Traditional cockchafer soup - disgusting or tasty?

A forgotten traditional dish
In many parts of the world, insects are a common food, while in many Europeans, the idea alone causes a sense of disgust. The consumption of creepy-crawlies in this country is not a new development. Until the middle of the last century, a few insect dishes were common in Germany. For example, in Northern Hesse and Thuringia seasonal cockchafer soup was on the table, which should have a similar taste as crayfish soup (the author has not tried it herself, editor's note). The lumbering Brummer were also available as a spring dessert, roasted and candied in pastry shops. Today only remind the chocolate cockchafer - without insect component.

In the magazine for the state medicine round from the year 1844 the Maikäfersuppe is described as "excellent and strong food". Here's how to prepare them the best. First, the maybugs are collected alive from the trees - about 30 animals per serving. They should not have eaten oak leaves, otherwise they taste bitter.

Insects for the soup? Image: Aleksey Stemmer - fotolia

Before the preparation you wash the beetles and remove the horny wings and legs. Then they are crushed with a mortar, roasted in hot butter and cooked in a broth. The soup is passed before eating and tied with a little roux and egg yolk. Mayonnaise soup was often refined with sliced ​​calf's liver, chives and roasted white bread.

Cockchafer belong to the group of leaf-beetle beetles and spend four years of their life as a grub in the earth. Only then do the gray-brownish young beetles, which mainly feed on leaves of deciduous trees such as beech and oak, hatch. For some years the animals appear again more frequently, but mass multiplications are only rarely to be observed. Cockchafers used to be so numerous that they were deliberately fought and eaten. (Heike Kreutz, aid)