Re: bug flour

Hi all:

first time posting.

Has anyone ever tried any flour made from insects? Do you have any recipes? Chirp is a company that makes insect flour. I was thinking of looking them up.
I recently rediscovered an old UC Berkeley School of Journalism Mag re: sampling cuisine from around the world that included insects, grubs etc. it mentioned Chirp as a source.

Apparently 80% of the world eats one kind or another. Insects are supposed to be high in protein, and pound per pound, much more sustainable when it comes to metrics like time, water and resources usage, waste production--by factors of a thousand.  I figure the major "yuck" factor of getting around eating bugs, for North Americans, could be overcome if you couldn't tell you were eating bugs. Was just wanting to be adventurous.

I like the Exo protein bars, which use powdered crickets. I haven't tried ordering their raw powder, though. I did order the whole dry roasted crickets from them. They're pretty tasty, but it does feel weird eating straight bugs! The people I offered it to were not willing to try the whole bugs, but one person tried the protein bar.

I definitely prefer it as a protein supplement over soy or whey. Feels like it's more nourishing, whereas the others are just straight protein.

I bet it doesn't taste like bugs either. I wish they would quit the bleaching of our flours; they take away the good only to add them back in. I think the USA is like only 1 or countries that do it.
Bug flour - you'd never know it's in there. Geno

I know this isn't really what you are talking about but once after making my family's bread for the week, I noticed that my flour had weevils in it. I thought for a minute and decided that it was just extra protein and we ate it anyway. It tasted fine. Though I did not point it out to my kids. And I did sift the rest of the flour and stick it in the freezer.

I do know that you can't really make traditional breads and things with straight bug flour. It will be too crumbly and just fall apart. You have to mix it, probably less than half of the total, with a more traditional grain flour.

I went looking & found THIS on sale at $35.00/lb. A little bit steep. (That's pure cricket powder. A little steep for my tastes😕

https://www.cricketflours.com/product/cricket-flour-cricket-powder/

I guess cricket flour is regular flour mixed w/ cricket powder....


https://www.cricketflours.com/product/cricket-cakes/

in my experience, insects are too oily to really grind to a dry-feeling flour. more of a kind of oily meal. i have to wonder if those cricket powders have had oils removed somehow, if they’re actually powdery.

I didn't love the cricket bars I had, and the cricket powder in my smoothies was... Grainy and noticable. But in a bread sounds compelling!! I like a noticeably grainy bread, so why not?

Time and time again I've said: bugs are the food of the future.

Margaux Knox wrote:I didn't love the cricket bars I had, and the cricket powder in my smoothies was... Grainy and noticable. But in a bread sounds compelling!! I like a noticeably grainy bread, so why not?

Time and time again I've said: bugs are the food of the future.

In a documentary I watched, the people trying cricket bread said it was gritty, not grainy. Which is not surprising when you think about their crunchy exoskeleton.

I don't consider something sustainable if the average Joe--let alone poor people of the world can't afford regularly buying something w/o going bankrupt.

Yeah, they gotta pay their employees a decent wage, make money, save for expansion, maintenance, rounding up escaped crickets, etc., but $35.00/lb (on SALE?!?)...

Alan Wong wrote:I don't consider something sustainable if the average Joe--let alone poor people of the world can't afford regularly buying something w/o going bankrupt.

Yeah, they gotta pay their employees a decent wage, make money, save for expansion, maintenance, rounding up escaped crickets, etc., but $35.00/lb (on SALE?!?)...

When I buy crickets at the pet store to feed to my pet frogs, they are $.20 a cricket. Just ten years ago I could get a dozen crickets for a dollar. I should probably just raise them myself- it's not hard but one escaped cricket chirping under your bed at night is pretty annoying. For some reason the price has gone waaaay up. There have even been cricket shortages over the last year.

Lol maybe we need to go into the cricket rearing business. I wonder what the difference is in making food grade vrs pet grade crickets.

Jenny Wright wrote:

Margaux Knox wrote:I didn't love the cricket bars I had, and the cricket powder in my smoothies was... Grainy and noticable. But in a bread sounds compelling!! I like a noticeably grainy bread, so why not?

Time and time again I've said: bugs are the food of the future.

In a documentary I watched, the people trying cricket bread said it was gritty, not grainy. Which is not surprising when you think about their crunchy exoskeleton.

Gritty is a much better word for it actually. Very gritty. And yes, very unsurprising. Lil cronchy boys.

I think once the fad burns out, prices will go down. Bugs are cheap to farm, and very plentiful. But who knows.

Have y'all heard of giant water bugs? Apparently eaten in many places. Very meaty! I'm interested in theory, but also terrified and grossed out after my encounter with one on a camping trip by a lake. But you only need a UV light to attract them, so would be an easy forage if you're not scared !

I just bought a used copy of "Man Eating Bugs". It's about people eating bugs around the world. I'll have to post how it is when I comes in the mail.