How to Cook a Cricket: Pan-Fried
I harvested my first batch of fresh crickets on Christmas Eve. Who doesn’t love a good pan-fried cricket for the holidays? Upon waking on Christmas morning, my 1000 crickets had chirped their last chirps and were ready to be eaten.
🦗 Harvest 🦗
Harvesting crickets should be done in the freezer. The cold temperatures slow down the crickets’ until they prepare for hibernating through the winter of the sub-zero. The below freezing temperatures eventually freeze the little guys solid and ethically kill them. For this round, it was absolutely frigid outside, so instead of depositing the crickets in a plastic bag and then the freezer, it was cold enough that I could just set their plastic tub outside.
🦗 Preparation 🦗
To get the crickets ready to cook, I poured them into a strainer and rinsed them off for a minute or two. Any residual garbage like antenna, stray legs and poop were rinsed away down the drain and my little crickets were ready for the frying pan. I shook the strainer well to shake it all loose at the end.
🦗 Ingredients 🦗
- 1000 crickets
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon olive oil
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 2 cloves of garlic, chopped
🦗 Cooking the Crickets 🦗
Well, this one is pretty easy. I started with a simple method since it was the first harvest and the first attempt at cooking them. Start with the olive oil and garlic in a saucepan over medium heat. While the oil is heating, toss the raw, rinsed crickets with the salt and black pepper. When the garlic becomes fragrant, drop in the crickets and listen for that cricket sizzle. Keep tossing them to avoid having them stick to the pan.
It might take around 5 minutes, but the crickets will start to become golden brown. If you gut-loaded your crickets, you may start getting the aroma you’re looking for (I’m trying jalapeño next!) otherwise you’ll start to notice a nutty smell from the crickets. With the aroma and the color changing, the crickets will start to get crunchy and ready to eat. Drop them onto a paper towel and wait a moment for them to cool down. It won’t take long considering how small they are.
Chow Down!
Learn more about cricket farming at Acheta.co :)