440 REPORT UNITED STATES ENTOMOLOGICAL COMMISSION. 



"bug" everything horrid and repulsive. Yet I was governed by v^^eightier reasons 

 than mere curiosity ; for many a family in Kansas and Nebraska was, in 1874, brought 

 to the brink of the grave by sheer lack of food, while the Saint Louis papers reported 

 cases of actual death from starvation in some sections of Missouri, where the insects 

 abounded and ate up every green thing, in the sjDring of 1875. 



Whenever the occasion presented, I x^artook of locusts prepared in different ways, 

 and one day ate of no other kind of food, and must have* consumed, in one way or 

 another, the substance of several thousand half-grown locusts. Commencing the 

 experiments with some misgivings, and fully expecting to have to overcome disagree- 

 able flavor, I was soon most agreeably surprised to find that the insects were quite 

 palatable in whatever way prepared. The flavor of the raw locust is most strong and 

 disagreeable, but that of the cooked insect is agreeable and sufficiently mild to be 

 easily neutralized by anything with which they may be mixed, and to admit of easy 

 disguise, according to taste or fancy. But the great point I would make in their favor 

 is that they need no elaborate preparation or sejasoning, and that they really require 

 no disguise; and herein lies their value in exceptional emergencies, for when people 

 are driven to the point of starvation by these ravenous pests, it follows that all other 

 food is scarce or unattainable. A broth, made by boiling the unfledged Calopteni for 

 two hours in the iDroper quantity of water, and seasoned w.th nothing but pepper and 

 salt, is quite palatable and scarcely to be distinguished from beef-broth, though it has 

 a slight flavor peculiar to it and not easy to be described. The addition of a little 

 butter improves it, and the flavor can, of course, be modified with mint, sage, and 

 other spices ad libitum. Fried or roasted in nothing but their own oil, with the addi- 

 tion of a little salt, they are by no means unpleasant eating and have quite a nutty 

 flavor. In fact it is a flavor, like most peculiar and not unpleasant flavors, that one can 

 soon learn to get fond of. Prepared in this manner, ground and compressed, they 

 would doubtless keep for a long time. Yet their consumption in large quantities in 

 this form would not, I think, prove as wholesome as when made into souj) or broth, 

 for I found the chitinous covering and corneous parts, especially the spines on the 

 tibiee, dry and chippy, and somewhat irritating to the throat. This objection would 

 not apply with the same force to the mature individuals, especially of the larger spe- 

 cies, where the heads, legs, and wings are carefully separated before cooking; and, in 

 fact, some of the mature insects prepared in this way, then boiled and afterward 

 stewed with a few vegetables and a little butter, pepper, salt, and vinegar, made an 

 excellent fricassee. * * * 



I sent a bushel of the scalded insects to Mr. John Bonnet, one of. the oldest and best 

 known caterers of Saint Louis. Master of the mysteries of the cuisine, he made a 

 soup which was really delicious, and was so pronounced by dozens of prominent Saint 

 Louisiaus who tried it. Shaw, in his Travels in Barharu (Oxford, England, 1738), in 

 which two pages are devoted to a description of the ravages of locusts, mentions 

 that they are sprinkled with salt and fried, when they taste like craw-fish ; and Mi-. 

 Bonnet declared that this locust soup reminded him of nothing so much as craw-fish 

 bisque, which is so highly esteemed by connoisseurs. He also declared that he would 

 gladly have it on his bill of fare every day if he could only get the insects. His method 

 of preparation was to boil on a brisk fire, having previously seasoned them with salt, 

 pef.per, and grated nutmeg, the whole being occasionally stirred. When cooked, they 

 are pounded in a mortar with bread fried brown, or & puree of rice. They are then 

 replaced in the saucepan and thickened to a broth by placing on the warm part of the 

 stove, but hot allowed to boil. For use, the broth is passed through a strainer and a 

 few croutons are added. T carried a small box of fried ones to Europe, where they 

 were tasted by numerous persons, including members of the London Entomological 

 •Society and of the Soci^t^ Entomologique de France. Without exception, they were 

 pronounced far better than was expected, and those fried in their own oil, with a little 

 salt, remained good and fresh for several mouths ; others fried in butter became 

 slightly rancid — a fault of the butter. Mr. C. Home, F. Z. S., writing to Science Gos- 



