• Lumidaub@feddit.org
    1541·
    11 days ago

    I would fucking love to get my protein from insects - they’re prohibitively expensive.

    Also, outrage bait.

  • toothbrush@lemmy.blahaj.zone
    97·
    11 days ago

    Crickets and other insects meant for consumption are actually pretty expensive, so that cant be real. There is so much cheaper food that you would actually want to eat.

    I love trying out insect based food, and every time it was a lot more expensive, drier, and tasted worse than other options, so I cant imagine something like this actually going mainstream.

    • Bonsoir@lemmy.ca
      341·
      11 days ago

      They are really expensive because no one is buying them but people who have time and money to spend on changing their habits.
      BUT! They are actually pretty cheap to raise yourself. Crickets can eat leftovers and parts of vegetable you sometimes don’t want to eat like potato peels. We used to do that to feed our lizards and spiders at home. I guess that preparing them for human consumption would be a bit longer (drying and grinding them, or whatever), but still much cheaper than store-bought meat.

      • Obi@sopuli.xyz
        22·
        11 days ago

        Man I can’t help but cringe when reading this and picturing myself handling and eating them. In principle, I’m all for it, but I’m kind of a somewhat squeamish eater and I think for me they would need to be integrated into something where you can’t really tell it’s there (protein bars, soups, whatever).

        • Bonsoir@lemmy.ca
          8·
          11 days ago

          Yeah, even visualization aside, I guess insects are not that interesting to cook compared to your usual animals. You probably won’t make yourself a “steak” from crickets alone. What is usually sold is flour. You can spread it on your salad to add proteins, or make burgers patties with them.
          I write all that as if I was an expert, but I honestly never tried it ^^. One day, probably.

            • MonkderVierte@lemmy.ml
              31·
              10 days ago

              Feeding destruents to a destruent? Two times the loss; crickets/chicken was supposed to save food money, not waste it.

          • jrs100000@lemmy.worldEnglish
            1·
            10 days ago

            Are they? Im sure they must be on an industrial scale. But if you are feeding them kitchen scraps…youve got to have a giant tank, it sounds like some sort of mill to grind them up? That means youll need to dry them out, which is either time and space consuming or it means more equipment. Is there some sort of sterilizing involved so you catch some sort of weird cricket fungus or something?

            Meanwhile, if you get the right breeds, chickens will mostly manage themselves and can at least partly make up for a less efficient metabolism by foraging independently. Also your house doesnt end up infested with crickets and you dont have to change any recipes.

  • niktemadur@lemmy.world
    581·
    10 days ago

    In Mexico, chapulines are a bit of an exotic delicacy from old Aztec cuisine, there’s a place in my town that has them, heated and tossed on a grill with no oil, then served on a corn tortilla with black beans, fresh chopped onions and cilantro, topped with a lime squeeze and green jalapeño salsa.
    They are delicious.

    • OutlierBlue@lemmy.caEnglish
      393·
      10 days ago

      Oh god that sounds disgusting! How can you eat that? I don’t think I could even get to the point of swallowing, let alone chewing it up. I feel a little nauseous just thinking about it. Cilantro?!

        • LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
          8·
          10 days ago

          It always makes me so disappointed. I have tried cilantro probably a hundred times now always thinking yeah, it makes things better for others it has to taste fine this time. So I use it when I make tacos or anything if someone else is eating with me. Yet every time, still tastes like fucking soap. Lol. I really want it to not… Not sure why.

          • Cypher@lemmy.world
            6·
            10 days ago

            I think it’s understandable that you want something to taste nice, especially if others seem to enjoy it and you feel like you’re missing out.

            If you want to know ‘why’ it tastes like soap it is literally genetics. You have a mutation to your taste buds!

            I also have a fun one, I can taste Geosmin and 2-Methylisoborneol, which most people can’t. I can taste it in quantities as low as 10 parts per trillion.

            It is a shitty superpower because it makes water that is perfectly clean and safe to drink taste like mud.

              • Cypher@lemmy.world
                4·
                10 days ago

                Nope, I only know because my cities water supply was switched one day and our tap water went from the being like the finest spring water to a muddy puddle.

                I contacted the water supplier and found out Im a mutant… and that you can mostly fix it by boiling the water.

        • vala@lemmy.world
          2·
          9 days ago

          I’ve eaten crickets. Just not this dish. The ones from the pet store taste bad btw.

          • StupidBrotherInLaw@lemmy.world
            1·
            9 days ago

            Pro cricket snack tip: it’s the cricket feed. Keep them for about a week and feed them straight fruits and vegetables, like zucchini, apples, lettuce, squash, etc. Basically anything with a fairly neutral flavor. Then pull the food about 24 hours before you eat them, so they’ll clear their poop out.They’ll taste much better.

      • _stranger_@lemmy.world
        2·
        9 days ago

        If you’re ever in Austin, Tx, there’s a place called Mexta that serves them as a side. Best ones I’ve had outside Mexico.

        • vala@lemmy.world
          2·
          9 days ago

          Actually just looked it up and they same some places that serve this in my state. Probably going tonight.

    • jg1i@lemmy.worldEnglish
      4·
      10 days ago

      Uh, yeah, exactly. I’m like wat. Chapulines are delicious. At worst they kinda taste like walnuts to me. If people ate them blindfolded in a taco with other ingredients, I don’t imagine too strong of a reaction.

    • glassware@lemmy.world
      6·
      10 days ago

      I’m not going to use digital currency or a digital ID so that I’m protected from myself.

      I am so fucking tired of entering a password, then a code I got by by text, so I can set up an authentication app and register my physical auth key. Why can’t I just use a different strong password for each service, same as I have for the last 30 years without getting hacked.

      You should be allowed to opt out of this bullshit if your password entropy is high enough.

      • Redex@lemmy.world
        4·
        9 days ago

        The point of 2FA isn’t that if your password is weak it saves you. The point is if your password gets leaked somehow (you accidentally enter it on a fake site, the site gets compromised, someone looks over your shoulder), they still can’t enter without the 2FA. I hate SMS 2FA (it’s not even secure) and sites that make you go through 3 steps for some reason, but the 6 digit code ones really aren’t that big of a deal, you just whip out your phone and open an app.

        • glassware@lemmy.world
          3·
          9 days ago

          the 6 digit code ones really aren’t that big of a deal, you just whip out your phone and open an app

          Until you’re in tough times financially and your phone company cuts you off, permanently locking you out of every account with SMS 2FA! This actually happened to me, and there was nothing I could do about it, unlike phishing and shoulder surfing, which are easily within my power to prevent.

      • SmoothOperator@lemmy.world
        1·
        9 days ago

        Realistically it’s not feasible to set up separate systems for separate levels of tech knowledge and expect it to not be abused.

        Yes, it’s more of a hassle to do proper 2FA, but it helps the grannies of the world not be scammed out of their life savings, ultimately enabling greater digitalisation, which I find extremely helpful.

    • Maggoty@lemmy.world
      5·
      10 days ago

      I think the study didn’t say what you think it does. The solid filtrate diet worked according to the summary, and doesn’t conflict with feed for chickens. There are vegan and vegetarian options of course, but saying they aren’t economic isn’t true.

      • VeganPizza69 Ⓥ@lemmy.world
        1·
        9 days ago

        “Economic” depends on the subsidies which exist regardless of the species of those organisms.

        There are many studies on these conversion ratios, I just wanted to point at one that gets into the “waste promise” too.

        Nothing is going to beat eating plants because plants are primary producers of calories, amino-acids, fats.

        What is going to happen, especially in the Western places where meat is in large demand and large supply, is that subsidies for insect farming are going to sustain the usual vertebrate farming.

        • Maggoty@lemmy.world
          1·
          9 days ago

          Okay, but the problem most people are worried about is how much food do they need to eat to get their needs met. Growing in a far denser manner doesn’t matter to people if chicken and bugs carry a higher load in the grocery store. So there’s a compromise there. And crickets look like they slot right into it. In other words you’re confusing Economic with Efficient. They aren’t always the same.

          • VeganPizza69 Ⓥ@lemmy.world
            1·
            8 days ago

            Efficiency is about physics. You can’t break the laws of physics. Economics are not physics and subsidies can go in many different directions.

            If we plan on using the land to store carbon, to restore ecosystems and biodiversity, then land use and land use intensity will have to decrease, which will mean that we have make sure that land is used to feed people, not to feed food.

            If you’re going to say “waste”, don’t bother. Waste firstly has to be reduced, and we need the rest for compost.

            Your appeal to density works much like the bird CAFOs now in the face of HPAI. You think you’ve figured out a cheat, but, over time, it averages back down.

    • vonbaronhans@midwest.social
      5·
      10 days ago

      I’d eat bugs well before I tried to eat another human, billionaire or not.

      But if you gave me a flyswatter to kill a random bug or a gun to kill a random CEO, and I HAD to choose one or the other… the bug would probably make it out alive.

      • ealoe@ani.social
        1·
        10 days ago

        On a pig it’s the part over the ribs I think, I’m not sure which part of a billionaire is the tastiest but I guess you’d just have to roast the whole thing to find out

    • Todd Bonzalez@lemm.ee
      37·
      10 days ago

      The billionaires who own the meat industry thank you for your loyalty. Best not to get the idea in your head that protein can be harvested at home for cheap.

      • zergtoshi@lemmy.worldEnglish
        11·
        10 days ago

        You might have a different understanding of billionaire bacon than the person you replied to.

  • Pothetato@lemmy.world
    81·
    10 days ago

    I’ve never tried whole bugs, only protein bars. I feel like the texture of exoskeleton would be the worst part?

    • Aux@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      12·
      10 days ago

      It’s just crispy when cooked properly. Do you like chips? French fries? Crispy pork? You’ll be at home!

    • JimVanDeventer@lemmy.world
      8·
      10 days ago

      A friend of mine in Zambia taught me how to fry caterpillars. They are like squishy french fries. They are fine. They pair well with chibuku.

    • FlihpFlorp@lemm.eeEnglish
      4·
      10 days ago

      I had dried cricket when my aunt hosted this insane trivia game as one of the “rewards” for guessing incorrectly, it actually wasn’t that bad, didn’t really taste like anything, just a standard salty burnt taste or a weird potato chip

      Not something I’m gonna go out and find to eat but it wasn’t bad

      • don@lemm.ee
        2·
        10 days ago

        Your first sentence says, “it actually was that bad,” but your second sentence says, “but it wasn’t that bad” so I’m going to assume you meant the latter.

      • SoleInvictus@lemmy.blahaj.zone
        3·
        10 days ago

        I’ve only ever had one worse protein bar: the original powerbar. Made in Idaho back in the nineties, they were a uniformly brown (regardless of flavor), chewy, sticky, oddly grain flavored abomination. The OG version came in gold foil wrappers with black text, like it was out of a fancy MRE. They were awful.

    • howrar@lemmy.ca
      1·
      10 days ago

      I imagine they would have the same eating experience as those mini shrimps commonly used in Chinese cooking. Meaning, great tasting but very unpleasant texture due to the shell.