In our search for depression buster foods for the Pest or Dinner? contest, bug-eating expert David George Gordon (author of The Eat-A-Bug Cookbook), provides us with a recipe for the pillbug for our pillbug entry.
I'm honored that you sought me out for advice on pillbug recipes. However, the definitive word on this topic can be traced back to Britain in 1885, where a gent named Vincent M. Holt published the now-classic "Why Not Eat Insects?"-- a small but persuasive book about the benefits of bug-eating. In it, Holt offered a wholesome recipe for a wood-louse (another name for the pillbug) white sauce:Collect a quantity of the finest wood-lice to be found... and drop them in boiling water, which will kill them instantly but not turn them red, as might be expected. At the same time, put into a saucepan a quarter pound of fresh butter, a teaspoonful of flour, a small glass of water, a little milk, some pepper and salt, and place it on the stove. As soon as the sauce is thick, take it off and put in the wood-lice. This is an excellent sauce for fish. Try it.
This recipe also answers a question we had on the original pillbug entry: when and how do you kill them? Just "boil them alive" appears to be the answer.
