Bug Cookbook Serves Up Interesting Recipes

Insect cookbook

The Insect Cookbook Explores Dishes Featuring Bugs

When you think about a delicious meal, a buffet of bugs probably doesn't come to mind.

One cookbook author is hoping to remove the "ick factor" from the idea of eating bugs, by offering up tasty recipes that feature insects.

I'm not exactly sure this will catch on, but "The Insect Cookbook" is hoping to promote bugs as a source of protein.

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I'm with the author on protein, but the insect part? It isn't for me.

I suspect most people will have the same reaction, though a wormy chocolate muffin recipe does grab my attention and have me wondering -- can you actually taste the worms in it?

It's similar to the idea of sneaking vegetables into your kids' meals, I suppose. After all, they're never going to taste a little shredded carrot in that lasagna you made, but a bug just seems .... wrong.

"The Insect Cookbook" has a number of unusual recipes to incorporate bugs into your diet, with Marcel Dicke, a professor at Wageningen University noting, "I see this as the next step towards the introduction of insects on restaurant menus in the Netherlands. I also expect people to buy the book and start cooking with insects at home," Reuters reports.

Along with the book's launch, specialist insect chef Henk van Gurp is attempting to set a record for the world's biggest grasshopper pie.

Yum.

Scientists at Wageningen University found that insects could be the best source of protein for the world's growing population.

Given that 70 percent of agricultural land is used for livestock right now, raising animals for protein could become a sticky point when available land becomes a thing of the past.

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Restaurnts in the Netherlands currently serve insect dishes, with one establishment near Amsterdam serving up meat pie sprinkled with nuts, seeds and worms.

Mark Van Kimmenaede, a chef at the restaurant, says that insects aren't likely to take over their menu: "It is nice to have one or two dishes with insects on the menu, but it has to stay fun."

Nothing says fun like a worm poking out of your chocolate muffin.