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Offline bluegrass

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Eating brood
« on: July 03, 2007, 09:53:10 pm »
I don't know how many of you have tried it, but for those who haven't it does not taste all that bad...sorta sweet at first than nutty. Not sure what the nutritional value of brood is, if there is any, I know it is popular in some asian countries. Mostly protein I guess, but you can bet that the next time I get to do a talk for some grade school kids I will eat some for them.......that will peak their intrest :-D
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Offline asprince

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Re: Eating brood
« Reply #1 on: July 03, 2007, 10:38:56 pm »
Like most strange dishes............"Taste like chicken"?
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Re: Eating brood
« Reply #2 on: July 04, 2007, 06:35:45 am »
did ya eat it raw or didi you prepare them in any other way?
coz, they don't look very tempting when they're raw.

Offline Robo

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Re: Eating brood
« Reply #3 on: July 04, 2007, 08:50:02 am »
There is a ton of info here -> http://www.fao.org/docrep/w0076e/w0076e19.htm  including nutritional info.  Here is just a portion of the preparation and recipe section :-P


Quote
Honeybee larvae or many other insect larvae can be grown cleanly and easily to enrich staple foods with protein. Many types of insect larvae are eaten in the world and most of them can substitute for honeybee larvae in the following recipes.

8.10.1 Preparation of mature and immature bees for human consumption

One way to kill adults or larvae is by freezing them, but if a large quantity of adult bees are placed in a freezer, many of them may still be alive after several days. Bees are much more sensitive to overheating than to cooling and when placed in the sun inside a plastic bag, will die within a few minutes. However, they must be removed from the sun as soon as they are dead since decay will quickly occur. Larvae should be kept alive as long as possible. Once dead, both larvae and adults need to be processed or eaten immediately (see also section 8.6).

After killing, and particularly if they have been killed by overheating, bees should be rinsed in cool, clean water. Once rinsed, they need to be patted dry and either be frozen, cooked or dried. Even when dead, adult bees can still sting and their venom remains active so that during washing and subsequent operations, the sting may penetrate the skin and inject venom. Dried adults should be ground to avoid any dangers of injury from stinging. The venom remains active after drying or freezing, but is deactivated by cooking or frying.

Once removed from the combs, the larvae are ready for processing and preservation, after a short rinse in fresh, clean water (see Figure 8.9).

If larvae are refrigerated immediately, freezing, drying, boiling or frying should be completed less than 24 hours after collection of larvae to avoid any spoilage since insect proteins decay much faster than those of beef, chicken, lamb or pork. Where no refrigeration is available, processing will have to be started immediately after collection. Cooked larvae or pupae can be preserved by freezing. If there is no freezer or refrigerator, the boiled larvae should be consumed within a day. Fried larvae will keep a little longer.

 
8.10.2 Bakutig traditional recipe from Nepal (Bur2ettg 1990)

Brood combs from traditional honey hunts in Nepal are placed into coarse woven fabric or bags and squeezed. The resulting juice is collected and heated over a fire while stirring. The result is described as having a texture similar to that of scrambled eggs but the flavour should be richer.
Bee larvae in a strainer for rinsing.
Figure 8.9: Bee larvae in a strainer for rinsing.

8.10.3 Frozen larvaeg pupae or adults

Fresh and clean larvae, pupae or adults are frozen in small batches or spread on metal sheets for faster freezing. If plastic bags are used, these should be half filled and flattened on the freezing trays. In larger scale bulk freezing, and especially with pupae or larvae that are already dead, the centre of a large volume freezes more slowly, leaving enough time for larvae or pupae to darken due to oxidation.

8.10.4 Rawg fried and boiled larvae

Honeybee larvae can be consumed like other insect larvae - raw, fried or boiled. The raw larvae can be chewed while still inside the comb or after removal. Chewing comb which also contains pollen further increases the nutritional value. The age of the larvae is not very important, but whiter or newer combs are preferred for chewing.

If skins of larvae are intact after collection, they may be rinsed briefly. Then, larvae can be boiled for 10 minutes (some people prefer 30 minutes) in salty or spiced water just like sea food. Once boiled, they can be added to other recipes or eaten as they are.

Like sea food, larvae may be deep-fried either plain (see Figure 8.10) or after being rolled in flour or dipped in batter. Deep-fat frying at 1500C for only 1 minute is sufficient (Hocking and Matsumura, 1960). After one minute, the larvae should be removed and briskly shaken and drained on a slope, and/or covered with absorbent material to eliminate some of the excess fat. Frying in butter results in uneven browning and more broken larvae.
 Frying bee larvae in oil.


Figure 8.10: Frying bee larvae in oil.
8.10.5 Dried larvae and adults

Larvae and adults may be sun-dried in a solar drier. They should be kept out of direct sunlight and protected from dust and insects. If the weather is not favourable for quick drying, the insects may be roasted carefully to avoid deterioration. After drying, they may be chopped or ground to a powder. The powder may be used to enrich other meals or flours. If used as an additive to animal feed, they can be added whole. The flavour of these meals is not affected if the insects are used in moderate quantities.

8.10.6 Basic general recipes

The basic recipes and many of the following ones are adapted from Taylor and Carter's "Entertaining with Insects " (1976). Some modifications have been included to adjust the recipes for more general use and for readily-available ingredients. Once frozen, smoked, dry-roasted, solar-dried, or made into a flour, insects can be incorporated into basically any other food dish. In any of the dried forms, including the flour, they can also be readily marketed.

Dry roasted larvae or adults

Spread the cleaned, fresh or frozen insects on paper towels (not newspapers) on a cookie sheet. Bake at 70°0 - 940C for 1-2 hours until the desired state of dryness is obtained. Check the dryness by attempting to crush the insects with a spoon.

Alternatively, the insects can be roasted in a large frying-pan, pot or metal sheet over medium heat. If their temperature exceeds 1000C they will caramelize. They should be stirred frequently to prevent them from burning. A coffee roaster could probably be used. Drying larvae by smoking did not produce a good, smoky flavour.

Bee flour

Bees should be dry-roasted or sun-dried as above and reduced (in an electric blender) to a fine powder. For those relying on manual skills, grind or pound until all insects are reduced to a fine powder. This powder can be further enriched with equally fine ground dry pollen pellets or can be mixed directly with any other flour, dough, bread, vegetable dish or soup. It thus remains unnoticeable by taste and texture, but enriches the diet. If kept dry and packed immediately in plastic bags, it should keep fresh long enough for local marketing and consumption. Cold storage is recommended and customers should be alerted to this and its short shelf-life. Do not process or package bee flour during the rainy season since the flour cannot be kept dry enough.

Basic cooked insects
1 cup    Cleaned bees (adults or larvae)
2 cups    Water
1 teaspoon    Salt
2 dashes    Pepper
1 tablespoon    Butter
½ teaspoon    Sage
2 table spoons    Onions, finely chopped

Quickly brown the onions in the butter or other available fat or oil. Then add all the other ingredients. Bring to a boil and simmer for 30 minutes or until tender. The sage can be replaced with other spices such as red peppers (chili peppers), laurel, thyme, rosemary or curry, according to local taste. For immediate consumption, boiling for 5 to 10 minutes is sufficient.

Bee stew

Prepare your favourite soup or stew with vegetables and, instead of meat, add a similar or slightly smaller quantity of whole or crushed insects. The cooking time does not need to be as long as with meat. Only boil until the vegetables have cooked, because the insects will be boiled sufficiently after 10 minutes. If you miss the familiar flavour of meat, add some animal fat or marrow bones - they do not require extra cooking time.

Garlic butter fried bees
¼ cup    Butter or cooking oil
6 cloves    Garlic
1 cup    Cleaned bees (larvae)

Heat the oil or butter over low heat in a frying-pan or pot. Slowly fry the garlic so that in about 5 minutes it is slightly brown. Add the insects and continue frying at the same temperature for another 10 to 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Do not overheat or the garlic will burn.

The insects can then be included in rotis and tacos, used as condiments with rice and tortillas or be offered as appetizers (see Figure 8.11). If drained well, they can be served as snacks at any time or be packaged like nuts.

Honeybee larvae prepared as appetizer in three different ways (from left to right): fried with garlic, boiled and fried in oil after covering with flour.

Figure 8.11 : Honeybee larvae prepared as appetizer in three different ways (from left to right): fried with garlic, boiled and fried in oil after covering with flour.

Insect marinade

A marinade can be prepared from a variety of ingredients to give the insects a stronger and spicier flavour and/or to preserve them for longer.

A very simple but tasty marinade is made of:
1    Large clove of garlic, crushed or minced
1    Dried red pepper (chili pepper) crushed or minced
2 tablesp    Fresh ginger, minced or grated
1 to 1.5 cup liquid    The liquid may be soy sauce with a little sake (rice wine) or grape wine, salt and lemon juice, or other strongly flavoured juices or extracts with salt.
2 table spoons    Onions, finely chopped

Once all the ingredients are combined, cover 1 cup of insects with the marinade and leave it for several hours. The process can be accelerated by simmering the mix for 20 to 30 minutes over low heat.

To pickle or preserve the insects, use a very thick soy sauce or, prepare a spicy and/or flavoured vinegar mixture with herbs and spices. Add the raw or cooked insects. Pickling arvae in vinegar or brandly alone does not produce a pleasant flavour. For long-term storage, some recipes recommend boiling after marination, others only use marination. Each region has its own way of pickling vegetables or meats, which can also be applied to insects. When adding large quantities of insects ensure the vinegar is concentrated enough and is not excessively diluted by water from the insects blood. Drain the vinegar after two days and replace it with fresh marinade. Chutney is a form of pickling where insects can be added, or used to replace one of the other ingredients.

8.10.7 Bee mango chutney

Principal ingredients:
15    Medium size, peeled chopped mangoes
8    Medium size, chopped papayas
1-2 cups    Boiled bee larvae, chopped
To be mixed with:    
3 tablespoons    Chopped ginger candied if possible
¾ cup    Chopped citron or other candied fruit
¼ cup    Chopped candied lemon peel or ½ cup chopped, preserved kumquats
Spice bag:    
2    Cinnamon sticks
30    Whole cloves
¾ teaspoon    Coriander seeds
Sweet vinegar:    
6 cups    Sugar
4 cups    Cider vinegar

Heat the sweet vinegar to boiling, add the other ingredients including the spice bag and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove the spice bag and pour the boiling mixture into clean, sterilized jars, seal and continue heating for another 15 minutes in a water bath. when filling the jars leave a few centimetres of empty space between the chutney and the lid.

Use vinegar of at least 5-6% acetic acid. Other spices such as red peppers, turmeric or curry may be added. When using other vegetables like tomatoes, apples or onions, simmer them first for ½ hour in an equal volume of sweet vinegar.




8.10.8 Bee chapattis
1 ½ cups    Flour (all-purpose, white or whole grain from wheat or other grains)
½ cup    Bee flour (see recipes in 8.10.6)
1 ½ cups    Water
q.s.    Salt, to taste
q.s.    Melted butter, lard or oil

Mix water and flours until a stiff dough is obtained. Add the salt. Knead the dough until it is smooth. Pinch off pieces of dough and mould into balls of about 4-5 cm in diameter. Roll each ball in flour and place it on a flour-covered board. Flatten the balls to approximately 5-6 mm thickness. Heat a large non-greased frying-pan. Place a flattened ball in the pan and fry for 2 minutes on each side. Remove the chapatti and apply a little melted butter or oil on each side and fry until dark brown spots begin to appear on the heated faces.
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Offline bluegrass

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Re: Eating brood
« Reply #4 on: July 04, 2007, 09:32:58 am »
Bee larvae juice.......sounds yummy, but no thanks :-P I was just uncapping brood pulling them out of the cell and eating them......thinking all along that a hungry person would starve before they got enough of them out to feed themselves. I think I will stay away from adult bees.....the killing method does not sound real humane and I don't need the bee gods mad at me. If I could find a good way to get the brood out in large quanity I would pickle up a jar and find somebody to give it to for christmas :-D
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Offline Mici

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Re: Eating brood
« Reply #5 on: July 04, 2007, 10:34:50 am »
wow so much vitamin D, and i would never think adult bees have more proteins than larvae.

i think you could get just enough, but you'd have to eat them in a way you eat comb honey, just chew the comb with larvae inside.

Offline JP

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Re: Eating brood
« Reply #6 on: July 04, 2007, 11:22:37 am »
Bluegrass, what possesed you to eat the brood in the first place? Hunger, curiousity? I know it was probably curiousity but had you been looking at the television show man vs wild or something? I thought the idea was to eat insects when we run out of options, no vienna suasage in the cuppard? I can see that some insects could perhaps be palatable, at least that's what I've heard but I think I would have to cook them first. Is the brood really that tasty? And what does it taste like? Sweet and nutty, does the juice ooze, having trouble with this one.
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Offline bluegrass

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Re: Eating brood
« Reply #7 on: July 04, 2007, 11:49:55 am »
Mostly bordom, we have a large Asian population here because of the Toyota plant and they like to eat them so I figured I would try. They are sweet when you first put them in your mouth, like honey and sort of like almond when you bite them......they do have the texture of eggs, not really juicy. I have eaten bugs before and these are alot better than stinkbugs.
I think I might need to do a youtube video soon;)
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Offline JP

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Re: Eating brood
« Reply #8 on: July 04, 2007, 11:53:21 am »
Tell me you haven't eaten a stink bug!
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Offline Mici

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Re: Eating brood
« Reply #9 on: July 04, 2007, 12:00:30 pm »
stink bugs are eatable?!?!?!?! :shock:

now that you're describing it..i just might have to try them raw!

Offline bluegrass

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Re: Eating brood
« Reply #10 on: July 04, 2007, 12:22:33 pm »
I know I am not the only person who has been walking through a berry patch, picking and eating, and got one with a stink bug on it???? :-X
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Offline sean

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Re: Eating brood
« Reply #11 on: July 04, 2007, 03:38:14 pm »
I know I am not the only person who has been walking through a berry patch, picking and eating, and got one with a stink bug on it???? :-X

Hmm it would seem so.

Offline Cindi

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Re: Eating brood
« Reply #12 on: July 04, 2007, 06:17:51 pm »
Bluegrass, another bug that bugs the heck out of me.  Are raspberries are coming into full season now.  When I get home (tomorrow), I will be picking raspberries til my head swims.  (might look kind of like the gal on the exorcist).  I know for  a very good fact that I am gonna run into those darn stink bugs.  And man do they stink!!!!!  I don't like to eat the raspberries when I pick them cause the stinky bugs taste worse than they smell.  They are actually such amazing little critters, how they emit their lovely aromas through the air.

Stinky stink bugs.

As far as eating bee larvae, I see no purpose whatsoever.  The human's world is so full of proteins and good food that why bother to eat such a tiny little thing, just for curiosity?  OK, gotta give anyone that.  But the amount that would be required to be harvested would be staggaring, why bother, I just can't wrap my head around that one yet. 

The Asians (and many other ethnic groups) love the royal jelly.  Now that stuff tastes simply horrible, extremely bitter.

I remember when we were taking our queen rearing course, we would use the little Chinese grafting tool and it was necessary to keep this apparatus moist so as not to dry out the young, young larve that is seated in the milky looking fluid.  This fluid tasted horrible and it was all I could do to keep the grafting tool moistened in my mouth after each larva graft.  EEEKKKKS.......this is bringing back horrible memories, I must go now.  Have a wonderful day, great life, AND, enjoy those larvae, anyway you do it!!!!  Cindi
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Offline bluegrass

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Re: Eating brood
« Reply #13 on: July 04, 2007, 07:37:15 pm »

cindi
I am glad the bees don't think like you.....Oh I have to visit 1,000,000 flower to make 1lb of honey, its not worth it;)
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Offline Cindi

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Re: Eating brood
« Reply #14 on: July 04, 2007, 10:53:40 pm »
Ha, ha, ha, have the wonderful day, Cindi
There are strange things done in the midnight sun by the men who moil for gold.  The Arctic trails have their secret tales that would make your blood run cold.  The Northern Lights have seen queer sights, but the queerest they ever did see, what the night on the marge of Lake Lebarge, I cremated Sam McGee.  Robert Service

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Re: Eating brood
« Reply #15 on: July 04, 2007, 11:04:26 pm »
If you really want to freak out the school students, pop about 10 drones from a jar in your mouth at the same time, slap your cheeks and screech through you clinched teeth - then let them fly away  :shock: then explain how drones don't have stingers and when the queezy kids come-to you can let them in on the joke too - lol.

Okay, it's my next Youtube Video - sometimes the best gag is only a drone away  :-D

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Offline Cindi

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Re: Eating brood
« Reply #16 on: July 04, 2007, 11:08:01 pm »
John, OK, you are officially a very funny guy, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.  Got me laughing. Have a wonderful day, best of life.  Cindi
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Offline bluegrass

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Re: Eating brood
« Reply #17 on: July 05, 2007, 07:05:22 am »
Now that is brilliant, as long as they fly in the right direction :shock:
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Offline Mici

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Re: Eating brood
« Reply #18 on: July 05, 2007, 08:35:09 am »
Now that is brilliant, as long as they fly in the right direction :shock:

hmmm yeah, what if you hold them in your mouth long enough, that they find the way out throu the nose :-D

Offline Scadsobees

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Re: Eating brood
« Reply #19 on: July 05, 2007, 09:06:27 am »
Um...I've found that sometimes the stressed drones will defecate or ...uh... "trigger" when I pick them up. :shock:

Bee poop don't smell so nice.  Its bad enough on my fingers.  It would be hilarious to see you screech through your clenched teeth, let the drones fly away, and then start spitting like crazy..... :-D

I am not taking that chance.  ;)  Rick
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