How to eat maggots (and other tasty treats).
So you think you are serious about survival but you would NEVER eat a maggot, then I would suggest that you are simply NOT serious about survival. I get in this discussion on a regular basis with those that want to do practice survival and preparedness. If you have never been hungry, and I mean starving hungry, you will not understand to what lengths you will go and what sorts of things you will eat. However for those of us who have gone weeks without food, either by design or by bad happenstance, we can assuredly tell you that YOU WILL EAT VIRTUALLY ANYTHING if you are hungry. I am fond of saying, “Hunger is the best seasoning money can’t buy”, which simply means that when you get hungry, everything tastes better.
With that said there is certainly some discretion that needs to go along with the the consumption of virtually all invertebrates and similar creatures. In this blog we wanted to discuss with you a few of those. In the video that follows, I give some of this and other various info on eating maggots and weevils, and then I eat them. (If you are interested in running straight to that then go to 13:50 in the video).
Before presenting this information, I want to make it clear. I do not purposely take the life of any animal or plant without giving thought to what I am doing. Here are some of my favorites:
1. Ants – man I love these little guys. I am a big fan of sour food though, so that is part of the reason. Most ants will secrete an acid when they are alarmed or threatened. Hence, the sour taste that I have come to enjoy. They are easy to harvest as well. As with all of these creatures, I suggest cooking them, but not too long. By doing som you protect yourself from bacteria and parasites on them.
2. Crickets – these little ones and grasshoppers have a sharp recommendation from me, based upon a mistake I made years ago. Pull the legs off first, as they will easily get hung in your throat or at the very least irritate it on the way down, so I avoid the legs all together. Again, roast them by placing them on a small stick, frying them in a pan or a hot rock, or similar.
3. Earthworms – again parasites are an issue here, so you can either fry them on a pan or hot rock, or place them in boiling water. The issue with earthworms is that by their nature they will be full of earthen tissue (dirt). Therefore, you can simply squeeze the dirt out by holding on to one end and pushing it out the other. This will serve to get most of the dirt taste out.
4. Snails and Slugs – yum, yum they are…however they often contain a parasite that is harmful to us, so you must cook them to eliminate this problem. They also have a fairly large digestive system for their size, and removing it makes them taste better. Do this by removing the head and squeezing out the entrails. Then roast, fry, boil, or otherwise cook them up.
5. Maggots – is there any other animal you can think of that would make you revolt more than eating a maggot? Fear not, because in most countries maggots are purposely put on certain foods and then removed and eaten before the actual food. This is because of a unique process that the maggot completes when it is eating. Maggots have no real digestive system of their own. So they secrete a liquid that helps break down their food before they take it in. This allows the maggot to be full of both fatty tissue and amino acids. Which are at times more valuable than the meat they may be feasting on. Watch the video to see some more details about maggots and watch me eat them.