My daughter ate maggots in school. Pure maggots.
OK—I know the question was addressed to me, but in my school I never ate anything crazier than peanut butter and jelly. It’s the maggots she ate that are most fascinating.
And no, she did not eat them as part of her school lunch program. It was a third-grade science teacher who loved to challenge and stimulate his students. He explained how maggots had been used in many native american cultures, and that our association of them with spoiled food misleads us such disgust that we could miss a really nutritious food source. Of course, you do have to be careful to clean them so they aren’t covered with bad bacteria.
No student was required to eat the maggots, but once one did (and pronounced them “OK”) so did most of the class. In fact, many animals love maggots; they are good sources of protein, about 50% by weight. Some chicken feed is made from maggots. My daughter did eat them, and proudly told us about the experience when she got home.
It’s also true that other insects can be not only nutritious but essential sources of nutrition in some environments. When I was traveling in the bush of Canada (by canoe) I had studied wilderness survival. Some people had been known to die after subsisting on rabbits that they had trapped; it turns out that rabbit meat is very lean, and that there is insufficient fat to meet your needs; the rabbit eaters suffered from extreme diarrhea. The book we read urged us to supplement such meals with insects to supply the needed fat.
Here’s a quote I just found on Mother Earth News: Edible Insects and How to Eat Them:
Yes, not only are maggots edible, they are a traditional superfood. They are also probably the most revolting insect one could imagine. Traditionally, many cultures have relished maggots, leaving fish or meat out to become saturated with them and then eating the maggots raw. There is logic to this: a diet of exclusively lean meat causes severe health problems, eventually leading to kidney failure and death. This condition has traditionally been called “rabbit starvation.” White trappers living in the north would often be afflicted as they attempted to live entirely off lean meat like rabbit, easily trapped in the northern forests, without sufficient fat or carbohydrates to balance the protein. They would get a kind of protein poisoning, diarrhea and malnutrition would ensue, and despite eating as much lean meat as possible, they would “starve” to death.
What does this have to do with maggots? They are capable of transforming lean meat into fat. Maggots are extremely fatty and a rich source of essential amino acids, making them nutritionally far more valuable than lean meat.
They don’t have internal digestive systems of their own, so they secrete gastric juices directly onto meat, causing it to degrade or spoil (or “predigest” if you have a taste for it). That is why there is so much hysteria around maggots on meat, not because they make it unsafe to consume, but because they alter its flavor, texture and palatable shelf life.
Maggots will taste different depending on their food source. I have harvested them from meat that was left hanging for a bit too long, thrown them in a pan and fried them up. If they were on a rotting carcass with the guts and all still intact, they would have a stronger flavor. In any case, they are an acquired taste probably well worth acquiring. Their ability to transform lean meat into essential fats is both magical and potentially life-saving under certain conditions.
Someone once told me their grandfather, during the Depression of the 1930s, would take maggots that grew on a hunk of meat he kept in the cellar and spread them on toast like butter.
Read other answers by Richard Muller on Quora:
- What are some culinary items you have come across which might appear strange to others?
- Which famous person do people say you look like?
- What has been your most amazing experience here on Quora?
from Quora http://ift.tt/2lDINic
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