I’m getting paid tomorrow to eat a worm from my backyard (please don’t judge; I really need the money). I’ll dig it up from one of my parents’ vegetable beds, wash it well (of course) and then fry it in a bit of olive oil with perhaps a bit of garlic powder. I’m just wondering if this is safe to do in terms of contracting some disease or getting germs. I of course intend to fry it for a good long time in the hopes that the inside won’t be all squishy and nasty, so hopefully that will take care of any bacteria, but I’d hate to contract some nasty bug from it and have to explain to people in the emergency room that it’s because I ate a worm.
Also, are there any quick, humane methods of dispatching a worm? I’m an animal lover so I’d rather not see the worm suffer (when I was five I kept worms as pets and I adored them). I think that the “lobster method” (sticking it alive into the boiling water, or in this case, oil) is too cruel for words so I’d rather it be dead prior to that. I’ve read that the old wives tale of worms living after they’ve been cut in half is only true with certain species, and only works if the chop is far enough away from the head (because they can’t regrow their heads but can regrow their tails, but it’s harder for them to regrow if they have to regrow a large portion). So could I humanely dispatch the worm by cutting off its head? Will it suffer after the cut is made, and if so, for how long?
Apparently it’s reasonably safe as long as you wash it first. The main risk of getting sick would appear to be from the stuff the work was living in (compost, manure) and the bits of that inside it rather than the work itself.
This. If there are poisons in the ground (weed killer, insecticides, arsenic snail poison, stuff like that), your annelid may have some of same in its gut.
The best way would be to capture your worm(s) and feed it known clean worm food for several days, until all the unknown crap (literally) is crapped out and you worm’s gut only contains known clean crap. (ETA: That’s how you clean out garden escargot snails before eating them.) (ETA-3: And since you have experience keeping pet worms, you must know how to feed them. Can you train them to do tricks?)
Does your bet allow you the option of doing this for several days before you dine?
Just how much are you getting paid for this?
ETA-2: You WILL have a video of this, to be posted some place we can watch. RIGHT?
I’ve not yet eaten earthworms, but I know they are edible - be aware though that the worm’s digestive system (running the entire length of the body) will be full of gritty soil. I’m told that if you put the worms in water, they will expel all the dirt in a fairly short time, making them more palatable.
And now for one of my favorite stories, told by a National Geographic photographer who had been working with a crew out in the bush. Stopping in at a remote village after a hard day’s work they sat down at a long table where the communal meal was served, a large plate of cold grubs. There was another visitor there from a nearby village who noticed the look of dismay on the photographer’s face. He leaned over and whispered to him, “I know what you mean, the grubs are better in my village too”.
I had a biology teacher in 7th grade who was a sadistic monster. At the time we were dissecting all sorts of things. Grasshoppers, worms, squid, etc. And every time we dissected something, she found a way to cook it and would bring it to school the next day. Grasshoppers clearly weren’t possible so she just made a grasshopper pie, but the worms and squid weren’t so lucky. We had calamari with the squid and she decided to make worm cookies with the others. Apparently, you wash and cut up the worms and made sure to squeeze out all the ‘dirt’ inside them and then just toss them in some cookie dough. Trust me, this was no trick. They were very clearly worm pieces in the cookies she brought in and most of us refused to eat them. But there’s a way you can do it! That way you can share with others.
I ate a live raw one for extra credit once. Lunch was right after that class and I never had any regrets or symptoms. You’re gonna fry it? Just a bit o’ bacon, then-
Actually, you don’t have to give the worm the “keep it in cornmeal” treatment. If you want to get the dirt 9literal dirt) out of the worm’s gut, I’m told that the easuiest way is to simply boil the worm. This will also get rid of a lot of the mucus. You can then bake or fry the worm, and it won’t resemble a worm so much in texture or in taste.