The Common Woodlouse, Oniscus asellus, an ingredient for a delicious sauce? I kid you not... (I know it's not an insect, but it's included in the book as you'll soon read!)

It is a quaint little book which was written to enrich the diets of the poor and is composed of 99 pages, which are divided into three sections: the first, ‘Why Not?’, gives arguments for eating herbivorous insects; the second, ‘Insect Eaters’, provides examples of insects eaten in antiquity and those nations, in modern times, which are called uncivilized; and the third, ‘Insects Which Are Good To Eat, And Something About Their Cooking’, gives some recipes and suggested menus. One such menu is:

Menu

Snail Soup
Fried Soles, with Woodlouse Sauce
Curried Cockchafers
Fricassée of Chicken with Chrysalids

Boiled Neck of Mutton with Wireworm Sauce
Ducklings, with Green Peas
Cauliflowers garnished with Caterpillars
Moths on Toast

Whilst some recipes (of sorts) are given, you are not told how to prepare moths on toast. I wonder which moths he was suggesting make a suitable cheese subsitute… As you can see from the delightful menu above, Holt does cover other invertebrates in the book, including molluscs and spiders.

Bear with me here, but I’m almost tempted to try the woodlouse sauce, because Holt writes the following:

I have eaten these, and found that when chewed, a flavour is developed remarkably akin to that so much appreciated in their sea cousins. Wood-louse sauce is equal, if not distinctly superior to, shrimp.

My family were slightly less enthusiastic about trying some of the recipes, but I am sure some of you are more adventurous! Recipes will follow…

Reference:
Holt, V.M. (2007) WHY NOT EAT INSECTS? Whitstable, Pryor Publications Whitstable and Walsall.
Note: The original was book was published in 1885. The version I have is a fascimile.

The time period for the first episode was Victorian Britain and Blumenthal used Lewis Carroll’s ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’ as the inspiration behind his dishes.  The Victorian feast started with a deceptive uniformly pink drink, composed of different layers of flavour-infused milk (cherry pie, custard, hot buttered toast, pineapple, toffee and turkey). This was followed by mock turtle soup (made from the head of a calf) and an entirely edible garden, before culminating with a giant and suggestively wobbling absinthe jelly.

The garden was particularly impressive and contained edible rocks, soil, plants and insects. As part of his research for using insects as food, Blumenthal consulted a Victorian book, ‘Why Not Eat Insects?’ by Vincent Holt. He followed this up with a visit to a famous British entomologist, Dr George McGavin.

McGavin talked to Blumenthal about edible insects and offered him a variety of insect-based foods, including fried crickets and meal worms. Blumenthal then used fried locusts and meal worms, filled with a tomato paste, as part of his edible garden. Even the apprehensive guests tried the cooked insects and seemed surprised that they were not disgusting.

You can watch the episode on the Channel 4 website and read a post-recording interview with Dr George McGavin.

If you are interested in getting a copy of ‘Why Not Eat Insects’ you can find it on Amazon.