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Entertaining With Insects, or: The Original Guide to Insect Cookery

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Ronald L. Taylor and Barbara J. Carter, Entertaining with Insects, or, the Original Guide to Insect Cookery (Salutek Publishing, 1976)

Many of Taylor's predictions have not come to pass thirty-five years down the line (frozen food manufacturers have not seen the light regarding frozen mealworm entrees, and however close we are to the line, we have not yet reached the phase of worldwide famine where people who don't normally do so have considered eating insects), which leaves Entertaining with Insects as something of an anachronistic curiosity in the year 2010. Not that the cool factor has been decreased one whit. The idea of cooking with insects has always appealed to me, for some reason, and so the minute I heard this book existed, I knew I'd have to check it out.

On the upside, it is exactly what it says it is, a book about cooking with insects (with an appendix that covers a few earthworm recipes as a bonus). On the downside, the mark of a single-ingredient cookbook, to me, is the breadth of stuff the authors come up to do with that ingredient (or dish; think Marlena Spieler's delectable book on macaroni and cheese as an example here). Taylor and Carter stay pretty basic (at least as far as seventies California cuisine; there are a number of recipes that manage to seem horribly dated, as well), and sometimes downright twee (insect canapes? I half-expected a fondue recipe to pop up). Still, if you're looking for a recipe for Chocolate Chirpies (and seriously, we all should be), you've gotta check this out. ***

this book is incredible....funny, interesting, educational, great drawings and very entertaining! great as a unique one-of-a-kind gift, but i bought one for myself. I was at first kind of reluctant to buy it due to the subject, but what i received in the mail was a very pleasant surprise....! highly recommended.