We've had problems with the computer, so it's taken me a couple of days
to post the following recipe for Woodlouse Sauce for fish. The original
book "Why not eat insects?2 was originally published in 1885, and gives
recipes and suggestions for eating just about every kind of garden pest.


" ... as the shrimp (crustaceans) in every garden namely the common
Wood-lice (Oniscus muriarius). I have eaten these, and found that, when
chewed, a flavour is developed remarkably akin to that so much
appreciated in their sea cousins. Wood-louse sauce is equal, if no
distinctly superior, to shrimp.

The following is the recipe: collect a quantity of the finest wood lice
to be found (no difficult task as they swarm under the bark of every
rotten tree), and drop them into boiling water which will kill them
instantly, but not turn them red, as might be expected. At the same
time put into a saucepan a quarter of a pound of fresh butter, a
teaspoonful of flour, a small glass of water, a little milk, some pepper
and salt, and place it on the stove. As soon as the sauce is thick,
take it off and put in the wood lice. This is an excellent sauce for
fish. Try it."

The little book has a suggested Menu for dinner, in both English and
French. It starts with slug soup and boiled cod with snail sauce. There
follow seven more dishes along similar lines.

The author, Vincent M Holt, says on page 31 "People will, in like
manner, enjoy oysters and cockles, while they abominate snails; they
will make themselves ill with indigestible and foul feeding lobsters
while they look with horror upon pretty clean-feeding caterpillars. All
this would not be so absurd if it were only the rich that were
concerned, for they can afford to be dainty. But while we, in these days
of agricultural depression, do all we can to alleviate the sufferings of
our starving labourers, ought we not to exert our influence towards
pointing out to them a neglected food supply?"


--
Susie Thompson
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