Mealworm mince pies and the invasion of the flies...

Too excited to wait until I had harvested enough to use extensively, I fried up my first small harvest of mealworms and tasted them.

I would describe them as tasting akin to a peanut-flavoured popcorn. Very light with a distinct taste of their own and almost like a shrimp in terms of texture. I was very happy with how they taste on their own; I had expected them to be bland and require plenty of flavour to be added. However, the simple, lightly fried product was great. 

Fried mealworms - tasted like peanut popcorn

To get into the seasonal spirit though, I decided to add them into some mince pies. The recipe for these is below and is a great twist on the classic festive treat:

1¼ lb (560 g) mincemeat Handful of mealworms

12 oz (350 g) plain flour

6 oz (150 g) butter

pinch of salt

For the top:

a little milk

icing sugar

Preparing the mince pies

Beautiful mealworm mince pies, complete with pastry mealworm

These mince pies went down well at work and with friends as they tasted  great and the mealworms were largely unseen. I'm hoping that this introduction will make any future mealworm consumption less of a psychological hurdle. More recipes and response from people I test them on to come in future weeks...


Meanwhile, outside, in the box that I had let stay there to see what happened to the larvae in the cold, I found a disturbing scenario had evolved.

Looking into the box, I could see numerous small flies crawling over the oats and rotting veg. On closer inspection into the detritus I found alarming numbers of fly larvae. They are quite distinct from the mealworms - they start as pale, slightly fatter mealworms but are akin to a worm in the way they move (the mealworms move like beetles with a long body). The older fly larvae are redder and resemble a true worm even more.

The invasive fly larvae - younger white and older red specimens

Due to this invasion I have left this box to act as compost and will use it in the Spring for fertilising.

In the news, there was an interesting article in the Huffington Post about what the author thinks, for vegans, is the "obligation" to eat insects due to the impact of growing crops on animals.

Is it cold in here?

It is getting cold outside here in the UK and the mealworms resident in the couple of boxes that I have out there may struggle to develop outside of their comfort zone of circa 30 degrees. However, I will find it useful to see just how slowly they grow compared to the ones in the toasty airing cupboard.

I have actually taken great pleasure in watching the 'dust'-like larvae grow into the more familiar "worm" (they are still six-legged insects) stage. Some time-lapse footage helps show the different maturity of the larvae.

The less fortunate mealworms that I have started harvesting will be finding it exceptionally cold in the freezer.

In the next month I will be able to use those mealworms in recipes that I have been given by my work colleagues in the highly recommended 'The Insect Cookbook'. I will whip up such dishes as insect Dim Sum; Chili con (insect) Carne; insect vols-au-vent and mealworm cookies. I have been doing the groundwork with friends, family and work colleagues to prepare them for acting as my guinea pigs for which types of offerings are the easiest to get used to, taste the best, look the nicest and basically resemble most familiar meals.

I see it as my task to try and find some easily-accessible routes for the more squeamish side of us to explore eating insects. If you have any ideas of how you'd like to try mealworms then drop a comment below.

There have actually been good signs that the main barrier to the development of insects as a foodstuff in Europe - our psychological aversion - could be less of a problem than predicted. A recent survey shows that the population in parts of Western Europe (in Belgium) are receptive to the idea of eating insects if they are integrated with familiar flavours.

And recently in the US they held a Bugs and Beer  event in San Diego - a great way to try insects, while enjoying a tipple (or eight!).