the Iowa State University Etymology Club offers this recipe. As the old saying goes, when life hands you crickets, make Chocolate Chirpy Chip Cookies.
Chocolate Chirpy Chip Cookies
Ingredients:
2 1/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
two eggs
1/2 cup dry roasted crickets
1 12-ounce bag chocolate chips
1 cup chopped nuts
Preheat oven to 375°F. In small bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and salt; set aside. In a large bowl, combine the butter, sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla; beat until creamy. Beat in the eggs. Gradually add the flour mixture and insects; mix well. Stir in the chocolate chips and nuts. Dropped by rounded measuring teaspoonfuls onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for eight to 10 minutes.
Note: Recipe can easily be doubled or tripled depending on supply of crickets available.
(Iowa State University Entomology Club.)
Recipe for Dry Roasted Crickets
Note: It is important to know that once insects die, postmortem changes happen rapidly making them unpalatable very quickly. You have to cook them alive like you do a lobster.
Just before cooking, put your crickets in the refrigerator until you are ready to roast them. You don’t want to kill them, only slow their metabolism down so that they stop moving. This allows for arranging them on the cookie sheet with out them trying to get away.
Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Spread a bunch of pre-cooled live crickets out on a cookie sheet. Bake at low temperature for an hour or more until completely dry. Test by crushing a dried cricket with your fingers. If they do not seem completely dried out, roast them some more. However, be careful not to burn them as they taste terrible scorched! Let cool.
Dry Roasted Crickets have a nutty flavor and are very good eaten plain with a sprinkle of salt. They are also very tasty as a substitute for nuts in dessert and cookie recipes. Dry Roasted Crickets can also be blended into flour to be added to bread flours to make lots of different recipes.
There is no single, perfect solution for the control of crickets that are invading the house. Because pesticides are ineffective, Iowa State University Extension recommends that homeowners vacuum or sweep them up and discard.
For Iowans blessed with anabundance of crickets,
