The Cicadas Are Coming! You Should Eat Them
By Tyler Foley
By Tyler Foley
Cicadas are weird but majestic creatures that hide out in the soil, reproduce, and pop out of the ground every 17 years. They are about 1 to 1.5 inches long with green or brown bodies with four clear wings. They typically appear when the temperature reaches the mid-60s which experts say will probably happen this year around April. When they come out, experts say it will be like a storm of bugs that will last for weeks.
Some of you may remember seeing a few cicadas in 2017 -- four years early -- due to what experts said was probably global warming or climate confusion. But that was just a small fraction of what you should expect to see flying in your face this year, the official year Brood X, the group that lives along the Eastern seaboard, is due to appear.
Normal people find cicadas gross and annoying, but what if I told you there was a use for them? That's right--you can cook them!
The last big cicada hatching occurred before I was born and I was too young to think about cooking cicadas when they were out a few years ago so I’ve never tasted them, but I’m going to give them a try this spring.
Environmentalists think eating insects could help us be kinder to the earth and to help with food insecurity. Many are rich in protein and it’s much easier to find and eat bugs than to raise cattle and other meat and ship them around.
When I Googled “what do cicadas taste like” I got all sorts of interesting answers.
Sharon Jacob wrote on National Geographic that she ate hers “de-winged, de-legged, and speared on a toothpick” and that when she took a bite she ended up with “a bunch of pointy slabs of body all over the place.” The Washington Post described the taste as “peanut butter. Some others said they are similar to shrimp or asparagus.
There are tons of cicada recipes online that you can try, and here are three of the ones that sounded yummiest: cicada grits, cicada pizza, and for dessert chocolate-covered cicadas.
Charleston Cheese Grits and Blackened Cicadas with Grilled Onions and Peppers from Bon Appetit
Cica-Delicious Pizza from "CICADA-LICIOUS: Cooking and Enjoying Periodical Cicadas"
Dark, white and milk chocolate-covered Cicadas from "CICADA-LICIOUS: Cooking and Enjoying Periodical Cicadas"
Sources:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/capital-weather-gang/wp/2017/05/17/the-giant-bugs-on-the-sidewalks-are-cicadas-that-rose-from-the-dead-4-years-too-early/
https://extension.umn.edu/yard-and-garden-insects/cicadas
https://blog.nationalgeographic.org/2013/06/27/what-do-cicadas-taste-like-adventures-in-bug-eating/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/capital-weather-gang/wp/2013/05/20/cicada-update-latest-coverage-map-and-a-cicada-taste-test/
Image:https://www.npr.org/2020/05/23/861582233/theyre-back-millions-of-cicadas-expected-to-emerge-this-year
Some of you may remember seeing a few cicadas in 2017 -- four years early -- due to what experts said was probably global warming or climate confusion. But that was just a small fraction of what you should expect to see flying in your face this year, the official year Brood X, the group that lives along the Eastern seaboard, is due to appear.
Normal people find cicadas gross and annoying, but what if I told you there was a use for them? That's right--you can cook them!
The last big cicada hatching occurred before I was born and I was too young to think about cooking cicadas when they were out a few years ago so I’ve never tasted them, but I’m going to give them a try this spring.
Environmentalists think eating insects could help us be kinder to the earth and to help with food insecurity. Many are rich in protein and it’s much easier to find and eat bugs than to raise cattle and other meat and ship them around.
When I Googled “what do cicadas taste like” I got all sorts of interesting answers.
Sharon Jacob wrote on National Geographic that she ate hers “de-winged, de-legged, and speared on a toothpick” and that when she took a bite she ended up with “a bunch of pointy slabs of body all over the place.” The Washington Post described the taste as “peanut butter. Some others said they are similar to shrimp or asparagus.
There are tons of cicada recipes online that you can try, and here are three of the ones that sounded yummiest: cicada grits, cicada pizza, and for dessert chocolate-covered cicadas.
Charleston Cheese Grits and Blackened Cicadas with Grilled Onions and Peppers from Bon Appetit
Cica-Delicious Pizza from "CICADA-LICIOUS: Cooking and Enjoying Periodical Cicadas"
Dark, white and milk chocolate-covered Cicadas from "CICADA-LICIOUS: Cooking and Enjoying Periodical Cicadas"
Sources:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/capital-weather-gang/wp/2017/05/17/the-giant-bugs-on-the-sidewalks-are-cicadas-that-rose-from-the-dead-4-years-too-early/
https://extension.umn.edu/yard-and-garden-insects/cicadas
https://blog.nationalgeographic.org/2013/06/27/what-do-cicadas-taste-like-adventures-in-bug-eating/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/capital-weather-gang/wp/2013/05/20/cicada-update-latest-coverage-map-and-a-cicada-taste-test/
Image:https://www.npr.org/2020/05/23/861582233/theyre-back-millions-of-cicadas-expected-to-emerge-this-year