Cicada Ice Cream!

[appleguy123]

While some people think cicadas sound terrible, others think they taste good.

Workers at Columbia's Sparky's Homemade Ice Cream didn't realize they would sell out their first batch in less than 30 minutes.

Sparky's owner Scott Southwick said, "We figured it was a good ice cream. It sounds disgusting and the batch would go slowly. The batch just flew out of here. No pun intended."

It all started with ice cream maker Augustine Accurso. She went out at night with a flashlight to harvest the buzzing insects for the ice cream.

Ice cream makers boil the bugs, grind them up in a mix, coat them with brown sugar and chocolate, and add them to ice cream flavored with butter and brown sugar.*

Sparky's employee Christian Losciale said cicadas don't have much flavor, but they do have a crackly crunch.

Losciale said, "You're not biting into a whole cicada at once. You're biting into little bits of it. Honestly, I think if someone were to try it and not know what it was, they would just imagine it was a nut."

Sparky's employees only made one experimental batch of 13-year periodical cicada ice cream. That batch is gone, so you'll have to wait until 2024 to get your next scoop.

The health department, however, told the owners using cicadas as an ice cream ingredient is not such a good idea.

According to the "Columbia Missourian," a sign on Sparky's door says they'll make another batch -- in 2024.

Source
would you eat it? I think that I would, just to say that I had.

 

[iBookG4user]

That sounds pretty disgusting to me. But then again I wouldn't eat anything that has living creatures killed to make it.

 

[appleguy123]

That sounds pretty disgusting to me. But then again I wouldn't eat anything that has living creatures killed to make it.

You're a vegetarian then, right? Otherwise it would be very hypocritical to eat an animal with a highly developed nervous system, and feel bad about an insect.

 

[iBookG4user]

You're a vegetarian then, right? Otherwise it would be very hypocritical to eat an animal with a highly developed nervous system, and feel bad about an insect.

Yes, I am a vegetarian.

 

[cantthinkofone]

I heard about this yesterday. They have over ran Missouri. I was running the trimmer Saturday and Sunday and I am guessing the sound of the line spinning at a certain RPM is cicada for "I'm a huge slut, please land on me!!". Felt like I was in the movie "The Birds".

 

[appleguy123]

I heard about this yesterday. They have over ran Missouri. I was running the trimmer Saturday and Sunday and I am guessing the sound of the line spinning at a certain RPM is cicada for "I'm a huge slut, please land on me!!". Felt like I was in the movie "The Birds".

I'm a Missourian, too! I love the cicadas, but I'm glad they're not here every year.

 

[cantthinkofone]

I'm a Missourian, too! I love the cicadas, but I'm glad they're not here every year.

Can't say I am a fan of them. They are EVERYWHERE....Dogs seem to love eating them. I was getting my first experience walking on floor joists today setting them up so I was a little shaking. Didn't help when a cicada bounced off me while Im doing a balancing act 40 feet off the ground

 

[Signal-11]

Ice cream makers boil the bugs, grind them up in a mix, coat them with brown sugar and chocolate, and add them to ice cream flavored with butter and brown sugar.*

Sparky's employee Christian Losciale said cicadas don't have much flavor, but they do have a crackly crunch.

The cicadas didn't taste like anything because they boiled the flavor out of them. I've had cicadas in a couple of different places and I've never seen them boiled. Usually, they're fried or roasted.

Cicadas have a nutty flavor with an aftertaste of shellfish-like umami.

I think it's funny that people get the squeamish about eating insects when they won't think twice about shrimp, lobsters, crabs, crayfish or other shellfish, which are essentially the same thing.

 

[yg17]

I heard about this yesterday. They have over ran Missouri. I was running the trimmer Saturday and Sunday and I am guessing the sound of the line spinning at a certain RPM is cicada for "I'm a huge slut, please land on me!!". Felt like I was in the movie "The Birds".

I'm doing my part to thin out their numbers. The front of my car is covered in cicada guts. They must not have a very big brain. "Gee, a giant object moving really fast, I'm going to fly right towards it!"

At least birds are usually smart enough to get out of the way.

 

[leekohler]

That is nasty.

 

[Mousse]

I think it's funny that people get the squeamish about eating insects when they won't think twice about shrimp, lobsters, crabs, crayfish or other shellfish, which are essentially the same thing.

Eww...I don't eat seafood. It's only cows and pigs for me. And chickens, ducks, quails, lambs, goats, alligators (tastes like chicken, cliche but true) and rabbits.

 

[appleguy123]

Eww...I don't eat seafood. It's only cows and pigs for me. And chickens, ducks, quails, lambs, goats, alligators (tastes like chicken, cliche but true) and rabbits.

I've never tried alligators or rabbits, but anything that lives in water has a disgusting taste to me. Anyone know why that is? It's not limited to seafood. It's fish, too!

 

[Signal-11]

I've never tried alligators or rabbits, but anything that lives in water has a disgusting taste to me. Anyone know why that is? It's not limited to seafood. It's fish, too!

If you don't like that seafood (fish are seafood, BTW) aroma, you probably wouldn't like gator/crocs. Reptiles are somewhere between poultry and fish in terms of texture and aroma.