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If you want to add some lemon juice to your dish to add flavor to your food, swap the lemon for black ants. Sprinkle some black ants to get a sour taste similar to lemon.
Black ants also have a sour taste similar to lemons. Reference 1
The discovery comes from a group of scientists at San Diego State University. At a recent meeting of the American Chemical Society, they reported the results of a study in which they evaluated four types of ants that could be eaten and found that different ants had different tastes.
Eating insects is nothing new. In 2017, the World List of Edible Insects compiled by the Department of Entomology of Wageningen University in the Netherlands recorded a total of 2,096 different species of insects that have been eaten by humans. Among them, beetles have the largest variety, followed by a wide variety of butterflies, moths, bees, ants, grasshoppers, and even flies.
What kind of "bug dark cuisine" have you eaten?Please leave a message in the comment area~|bostonglobe
First of all, insects contain the nutrients we need in our food. For example, eating crickets and mealworms can replenish protein just like eating soybeans, and they also contain dietary fiber and various vitamins. While crickets contain fat in them, female crickets have more fat than male crickets......
In recent years, many scientists have mentioned that eating insects may be a way to save the planet. Cultivating insects consumes far fewer resources than traditional livestock, requiring less land, water, transportation costs, and thus a smaller carbon footprint. Not only that, but insects can also feed on some organic waste, such as the waste from breweries, which can be used as feed for insects.
Farmed insects produce a lower carbon footprint. ｜wiki
Insects have been found on the table in various forms as eco-friendly ingredients, such as protein powders and protein bars made from mealworms, crickets ground into flour and added to bread, or insect chips, insect milk, insect beer, etc...... Different insects also have different tastes, Brooklybugs is an innovative table of insects prepared by the insect chef, from the menu, we can see silkworm brownie, roasted salted scorpions, tarantula tempura, cricket puffs......
Tarantula tempura can be considered a relatively expensive dish. ｜brooklynbugs
Therefore, when handled safely, insects may indeed be a suitable food for the everyday dining table. However, the consumption of insects can also cause poisoning, allergies, etc. If you eat seafood and crabs, you will be allergic, all because it contains tropomyosin, which is also present in cicadas, silkworms, cockroaches, etc., so please be cautious when eating. (Please eat insects that have been handled safely and labeled for allergens.) ）
虫子"麦片"?海鲜过敏的人慎吃!|bugburger
A 1998 "Edible Insect Gourmet Guide" not only provides the flavors of some common insects, but also includes some food recipes. It can be seen that the flavors of insects are very diverse, such as beef, bread, fried potatoes, mushrooms, caviar, etc., which may depend on the pheromones volatilized by insects, living environment, feed, etc......
Featured!|Reference 4
In the new report, mentioned at the beginning, the researchers identified the taste of different species of ants by studying the volatile compounds emitted by different ants. They first used gas chromatography-mass spectrometry to identify compounds contained in four types of ants: a flying ant, a common black ant, a stinging ant, and a weaver ant, and then used an olfactory to match the more pronounced flavors.
They found that black ants contain a lot of formic acid, mainly their venom gland secretions, which indicates that black ants taste sour or vinegar.
This ant tastes sour. （？｜wiki
A species of flying ant called "chicatanas", on the other hand, has a nutty, oily and woody taste, which is mainly due to the presence of aldehydes. Among them, pyrazine is a pheromone of flying ants, and this substance also appears when baking bread, so when thinking of this ant, you might as well imagine the aroma of baking dough.
In fact, Mexicans have known about the delicacy of flying ants for a long time. After a few spring rains, people in Oaxaca, Mexico, head out to catch flying ants in the sky and make them into "ant sauce" to spread on tortillas, or eat roasted crunchy flying ants like nuts. In addition to its nutty flavor, locals describe the ant as having a "smoky cheese flavor".
It is a traditional Mexican dish chicatanas ant sauce made with chili peppers and ants, as well as some spices. ｜Wiki
The flavor of the weaver ant has been described as "nutty, sweet and caramel". However, they may contain odors, such as hay and urine, due to the high concentration of amines they volatilize. As the stinging ant grows, the venom gland matures, giving off the same sour smell as the black ant.
Changqi Liu, the researcher, said that insects have many flavors, which greatly increases the likelihood that insects will make delicious food. "I wanted to prove that they actually taste very good and at the same time are nutritious and good for the environment. ”
Some of the descriptions in the "Edible Insect Gourmet Guide" published in 1998 show that insects really have a variety of rich flavors. Reference 5
In the future, he also wants to study more about the taste of ants, such as the taste of ants at different stages of growth, the taste of male and female ants, and the effect of processing on taste. Maybe in the near future, delicious ant dishes will really appear on our table.
A fried bug snack in Germany. ｜wiki
After reading the article, the review editor of this article said:
Resources:
[1]https://www.acs.org/pressroom/presspacs/2024/march/the-many-flavors-of-edible-ants.html
[2]https://www.acs.org/pressroom/headline-science/ant-flavors-acsspring2024.html
[3]http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnut.2018.00088
[4]https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352364616300013?via%3Dihub
[5]https://books.google.com.hk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=Q7f1LkFz11gC&oi=fnd&pg=PR8&ots=WsMzl8HnAp&sig=EkOLZOlTEzlVANe0HiBcvRLf6Zg&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false
[6]https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnut.2023.1113219/full
[7]https://www.thebugfarm.co.uk/research-farm/
[8]https://www.bbc.com/ukchina/simp/vert-tra-40494681
[9]http://xdspkj.ijournals.cn/html/xdspkj/2023/11/20231141.html
[10]https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/02/how-insects-positively-impact-climate-change/