We've had problems with the computer, so it's taken me a couple of days
to post the following recipe for Woodlouse Sauce for fish. The original
book "Why not eat insects?2 was originally published in 1885, and gives
recipes and suggestions for eating just about every kind of garden pest.


" ... as the shrimp (crustaceans) in every garden namely the common
Wood-lice (Oniscus muriarius). I have eaten these, and found that, when
chewed, a flavour is developed remarkably akin to that so much
appreciated in their sea cousins. Wood-louse sauce is equal, if no
distinctly superior, to shrimp.

The following is the recipe: collect a quantity of the finest wood lice
to be found (no difficult task as they swarm under the bark of every
rotten tree), and drop them into boiling water which will kill them
instantly, but not turn them red, as might be expected. At the same
time put into a saucepan a quarter of a pound of fresh butter, a
teaspoonful of flour, a small glass of water, a little milk, some pepper
and salt, and place it on the stove. As soon as the sauce is thick,
take it off and put in the wood lice. This is an excellent sauce for
fish. Try it."

The little book has a suggested Menu for dinner, in both English and
French. It starts with slug soup and boiled cod with snail sauce. There
follow seven more dishes along similar lines.

The author, Vincent M Holt, says on page 31 "People will, in like
manner, enjoy oysters and cockles, while they abominate snails; they
will make themselves ill with indigestible and foul feeding lobsters
while they look with horror upon pretty clean-feeding caterpillars. All
this would not be so absurd if it were only the rich that were
concerned, for they can afford to be dainty. But while we, in these days
of agricultural depression, do all we can to alleviate the sufferings of
our starving labourers, ought we not to exert our influence towards
pointing out to them a neglected food supply?"


--
Susie Thompson
SPAM BLOCK IN OPERATION! Replace "deadspam.com" with "arrandragons.co.uk" to
reply
by e-mail.

"SusieThompson" wrote in message
...
We've had problems with the computer, so it's taken me a couple of
days
to post the following recipe for Woodlouse Sauce for fish. The
original
book "Why not eat insects?2 was originally published in 1885, and
gives
recipes and suggestions for eating just about every kind of garden
pest.


" ... as the shrimp (crustaceans) in every garden namely the common
Wood-lice (Oniscus muriarius). I have eaten these, and found that,
when
chewed, a flavour is developed remarkably akin to that so much
appreciated in their sea cousins. Wood-louse sauce is equal, if no
distinctly superior, to shrimp.

The following is the recipe: collect a quantity of the finest wood
lice
to be found (no difficult task as they swarm under the bark of every
rotten tree), and drop them into boiling water which will kill them
instantly, but not turn them red, as might be expected. At the same
time put into a saucepan a quarter of a pound of fresh butter, a
teaspoonful of flour, a small glass of water, a little milk, some
pepper
and salt, and place it on the stove. As soon as the sauce is thick,
take it off and put in the wood lice. This is an excellent sauce for
fish. Try it."

The little book has a suggested Menu for dinner, in both English and
French. It starts with slug soup and boiled cod with snail sauce.
There
follow seven more dishes along similar lines.

The author, Vincent M Holt, says on page 31 "People will, in like
manner, enjoy oysters and cockles, while they abominate snails; they
will make themselves ill with indigestible and foul feeding lobsters
while they look with horror upon pretty clean-feeding caterpillars.
All
this would not be so absurd if it were only the rich that were
concerned, for they can afford to be dainty. But while we, in these
days
of agricultural depression, do all we can to alleviate the sufferings
of
our starving labourers, ought we not to exert our influence towards
pointing out to them a neglected food supply?"


--
Susie Thompson
SPAM BLOCK IN OPERATION! Replace "deadspam.com" with
"arrandragons.co.uk" to
reply
by e-mail.

April the 1st its not........In my books it says that you should only
ever roast slugs as if they are boiled etc a very nasty looking scum is
formed.

The woodlouse I would clean first.

With the caterpillars you have to make sure they don't have irritating
hairs or do not contain poisons

With the crustaceans again don't forget freshwater shrimps and daphnia.

Bell

"SusieThompson" wrote in message
...
We've had problems with the computer, so it's taken me a couple of days
to post the following recipe for Woodlouse Sauce for fish. The original
book "Why not eat insects?2 was originally published in 1885, and gives
recipes and suggestions for eating just about every kind of garden pest.

Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall would be proud of you! :-)

...
We've had problems with the computer, so it's taken me a couple of days
to post the following recipe for Woodlouse Sauce for fish. The original
book "Why not eat insects?2 was originally published in 1885, and gives
recipes and suggestions for eating just about every kind of garden pest.

Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall would be proud of you! :-)

I've eaten insects both knowingly and unknowingly but I know a ten year old
girl who cooked and ate (with relish - not the sauce type) a dish of
earthworms. She was one of several military family children who were
learning about survival.

And why not?

Mary

In message , Mary Fisher
writes

I've eaten insects both knowingly and unknowingly but I know a ten year old
girl who cooked and ate (with relish - not the sauce type) a dish of
earthworms. She was one of several military family children who were
learning about survival.

And why not?

We once got a long, bright green caterpillar in with our bright green
Birds Eye frozen peas. The children were about 4 and 5 then - can you
imagine the consternation and then the glee? And the letter I wrote to
Birds Eye about the free protein they were putting in with their peas.
I seem to remember that finding half a caterpillar in school salads was
a fairly frequent occurrence ..........

Of course it's not April 1st, and the little book was written in all
seriousness. My edition is a 1978 reprint of the 1885 original. I
*think* that the original aim of the book can be neatly summed up in the
following excerpt -

"Yet in the country the poorer labourers and their families go on week
after week, attempting to keep body and soul together with nothing but
bread, varied, if possible, by the addition of a taste of bacon, while
hundreds of nutritious and wholesome snails and slugs swarm at night
upon the little cottage garden. Why this wanton and reckless waste of
food? Prejudice, foolish prejudice! Half the poor of England would
actually die of starvation before stretching out their hands to gather
the plentiful molluscus food which their neighbours in France delight
in."

I don't think I need to say anything more ......

--
Susie Thompson
SPAM BLOCK IN OPERATION! Replace "deadspam.com" with "arrandragons.co.uk" to
reply by e-mail.

"Mary Fisher" wrote in message
t...


...
We've had problems with the computer, so it's taken me a couple of
days
to post the following recipe for Woodlouse Sauce for fish. The
original
book "Why not eat insects?2 was originally published in 1885, and
gives
recipes and suggestions for eating just about every kind of garden
pest.

Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall would be proud of you! :-)

I've eaten insects both knowingly and unknowingly but I know a ten year
old
girl who cooked and ate (with relish - not the sauce type) a dish of
earthworms. She was one of several military family children who were
learning about survival.

And why not?

Why not indeed. We are very reserved when it comes to what we consider food
in this country.

"SusieThompson" wrote in message
...

Of course it's not April 1st, and the little book was written in all
seriousness. My edition is a 1978 reprint of the 1885 original. I
*think* that the original aim of the book can be neatly summed up in the
following excerpt -

Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall quoted from it on one of his TV shows and then
went on to make Woodlouse fritters.

"Yet in the country the poorer labourers and their families go on week
after week, attempting to keep body and soul together with nothing but
bread, varied, if possible, by the addition of a taste of bacon, while
hundreds of nutritious and wholesome snails and slugs swarm at night
upon the little cottage garden. Why this wanton and reckless waste of
food? Prejudice, foolish prejudice! Half the poor of England would
actually die of starvation before stretching out their hands to gather
the plentiful molluscus food which their neighbours in France delight
in."

I don't think I need to say anything more ......

Absolutely.

Mary

--
Susie Thompson
SPAM BLOCK IN OPERATION! Replace "deadspam.com" with "arrandragons.co.uk"
to
reply by e-mail.

In article , Mary Fisher
writes


...
We've had problems with the computer, so it's taken me a couple of days
to post the following recipe for Woodlouse Sauce for fish. The original
book "Why not eat insects?2 was originally published in 1885, and gives
recipes and suggestions for eating just about every kind of garden pest.

Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall would be proud of you! :-)

I've eaten insects both knowingly and unknowingly but I know a ten year old
girl who cooked and ate (with relish - not the sauce type) a dish of
earthworms. She was one of several military family children who were
learning about survival.

And why not?

Because it would remind me of school dinners onion soup ;-)
--
Kay Easton

Edward's earthworm page:
http://www.scarboro.demon.co.uk/edward/index.htm

SusieThompson wrote:

: But while we, in these days of agricultural depression, do all we can
: to alleviate the sufferings of our starving labourers, ought we not to
: exert our influence towards pointing out to them a neglected food supply?"

Check out Zack's Bug-Feasting Page: http://eat.bees.net/

Warning: lots of photos of human bug-eaters having lunch.
--
__________
|im |yler http://timtyler.org/

I've eaten insects both knowingly and unknowingly but I know a ten year
old
girl who cooked and ate (with relish - not the sauce type) a dish of
earthworms. She was one of several military family children who were
learning about survival.

And why not?

Because it would remind me of school dinners onion soup ;-)

You had soup at school?

There's posh!

Mary
--
Kay Easton

Edward's earthworm page:
http://www.scarboro.demon.co.uk/edward/index.htm

"Tim Tyler" wrote in message ...
SusieThompson wrote:

: But while we, in these days of agricultural depression, do all we can
: to alleviate the sufferings of our starving labourers, ought we not to
: exert our influence towards pointing out to them a neglected food
supply?"

Check out Zack's Bug-Feasting Page: http://eat.bees.net/

Warning: lots of photos of human bug-eaters having lunch.

Oh! I'd forgotten about that site, thanks for reminding me. It really is
very good.

Mary
--
__________
|im |yler http://timtyler.org/

In article , Mary Fisher
writes

I've eaten insects both knowingly and unknowingly but I know a ten year
old
girl who cooked and ate (with relish - not the sauce type) a dish of
earthworms. She was one of several military family children who were
learning about survival.

And why not?

Because it would remind me of school dinners onion soup ;-)

You had soup at school?

There's posh!

I think it was probably meant to be stew. We certainly didn't have three
courses!
--
Kay Easton

Edward's earthworm page:
http://www.scarboro.demon.co.uk/edward/index.htm

In article ,
Mary Fisher wrote:

I've eaten insects both knowingly and unknowingly but I know a ten year
old
girl who cooked and ate (with relish - not the sauce type) a dish of
earthworms. She was one of several military family children who were
learning about survival.

And why not?

Because it would remind me of school dinners onion soup ;-)

You had soup at school?

There's posh!

Well, lass, to as young and innocent as you, maybe. But to someone
of my era and background, not quite!

At the other end of the scale from posh, soup is traditionally used
for the following purposes:

To make a very small amount of food go a long way, by the use of
a large amount of water and (if you have it) some form of starch.

To make some use of the ingredients that are unpalatable or even
actually uneatable. Skin, bones, woody vegetables etc.

To hide the fact that you are reusing leftovers of the sort that
would traditionally have been fed to the pigs.

To this day, I can remember those soups. Actually, I didn't mind them
much, though I wasn't keen on almost unflavoured flour paste, but posh
they weren't!


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

And why not?

Because it would remind me of school dinners onion soup ;-)

You had soup at school?

There's posh!

I think it was probably meant to be stew. We certainly didn't have three
courses!

Ah. Are you sure it wasn't worm stew?

You're much younger than me so won't have experienced school meals during
the war. We often had porage for pudding. It was similar to the mashed
potato in that it had lumps of cardboard in it. But we were always hungry
....

Mary
--
Kay Easton

Edward's earthworm page:
http://www.scarboro.demon.co.uk/edward/index.htm