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roasting grasshoppers?

S

SkinnyJoe

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How long does it take to roast a grasshopper, and what tool works the best?
Are some North American grasshoppers better choices than others?
Good place to find them? Best way to catch them?
I'm assuming wooded areas are best, as the likelihood of them being sprayed with chemicals is less?

Other preparation methods? Boiling? Steaming?

Other tips? Thanks. :)
 
I recently read there are 23,000 species of grasshoppers around the world and about 1,000 here in the USA so guess it doesn't make much difference.
 
My wife says she's eaten them in the Phillippines, after taking the wings and legs off. Roasting them on a sharpened stick in the fire. Kind of a nutty taste she says. Grab a bundle of straw to swat them and grab them after you pin them. They seem to like hot , dry weather. If there's lots, set up a net on two verticle poles,circle around, and chase them into it.

Pete
 
hiwa said:
My wife says she's eaten them in the Phillippines, after taking the wings and legs off. Roasting them on a sharpened stick in the fire. Kind of a nutty taste she says. Grab a bundle of straw to swat them and grab them after you pin them. They seem to like hot , dry weather. If there's lots, set up a net on two verticle poles,circle around, and chase them into it.

Pete
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Would a butterfly net work? Can you set traps for them? When are they most active?
 
I caught them by hand, and I wish I had my butterfly net with me though. I live in western Canada (hot summers). When I saw the most was in the middle of the day at it's hottest. As long as I remember, that's when they are the most around,even back east when I lived there. Don't know about any traps other than what I described above.
 
A traditional snack here in Japan called inago. They cook them with soy sauce and sugar. My wife's grandmother goes into the rice fields and catches them by hand.
They taste pretty good, but take the legs off or they get stuck in your teeth :)
 
theres at least 10 outside my door.....im thinking about putting them in the skillet with some shoyu...
 
i ate them alot as a kid, along with fried frog legs and a host of other stuff.

i usually catch them locally in dry grassy fields with some dirt around. i just toss my round brim hat on top of them when i get close enough. then lift the hat gently and reach in with my hand and grab 'em.

i usually pull the heads off as the guts come out with them, dunno if it has any significance but this is the way i learned to do it as a kid from my parents and grandparents so thats what i do.

usually toss them in a skillet with a bit of oil and fry them up. give them a coating of brown sugar with a pinch of cinammon and you've got yourself a tasty crunchy snack.

good times.

have fun,

p.s.

a good storage container for them is an empty 2L pop bottle with a couple holes poked in the top. just put them in and screw the cap back on. when you get home u cut the top off the container so that you can pull them out with your hands. dont cut the entire top off, just enough to shake a few out at a time as some of them may still be alive and kickin'
 
My grandma who was originally from Vietnam explained that she would catch them out in the rice patties, pull out the abdomen, blend it up and then make it into a paste to eat with rice.
When I was about 10 she went out to a wheat prairie and caught them with a large square net, she put them into a 2L water bottle without a cap, she then removed all parts except for the abdomen, shoved a peanut in the hole which originally had the head and then stir fried it so it's crispy on the outside and not tough like it typically is.
Large wheat crickets are preferred to grasshoppers since their shell is softer and typically have a better diet than grasshoppers you'd find in the forest.

My recommendation to you is if you want some grasshoppers, go out to a wheat farm (you want to eat grasshoppers that have been feeding on wheat) with a large net.
 
I have heard that you twist and pull the head off.
I saw a real long worm crawl out of a crushed cricket this summer when I was in Nova Scotia for a survival course so I wouldn't want to eat any of those raw.
 
Just thinking about touching them makes me kind of sick...no offense to anyone just personal.

Why eat them when there are real meat to be had?
 
^ya, alot of them carry worms so complete cooking is necessary.

chocolate covered crickets aint bad either.

too bad there aint any places around here to get some fried frogs legs :D

mcj, when you fry em up u gotta make sure they're fully cooked. you'll know when they change color.


i've tried those peanut stuffed grasshopers before and they're pretty good as well.

covering them in a beer batter (like you would for fish and chips) and deep frying them is also good. can dip them in whatever you like but i prefer dipping them in some mayo or tartar sauce.
 
BlazenGem said:
Just thinking about touching them makes me kind of sick...no offense to anyone just personal.

Why eat them when there are real meat to be had?
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meh, they actually dont taste that bad. i'm usually willing to try all different kinds of food atleast once.


who knows, maybe you'll grow to like them :)
 
I'll stick with roasted nuts.


I thought grasshopper tasted like chicken?
 
At home, I like to use soy sauce (mentioned above), a little cinnamin, and some vegatable oil and fry 'em in a cast iron.

On the "spit" out in the woods, I toast them for about 5 mins or so, rotating and being careful not to burn them.
 
oh crud: remove the legs too. Important. I like to remove the head too just cause I don't find alot of good stuff in there. If they have long wings (completed metamorphosis), that goes too.
 
Chinpo said:
A traditional snack here in Japan called inago. They cook them with soy sauce and sugar. My wife's grandmother goes into the rice fields and catches them by hand.
They taste pretty good, but take the legs off or they get stuck in your teeth :)
Click to expand...

It's quite good. Definitely remove those inedible legs ... and the wings.

Most places around the world, insects are important source of protein. No reason Americans can't get in on the fun.:)

Katydids can also be good.
 
Roast them in an iron skillet (dry, no oil) then dunk in melted chocolate! Tastes like a kit-kat bar, only full of protein.
 
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