Crickets and other insects meant for consumption are actually pretty expensive, so that cant be real. There is so much cheaper food that you would actually want to eat.

I love trying out insect based food, and every time it was a lot more expensive, drier, and tasted worse than other options, so I cant imagine something like this actually going mainstream.

[–] Bonsoir@lemmy.ca 33 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (2 children)

They are really expensive because no one is buying them but people who have time and money to spend on changing their habits.
BUT! They are actually pretty cheap to raise yourself. Crickets can eat leftovers and parts of vegetable you sometimes don't want to eat like potato peels. We used to do that to feed our lizards and spiders at home. I guess that preparing them for human consumption would be a bit longer (drying and grinding them, or whatever), but still much cheaper than store-bought meat.

[–] Obi@sopuli.xyz 22 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Man I can't help but cringe when reading this and picturing myself handling and eating them. In principle, I'm all for it, but I'm kind of a somewhat squeamish eater and I think for me they would need to be integrated into something where you can't really tell it's there (protein bars, soups, whatever).

[–] Bonsoir@lemmy.ca 8 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Yeah, even visualization aside, I guess insects are not that interesting to cook compared to your usual animals. You probably won't make yourself a "steak" from crickets alone. What is usually sold is flour. You can spread it on your salad to add proteins, or make burgers patties with them.
I write all that as if I was an expert, but I honestly never tried it ^^. One day, probably.

[–] nichtburningturtle@feddit.org 3 points 2 weeks ago

Now I'm interested in what the best method of cooking them is.

[–] jrs100000@lemmy.world 9 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

You could just raise chickens at the point.

[–] MonkderVierte@lemmy.ml 8 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (2 children)

Crickets are cheapet/more efficient.

[–] Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

But you can do both, if your cricket operation really gets going you can use them to feed the chickens.

[–] MonkderVierte@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 weeks ago

Feeding destruents to a destruent? Two times the loss; crickets/chicken was supposed to save food money, not waste it.

[–] jrs100000@lemmy.world 1 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Are they? Im sure they must be on an industrial scale. But if you are feeding them kitchen scraps...youve got to have a giant tank, it sounds like some sort of mill to grind them up? That means youll need to dry them out, which is either time and space consuming or it means more equipment. Is there some sort of sterilizing involved so you catch some sort of weird cricket fungus or something?

Meanwhile, if you get the right breeds, chickens will mostly manage themselves and can at least partly make up for a less efficient metabolism by foraging independently. Also your house doesnt end up infested with crickets and you dont have to change any recipes.