18 replies to this topic

[Dave Crevie]

My Dad always taught me to take advantage of a windfall. Well, we got one. Cicadas. And believe it or not, people eat these things. So here are a few recipes for cicadas, all at least four star, and a couple five star. Bon appetite! 

 

 

Dipping cicadas

 

 

 

Crispy cicada snack

 

 

 

 

 

Didn't see anything you liked? More to follow. 

[Bill from NH]

Are these the bugs that show up every seven years or so? If they are, people don't want to eat them all up at once or else they'll create a six-year famine right after. If free-dried, they might make good fishing lures.

 

I got free-dried maggots once, but those didn't work well. 

[Dave Crevie]

Cicadas come in two flavors; seven-year and seventeen year. The seven-year variety come out every seven years, are the smaller of the two, and mostly lighter grey with black eyes. The seventeen year variety come out every seventeen years, have iridescent green bodies and red eyes. This year we have the rare occasion that both types emerge at the same time. They start coming out mid-May and continue through June. Rest assured, there are plenty to go around. Oh!  And by the way, some of these goofy bugs got their timing off over the millennia, so we get a few every year.  

 

Cicadas are a delicacy in the deep south, odd because they are so much more abundant in the Midwest. They must be cooked before consumption, but can be freeze-dried after. I'll try to post as many recipes as I have time to download. Even though I view "cicada season" as natures joke. And the reason why I posted near the joke section. (couldn't decide which of the two forums this belonged in) Personally, I tried eating a dry roasted cicada a long time ago. Didn't like it much.  I can't agree with others that claim they taste like lobster. But I suppose it all depends on how it's prepared. 

 

17-year cicada;

 

 

Seven-year cicada

 

[Pappy]

Cicada pizza, mmmm

 

Just kidding. Some people would eat them if you put a French name on them. Hell, some people would eat a worm if you put a French name on them. 

[Bill from NH]

We don't have any of them here in the Northeast. Do they destroy crops, or do they eat something else? How are they caught, with nets or bug zappers? Are there insecticides that are effective on them or do they swarm like locust?

[Bill Seitz]

I'm surprised there weren't any in New  Hampshire. I sure remember them from my youth in Dutchess County, NY. The larval stage eats tree leaves, but the adults may just be a breeding form that doesn't eat and dies shortly after breeding and egg laying. Not much harm to the environment, and the trees seem to survive fine. They're short-lived and are only around a few weeks, then disappear again, so I don't recall any pesticide treatment. Main thing I remember is them dropping out of trees onto you. Probably could be amply harvested off the ground where they fall or picked off trees. I don't remember them flying around a lot, not like grasshoppers or locust.

[Pablo]

My dog loves them, he gobbles 'em like a tater chip right off the grass or street.

Eats earthworms too. Then comes home and eats $4 worth of Tyson's chicken breasts 

[Pappy]

We don't have any of them here in the Northeast. Do they destroy crops, or do they eat something else? How are they caught, with nets or bug zappers? Are there insecticides that are effective on them or do they swarm like locust?

Bill, they are noisy but harmless. They don't destroy crops, you don't need a net to catch them because they'll land right on you. The only time they swarm is if you start up a weed eater, chainsaw or any high pitched device and then they'll come right to you. We have the seventeen year variety here in Cincinnati with red eyes. I think they're neat and I always looked forward to seeing them but since we had them a couple of years ago I'll probably never see them again. 

[Dave Crevie]

Wow. Some real cicada knowledge here. You guys know your stuff. They are harmless as adults, but can kill young trees and bushes if enough of them get into the roots. The adults don't eat. They spend the rest of their lives mating. Then they lay their eggs into furrows they cut into the branches of trees. The adults die off at the end of June and early part of July.  The eggs hatch in the warm days of August, and the larvae burrow their way down the trunk to the root system of the plant. They attach themselves to a root, and live off the sap. When they cut into the root, they create an area of damage that doesn't heal. Enough damage and the plant dies. In this area you will see netting over young trees to keep the bugs off and from laying eggs in the branches. The larvae come out as soon as the ground warms to 68^o.

 

They are easy to catch. They fly so slowly you can actually pick them out of the air. For cooking, though, they say it is best to pick them off the tree trunk as soon as they come out of their larval shell. 

 

Cicada egg furrows;                                                                           Cicada larval shell;

 

 

 

Couple more recipes;

 

 

 

[Pappy]

No thanks, Dave. I don't eat bugs, raw oysters, raw fish, fish eggs, calamari and a lot of other things considered delicacy's. 

[Pablo]

No thanks, Dave. I don't eat bugs, raw oysters, raw fish, fish eggs, calamari and a lot of other things considered delicacy's. 

 

Pappy, I agree with you, but Squid (calamari) is super good and very healthy.

 

Raw meat is dangerous. This is why God created fire.

 

Sorry Dave, but it sounds like a lot of work to eat a bug shish ka bob 

[Pappy]

 

Pappy, I agree with you, but Squid (calamari) is super good and very healthy.

 

 

I have to disagree with you, Pablo. Calamari is the nastiest smelling/tasting/disgusting crap I've ever eaten. It's like chewing on a rubber band except the rubber band taste better. 

[Dave Crevie]

Depends on one's taste. There is an Italian restaurant a few blocks from my home that serves calamari on a "seafood extravaganza" platter. The platter also has octopus, eel, escargot, oysters, clams, blue crab, and a host of other foods that would make you nauseous. The calamari is pretty good, but it is not fried. Rather it is in some kind of alfredo sauce, and quite tender. But the calimari, to me, is tasteless. 

 

I'm done with weird foods. I ate a scorpion on Olivero Street in LA once. Never again. BBQ pork ribs, onion rings, and a nice salad work just fine for me. 

 

By the way, I caught a Humbolt squid off Santa Monica as a kid. My uncle took me night fishing there. You shine a spotlight down into the water, and the squid come up to the light. Put a piece of cheese on a treble hook, and the squid grab it, and won't let go until they are up on the pier. And yes, I got squirted with that smelly black ink. 

 

Roberto's seafood platter;

 

 

[Pappy]

I think it's in Japan that they take a small "live" octopus, twist it around a fork and eat the whole thing in one bite. In England muskrat is a delicacy. 

 

One thing that I thought I'd never eat is cow's tongue. But my wife got one, cooked it up so I tasted it and it was good! Tasted like an extremely tender steak. We know people that buy half a cow at a time and sometimes they get the tongue and don't want it, so we do "them a favor" and take it off their hands. 

[John Luongo]

this time of year in maine, we enjoy fiddle heads and trout. "when the bugs are biting, so are the fish". be well

[Pablo]

OK Dave, as long as we are having fun here, I have recipe for carp.

 

Scale and gut a carp. Nail it to a wood cutting board.

 

Place the carp on the board in a huge pot of boiling and salted water.  Let simmer for 3 days.

 

Remove the carp and eat the board        

[Bill from NH]

If you use a spruce or pine board, both their saps will add flavoring. 

[Mr. M]

 No!

[Dave Crevie]

OK Dave, as long as we are having fun here, I have recipe for carp.

 

Scale and gut a carp. Nail it to a wood cutting board.

 

Place the carp on the board in a huge pot of boiling and salted water.  Let simmer for 3 days.

 

Remove the carp and eat the board        

 

When I was a kid me and my pals would walk the two blocks over to Salt Creek and fish for carp and bullheads. Back then, those were the only fish in the creek due to it being polluted by the towns upstream dumping their sewage into it. Ma had recipes for both. Her favorite fish of all were bullhead and catfish. She had a recipe for carp that involved placing the fillets on a cedar house shingle and broiling them. I have never liked fish, but we ate a lot of it back then because it was what we could afford. We ate a lot of "free food". Dad did a lot of hunting. Our deep freezer chest was always full of turkey, pheasant, morning doves, and deer. (no squirrel or rabbit, though. Those were my grandfather's specialties. Hasenpheffer was pretty good.)  Fish usually got eaten right away.

 

Starting after WWII the DuPage Forest Preserve District started cleaning up the creek. Now you can catch most species of panfish, and down towards Fullersburg you can even catch Northern Pike. Strictly catch and release down by the old mill. Up by me you can still fish at the clearing I fished from as a kid, and once was a Native American village back at the turn of the 20th century.