small changes in quality are often acceptable.

Frozen storage changes the flavor

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The main quality attribute that is likely to change during frozen storage of crickets is flavor. There are a couple pathways for flavor changes to happen.

One mechanism is freezer burn – Freezer burn happens when frozen moisture in the crickets sublimates. This leaves patches of dehydrated cricket. The dehydrated areas are much more susceptible to oxidation resulting of off flavor. Crickets have a high surface area to volume ratio so this is definitely something that can happen. Water can also recrystallize affecting texture.

Second is bacterial/enzymatic activity – Raw crickets have bacteria on them as with most raw animal products. Some bacteria are still active at frozen temperatures (but much slower). Bacteria also contain enzymes that can speed up changes. There may also be enzymatic activity happening from cricket enzymes originating in the digestive organs. Eventually bacteria and enzymatic action are going to cause unwanted changes in flavor during prolonged storage.

2 Solutions To Extend Shelf Life

Apply a heat treatment before frozen storage to decrease bacterial load and denature enzymes. Blanching for 2-3 minutes would do the trick. Most vegetables are blanched before frozen storage to inactivate enzymes. Heat treatment will also denature the meat protein so if someone wanted to make sausage, they would need to add some other binder.

Glazing crickets in ice provides a protective coating and limits oxidation. This is done by spraying frozen crickets with ice cold water until a glazed is formed. Alternatively, crickets can be dipped in an ice bath and refrozen. Glazing is commonly used for seafood. Here is a link for glazing basics Seafish.org – Glazing.

Shelf Life Estimates

I looked at data for shrimp and also lobster and crab to support these estimates. These are estimates and and I have not performed any testing.

Crickets	Home Freezer 0F	Commercial Freezer -18F
Raw	1-2 months	3 months
Raw Glazed	3 months	4.5 months
Cooked	3 months	4.5 months
Cooked Glazed	5 months	6 months

How to test shelf life:

Like I said, these are just estimates. We need to start accumulating data. There are a lot of technical considerations to consider when executing a shelf life test. Here are some steps to get you started.

Decide how often you will make an evaluation. Testing once a week should be about right.

At the start, freeze packaged crickets. Make sure you freeze enough crickets.

Evaluate crickets right away on day 0 and on day 1. Some changes might already have taken place due to the freezing process. Take note of flavor, texture and appearance.

Follow the same cooking method as precisely as possible for each evaluation.

Evaluate at set intervals. Also prepare freshly frozen crickets so that you have a comparison. This may not always be feasible so refer back to your notes.

Note when the quality has deteriorated to the point where it does not meet your standards.

Most importantly, share the results and include lots of details like the temperature of your freezer and packaging. Post any shelf life results in the comments section here or send me a message.

Shelf life information is important not just for consumers but also for farmers and processors.