Witchety grubs?

[darcy]

What do u reckon? Found these guys while chopping up some dead Acacia concurrens that had fallen over in the last few storms. SE QLD. Didn't try them though

[Bluetongue]

Um, I'm not immediately attracted to them as food

[Rimbaud]

we had a wattle in our backyard cut down since it was rotting, and at the base there were about 10 huge, white, incredibly gross grubs.... they looked the same as your grubs darcy..... i'llk pass

[darcy]

they look a bit better in real but maybe some butter, remove the head and fry, mmm

[Semone]

If you like trout fishing they work really well! In fact people pay good money for them to drown!

Semone

[thymol]

Those are beetle larvae of some sort. I'd steer clear.

[spottedquoll]

look fairly similar, probably unlikely to kill you....

[Grub]

Hello!

What lovely photos! They look delicious to me! I was in the Northern Territory about 15 years ago and tried Witchetty Grub Soup...

The ones that look like Witchetties, but less white and less big and fat, are called Bardi grubs- very similar but whereas witchetties are in central Aust., Bardis are out east. (Read that somewhere)

My question is does anyone have any idea where I would find some grubs? Either live or frozen, are there any suppliers anywhere in Australia? I'm just dying to cook them for my partner who has never had them.

I've also seen on the internet (Googling) some reference to tins of W.G. soup, but haven't ever seen them for sale.

Hope somebody out there knows!!!

[eataust]

We cut down a huge blackwattle recently - it was riddled with borer and dying, and too close to the house to leave to quietly become mulch - and found pretty definite witchetty grubs inside. I neglected to take photos, I'm afraid, and I'm also afraid I was too nervous to cook 'em up. For some reason my ability to eat anything seem to stop at the insect family ... thus far, anyway.

Grubs can be bought frozen, somewhere ... I'll try to remember where I've seen 'em!!

[gerbil]

There was a an interesting documentary on sbs yesterday (daytime?) focusing on insects and humans, only caught bits and pieces and it was a world wide sort of thing, jumping from topic to topic, incl. disease, art, food etc.

Of interest was the mexican 'fly fisherman', who'd trawl waterbodies with hand held nets and harvest the flies. The flies (and other insects) have a long traditional use and the older folk were dissapointed about the US diet influencing the world and it's health consequences as well as production issues/consequences.
They'd sun dry the flies, grind them to powder then mix with eggs/water(flour too???) and make little logs out of them to be utilised later. Making fly pancakes as one of the many dishes. The nutritional figures quoted were really interesting as were the comments by the mexicans about the future of world populations and the practice of insect eating.

[eataust]

I can cope with that, conceptually. It's whole beetles with crunchy legs I'm not so good on. In my defence, I'm not good at crunchy in general (chips excepted) - when young I had a dream about being suffocated to death by black beetles and I suspect it's stuck ...

And larvae ... again, conceptually, I know they're soft juicy and nutritious, but in reality my brain sees the wriggling maggotty bits of a squashed fly and ... nope, can't do it.

On the other hand, if someone offered it to me, I'm fairly confident I'd eat it. And I'd cook it for someone else. I just couldn't prepare AND eat it ...

[Bones6]

I've never eaten witchety because I don't like the look of them but I've watched Anagu women collect them up in the Great Victoria Desert where they are called Mugu (like Bardi (Vic/NSW) just adifferent name in a different language for large edible grub). The thing that got me was how the women were able to choose the bushes (Senna mostly) that had big grubs in the roots as far as I colud see it was from observing miniscule changes in leaf size, colour and condition then they would dig down and usually the grub/s would be in the first root they came to.
The kids (both boys and girls) play and practice on Samphire shrubs and extract minya mugu or small grubs (slightly smaller than a gent) wich they eat or throw away. I have since found it a useful way of getting fishing bait if there are no shellfish available.

[JumpedAngel]

According to Jennifer Isaacs in 'Aboriginal food and herbal medicine' Aboriginals ate grubs harvested from the branches and roots of living and dead trees, it is suggested that all grubs that look fat, white and are found inside live or dead timber are edible although are said to be palatable to different degrees, cited are long wood grubs found in old logs and Banksia species from Tasmania, grubs found at the foot of gum trees and on the banks of marshes in Victoria and grubs found in dead hickory trees, bluegum saplings and at the base of grass trees (xanthorroea spp.) in Queensland not to mention the traditional witchetty grubs from the roots of A.kempeana found in central regions.

Not surprisingly the large burrowing grubs often found in Acacia trees of the South East and the small grubs often found beneath logs and rocks are not specifically mentioned, however I have found these to be eminently useful as fishing bait and can easily convert one into a trout or a blackfish towards dusk, the only problem is that they come off the hook easily so it is useful to leave a couple of inches of extra fishing line past the knot on the hook and use this to carefully fasten the grub to the hook, fish find them totally irresistable, this can be a risky business however, especially if you have pets or children with you as often when you turn over a log you find Mr Joe Blake laying in wait, it never ceases to amaze me just how quick they travel and it is therefore unwise to go around turning over logs and rocks unless you have a hefty stick with you. I am forever reminded of the old trueism 'walk lightly and carry a big stick'.

[Naturalista]

Lots of LOL here

In NZ we have huhu grubs , they're just like Rimbaud described. Raised them but never ate them. Apparently they taste like peanut butter.

You can't do crunchy Eataust, I can't do gooey.. peanut butter sure, you know it's made from peanuts. A writhing sack of fermenting cellulose and entrails... let's put it in the survival food category shall we?

However, from Prof Gene Defoliart at www.food-insects.com :

http://www.food-insects.com/book7_31/Ch ... %20etc.htm

In Australia, the use of insects was widespread.. partly because.. insects were at times almost the only available foodstuffs, and partly because some were regarded as special delicacies.. Among the most prized were witchety grubs (Cossidae), the bogong moth (Noctuidae), the bardee larva (Cerambycidae), honeypot ants, honey and brood of the stingless bees and the sweet manna of various lerp insects.

..Nutrient analyses of witchetty grubs.. show a protein and fat content of 15.1% and 19.2%, respectively. The roasted grubs are delicate and nutty in flavor, similar to scrambled eggs, roast pork, or bone marrow. Several other grubs are also considered delicious, such as the "marrow-like" bardi (Bardistus cibarius) and other cerambycid species and hepialid grubs such as Trictena argentata which tastes like "the baked skin on roast pork."

_Almost_ talked me round, Professor...

[eataust]

I'd do grubs if someone else showed me how to do them first and offered them to me to taste. And I doubt I'd do them raw (they OOZE). And how do you humanely kill a grub??? If you chop off its head, don't they then sort of ... er ... ooze everwhere, like an uncooked sausage?

And yeah ... I can understand not doing gooey, absolutely.

"Taste like the baked skin on roast pork"? To be quite honest, I think I'll stick to the pigs :)

Ah, cultural taboos, how fun you are ...