Earthworms

Earthworms, an important part of the native diet

Cooking with Earthworms

The cartoon strip BC once had its peg-leg poet write: “The bravest man I ever saw was the first one to eat an oyster raw.”

While that may be true, I can still remember the first time I saw anyone eat an earthworm. I told the story before in my article about checkerberries. I wrote: “He was a neighbor’s son named Gary Vickerson. I was about to start high school, around 1965, and Gary was less than half my age. He lived about a half mile to the northeast, over a small woody hill and across a short field. His mother knew my mother and there was a worn path between our houses. It was near a spot where checkerberries grew. I think his older brother Randy and sister Susan were there as well. We were looking for berries when Gary found an earthworm. Without announcement he just ate it, dirt and all, then laughed about it. No threats. No bribe. No “dare ya.” He just ate it. I can still remember the rich loam on his teeth. Oddly, he was the only one in that family of six who turned out all right.”

If you read any archaeological research on American naties you learn quite quickly that they dried and stored earthworms for winter use, some smoked them (though earthworms are not native to North America.) Usually the worms were either put in water so they would offload gut dirt or they were fed other stuff to get rid of the dirt and make them tastier.  (They also dried or fermented fish eggs, but that’s another article.)

As it turns out Gary was lucky in that the worm he chomped down came from a healthy field. One can get some nasty diseases from eating earthworms raw. It’s not the earthworm per se but fetid stuff in the soil they live in, such as back yards that pets use for a bathroom. There is such a case in the medical literature from 2004.

A sixteen-year old girl took ill almost exactly a month after eating an earthworm on a dare, from a back yard. Doctors diagnosed her with a case of dog roundworm, something that is usually found only in toddlers, who routinely eat dirt. Usually asymptomatic, in this case it caused the girl breathing problems. Thus a word to the wise about collecting, handling and cooking earthworms.  Backyard, playgrounds and public parks are not as clean as one might think.

Many of the same arguments that can be made about eating insects can be made about earthworms, except the arguments are even stronger (though personally I don’t view worms as food to save the planet, or insects. They are one more facet to add to a forager’s knowledge.)

In the earthworms’ favor — gastronomically speaking — is the fact nothing is thrown away. A 204 gram sample grams has 708 calories, are some 70% protein, 11% fat, up to 21% carbohydrates. Potassium is 1820 mg, phosphorus 1590 mg, calcium 444 mg, sodium 965 mg, chloride 910 mg, iron 50.4 mg, zinc 17.7 mg, copper 1.5 mg, iodine 0.38 mg, and selenium 0.40 mg.  Additionally, eating them reduces cholesterol as their main oil is Omega 3 fatty acid, you know, the same stuff found in fatty fish. The earthy flavor of the worms blends well with certain dishes and spices… think cumin and curry. The positive list does not stop there.

Earthworms are consumed in their entirety, no bones, viscera or waste involved. And there can be up to 1.75 million of them per acre. You may not know how to hunt, trap or fish, but you certainly know how to dig.  And while they can be dug up easily in many places, it is also efficient to pick them up off the ground after a heavy rain. You can even be green about it and have an earthworm farm feeding them vegetable table scraps. That also makes it easy when you want some bait to go fishing, or getting a green date: “Would you like to come over and see my earthworm farm?”

If you buy worms from other than bait shops they will come packed in peat moss. They also will have spend at least a day in shipping so they have also purged themselves. Thus they are ready for use after a little washing. If you go the bait store route and or raise your own you can do a couple of things to purge them. Put them in water for a few hours — they won’t die — or let them eat moist cornmeal for a day or more. Out with the old, in with the new.

Either way, earthworms should be kept cool, under 60F if possible, and moist. Prior to cooking examine a handful of worms. Get rid of any dead ones (make sure they are dead, though more specifically make sure they are alive.) Then rinse them in cold water. Pat dry. They are now ready for cooking or freezing for later use. A cup of worms weighs about 8 ounces, or two cups to a pound.

So, how to cook them? Usually the worms are boiled first before used any other way. This is a bit subjective but the point is to eliminate the mucus in them, much as one does with slugs and some snails (those crawlers are also fed for 10 days before use to assure they are non-toxic.)  Some boil them once for ten minutes, some boil them five times in five changes of water for 10 minutes each. Some boil the three times for three minutes each. Others boil them twice for 15 minutes. Some don’t boil them at all. You have to find your own level of gastronomic satisfaction. Boil until they are mucus free, meaning the water remains clear. Once boiled they are ready for other uses. You can roast them, fry them, chop them, or dehydrate them. You can even grind the dry ones into a powder to be added to flour or the like. To dry put boiled earthworms on a baking sheet and cook at 325 F for 15 minutes. Others think just letting them eat other food for a day or two takes the place of boiling, as does one recipe below.

Beside Native Americans the Aboriginals in Australia ate earthworms as did the Maoris of New Zealand, and some people in China.  The common earthworm’s scientific name is Lumbrius terrestris. (LEM-brick-es ter-REST-triss.) In this case the name means what we call it. Lumbrius means worm and terrestris means earth.

Lastly, before we get to the recipes, a word about table presentation. When we eat beef, the entire carcass is not placed on the table before us. We often go to great lengths to make this or that cut appetizing, edible, and attractive yet we tend to think of worms (and insects) in toto rather than in recipes, invoking the Yuck Factor. Most of us ate pork, beef or lamb for years before seeing one roasted whole on a spit, which if that had been our first experience with that meat we might have thought of it as yucky, too. Start exotic fare as part of a recipe first, then work your way up.

One more little fact: The experts tell us earthworms are not native to North America. They came with the Europeans thus Native American uses would be latter day rather than pre-Columbian.

EARTHWORM SAUTE by Christopher Nyerges, Urban Wilderness: A Guidebook to Resourceful City Living, 1979

1 cup earthworms

1/2 large onion, chopped

1/2 cup water

1 bouillon cube

1 cup yogurt or sour cream

3 tablespoons butter

1/2 cup mushrooms

Flour for coating

Wash earthworms thoroughly and place in boiling water for three minutes. Pour off water and repeat the boiling process twice. Bake on cookie sheet at 350 degrees F. for 15 minutes. Roll the worms in flour, brown in butter, add salt to taste. Add bouillon and simmer for 30 minutes. Saute onions and mushrooms in butter. Add onions and mushrooms to the worms. Stir in sour cream or yogurt. Serve over rice or noodles.

DEEP FRIED EARTHWORMS

Chop a sweet apple fine then put in with worms for a day. Chill worms. Roll in flour with paprika, salt and pepper. Deep fry until crisp.

ASIAN EARTHWORMS

After soaking worms, steam them with onions, garlic, broccoli. Pour over them a sauce of butter and soy sauce. Noodles or rice is optional.

EARTHWORM PATTIES (By Matthew Stewart, The Incredible Edible Wild)

1 1/2 lbs. ground earthworms (Place live worms in damp cornmeal for 24 hours to purify, boil for 10 minutes, then grind. Yes, they are used wet)

1/2 cup butter, melted

1 teaspoon lemon rind, grated

11/2 teaspoons salt

1/2 teaspoon white pepper

1 egg, beaten

1 cup dry bread crumbs

2 tablespoons butter

1 cup sour cream

Combine earthworms, melted butter, lemon rind, salt, and pepper. Stir in soda water. Shape into patties and dip in beaten egg, then in bread crumbs. Place in heated butter and cook for 10 minutes, turning once. Place patties on hot serving dish. Serve with heated sour cream on top.

EARTHWORM MEATLOAF, from the Worm Book by Nancarrow and Taylor, 1998.

1 1/2 pounds ground meat

1/2 cup boiled worms, chopped finely

1 onion soup mix

1/2 cup evaporated milk

1/2 bell pepper, chopped

1 slice fresh bread, shredded

Mix all ingredients together and place in a loaf pan. Bake for 1 hour at 400°F.

CARAMEL WORM BROWNIES

1 pack of Brownie mix (or your own homemade recipe)

2 Tbsp worm flour

1 cup chopped nuts

1/4 cup bottled caramel sauce

Combine the brownie mix with the worm flour and prepare according to package directions. Stir in the nuts.

Pour 1/2 to 2/3 of the batter into a baking dish. Drizzle the caramel sauce on top of the batter. Pour the

remaining batter on top of the caramel sauce. Bake according to package directions.

 

And lastly, a first-prize willing recipe created in 1976 by Patricia Howell of West St. Paul, Minnesota. She entered the earthworm annual recipe contest sponsored by the North American Bait Farms.

EARTHWORM APPLESAUCE SURPRISE CAKE

Mix together the fllowing: 1/2 butter, 1 1/2 cups sugar, 3 eggs (well beaten) 2 cups of sifted flour, 1 tsp backng soda,  1 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp each of salt, nutmeg,  ground cloves; 1 1/2 cups applesauce, 1 cup of earthworms dried and 1/2 cup cup chopped nuts. Pour mixture into a greased baking pan and bake fo 50 minutes at 350F. remove, cool and serve.

 

{ 22 comments… add one }
  • Christopher Wanjek February 4, 2012, 11:49 am

    Sounds interesting to try. My only hesitation is that I consider earthworms to be too valuable in my small garden to eat. I scoop up the ones I see elsewhere to put in my compost pile. How many can I sacrifice for my frying pan, I wonder? I guess my answer will depend on how much I like the taste. -chris

    Reply
    • Slick Mo Two Toe February 6, 2012, 10:01 am

      Make sure you soak them in salt water overnight and then squeeze out the dirt.
      I have eaten them “Dirt In” before, and let me just say that the texture was not very pleasant. The taste is all right though.
      Same thing with June Beetle grubs.
      Cut off the head and squeeze out the dirt. After that they taste like shrimp.

      Reply
  • Feral Kevin February 8, 2012, 6:26 pm

    Hi Deane! I actually found this in a search when researching Omega 3 fatty acids. I’m curious if the EPA and DHA which I assume are the types of Omega 3’s in earthworms are created by the earthworm or from something the earthworms eat. Also, I wonder about the stability of the oil if cooked. I do know this, my chickens love them raw, and I’m sure it makes more omega 3 in the eggs.

    Reply
    • Green Deane February 9, 2012, 6:24 am

      Hmmm.. they basically eat dirt, and some microbes in the dirt. Usually omega 3s don’t like cooking., or said anotehr way they aren’t too stable. This is why flax oil is never used for cooking. Drying, however, isn’t cooking. But omegas 3’s also have a short shelf life. So I would think it would not be wise to store preserved earthworms for more than one winter.

      Reply
  • Erik February 18, 2012, 1:59 pm

    Green Deane when you say “some smoked them.” are you saying the Indians smoked the critters like tobacco?

    Reply
    • Green Deane February 18, 2012, 5:19 pm

      No, cured them over smoke… like a ham is smoked.

      Reply
    • Effie Trinket December 31, 2016, 3:50 pm

      Nope! Smoked em like jerky, over a fire. Yum!

      Reply
  • Lisa March 22, 2012, 6:22 pm

    I first started out eating Canadian bait worms. I purged them in water changing the water twice a day every day for a week until the water was clear, then I’d fry them in oil. The earthworms I collected in my backyard under leaves(first time I’ve done this)I’ll purge until the water is clear changing it twice a day and put back in the fridge. Earthworms do NOT eat dirt. It’s the plant matter in dirt.

    My advice to anyone when it comes to worms is NOT to eat them raw. Cook ’em. Boil ’em, fry them. You don’t know what parasites might still be in them. Purge them for a few days, not one, if there are other days to ‘clean’ them out by feeding your worms certain things do it, and just wait patiently. Let them excrete the dirt naturally. Then you won’t be flattening and ripping them apart trying to get dirt and gut out when you can just wait.

    I looked up online the amazing list of edible insects. Some might very well surprise you! Like sow bugs that you can boil, or cockroaches(not from your house of course) or….

    Reply
  • Peter Thom July 5, 2013, 8:01 am

    It should be noted that after the soil in Northern North America had been scraped by glaciers the region was devoid of earthworms. It was only after European settlers began importing plants that earthworms, as stowaways, began to populate the region. So American Indians did not eat earthworms until after the arrival of the colonists from Europe. Earthworms were part of the Columbian Exchange.

    Reply
    • Brian November 8, 2014, 7:53 pm

      It should also be noted that the land was very different when European settlers came to the new world. In fact, there were barely any trees in North America, as it was common practice for the North American Indians to burn everything so that the land looked very much like the African savannah.

      https://soundcloud.com/backstory/the-forest-primeval

      It only took about 50 years after the Indians were wiped out for the thick forests we know of today to spring forth. For this reason, most of the forests in North America did not exist a few centuries ago!

      Reply
  • Andrius November 13, 2014, 4:28 am

    Hello, I have a question.
    This article is about eating earthworms.
    But can human eat compost red worms as well???
    I can see these advantages:
    1) You can control how to grow compost worms, what to feed them.
    2) They will have less dirt in them, as they eat decomposing stuff.
    3) They breed 10 times faster than earthworms, so produce more foood.

    I looked over internet and found very little information about eating compost red worms.

    Reply
  • baten patwary November 22, 2015, 10:15 am

    a long time ago i had a patient 6 years old boy.but he was not walking alone.his mother complain me.then i thinking him.one day i made a plan and i done fry some earthworm by mustard oil.then i wiped this chemistry his lower side.but only one month till.i was successful.oh.. he is walking playing .now he is 19 years old a boy.if u believe or not.but i dont know how is it posibole.

    Reply
  • Kyle March 23, 2017, 10:10 pm

    If you feed them for a few days clean food would they not be safe to eat live? I was thinking of leaving them in a compost of soy, ginger, and lemon grass for a few days.

    Reply
    • Green Deane March 24, 2017, 9:35 am

      You eat what they eat.

      Reply
      • Frank Steele March 20, 2021, 8:24 am

        Then I vote to feed them bacon or dark chocolate.

        Reply
  • David Yarbrough May 31, 2017, 9:15 pm

    I am interested in trying this. how long should they be left in the water? i tried it overnite and there was no poo in the water at all? also part of them died in the water, would they still e ok to eat or no? last if i go the cornmeal route how moist should it be? I have absolutely loved reading your page and tried many of the things here and a always keeping an eye out for some i am wanting to try like occa roots and several wild seeds and grains that i still have a bit of trouble with identifications

    Reply
  • Ana December 4, 2017, 2:37 am

    Besides the recipes you provide to eat them, do you happen to know how to extract oil from them or how to make oil with them?

    Reply
  • Donna Putney November 24, 2021, 6:06 pm

    Back in the ’70s I raised aquarium fish. I used to soak the earthworms in water first so that they cleared themselves out then I could add them to the aquarium and they lived in the undergravel filter the fish nibbled on some of them and the aquarium was self-sustaining because of the worms.

    Reply
  • Green Deane May 19, 2020, 9:23 pm

    No but I do have an article on plants one can forage in that area.

    Reply
  • Swisstoons January 14, 2021, 10:51 pm

    Why not just take a knife or razor and cut the earthworm lengthwise and rinse out the muck inside. Subsequent boiling, frying or baking would kill any harmful microorganisms. On the other hand, toxins like pesticides would probably remain in the earthworm “flesh” no matter what you did. I like the idea of raising them in a compost heap comprised of raw vegetable scraps. (Cooked vegetable scraps tend to draw rats, in my experience.)

    Reply

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