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Fermentation Atlas

Insects

Insects and insect products that are fermented.

5 entries listed here.

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Bold names have a full page with the animated steps. Blank cells: no sourced value yet.

Short entries

What the sources record about each of these so far.

Chí hǎi (ant-egg paste), historicalAncient China

Also called 蚳醢, ant-roe sauce.

ritual paste served at Zhou court sacrifices

  1. Mix ant eggs with salt, starter and wine; seal in jar3.3 months
Fermented bee larvae (U Minh)Vietnam

Also called mắm ong (name not confirmed in the source), Mekong Delta fermented honey-bee brood.

sour-salty larvae eaten with rice, guava, tamarind or greens; keeps about a week at room temperature, a month refrigerated; a Tết gift (cajuput blooms in November)

  1. Boil larvae and separate from the comb
  2. Salt and sun-dry
  3. Mix with ground fried rice and ferment3-4 days
Fermented silkworm pupae seasoning (modern)China

Also called 蚕蛹发酵调味液.

umami liquid seasoning

  1. Inoculate pupae slurry and ferment10 days
Grasshopper garum (Nordic Food Lab / Noma)Denmark

insect "fish sauce"; the lab also made sauces and miso-type pastes from grasshoppers and wax-moth larvae

  1. Ferment insects with salt and water in warm conditions
Nam phrik maeng da (insect plus fermented shrimp paste)Thailand

Also called น้ำพริกแมงดา.

relish with a licorice-like aroma from the male water bug's scent glands

  1. Roast and pound the bug with chilli and kapi
  • Wikipedia, Shrimp paste (Thai variants)

Numbers come from cited sources and carry a label that says how each is known. How this atlas is made