Well it would be hard to find the specific species of ant here in north america, but we got plenty of other kinds to choose from. I'd start with sugar ants, they're ubiquitous here and their predilection for sweets could well carry over to the flavor. A biting variety will be more peppery and closer to the original, fire ants are common in the south and their range extends even as far north as where I am. Anyway, start with a basic mango chutney recipe and experiment a bit.

His first bit of advice is well taken for cooking in general: unless you are doing pastries or candies you shouldn't be obsessing over recipe measurements.

Well, I was sort of hoping Patak's would sell ant chutney in a jar, that sort of thing, but no luck so far! As for measuring, yeah, I never measure at all, aside from liquids for cooking rice in. I'm not a particularly good chef, but at least I know enough to have a cavalier disregard for accuracy and methodology.

The important question is, what are your fave Indian dishes? Do any make you go, "totes swaag"?

(I really love Indian food. It is my national cuisine, and the food I grew up with. My old dad liked to eat pigs trotters and faggots and jellied eel, but it was all curry for me! I know this is sort of blasphemy to say during Faggot Week, but faggots are a thing of the past; a relic of a dying England that will soon be but a memory.)

Oh I'd say it's all about method: not that you shouldn't hybridize but how you get from the raw ingredients to the plate is paramount.

Why not buy a jar of the premade chutney (lazy boy) and cut it with the eggs until tasty? It looks like he uses some ant bodies as well, I am not sure which would have more formic acid but I'm guessing the bodies so go easy there. BTW that's a big old hydrogen ion there so it's gonna be sour as all hell. Adjust the chutney with sweet accordingly.

If you're asking what I usually make, saag X where X is any of tofu, potato, fish. A little grated carrot makes the color pop and chili oil to taste.

But what if the eggs taste gross? Like I said, I'm not really that adventurous - if Gordon Ramsey can vouch for the deliciousness of Indian tree-ant-egg chutney then alright, I'll give it a go, but who says that American ground-ant-egg would be palatable, even remotely? I mean, you say to try eating a sugar ant, but most American sweets are garbage anyways; who wants to eat an ant that's been eating Palmer's chocolate or god-knows-what-else?

Would you mind maybe eating a sugar ant for me, and letting me know how it tastes?

This dude has the skinny on the original article.

https://indianvagabond.com/2015/10/30/red-ant-chutney-adventur e/

It's a kind of a weaver ant as far as I can tell, also called a green ant ( despite the redish hue of some species ), distinct from the fire ants we have here in the states. Eating the domestic fire variety may prove hazardous. Cave, frater! But less toxic ants, like the common carpenter and sugar, would be safe places to start. Ant caviar!

But you may be missing the point. The flavor, as such, is terribly sour. It's a flavoring, and just eating a handful of ant eggs and ants is like eating raw lemon peels or garlic. He does the big machismo thing and eats a handful, not sure how good a barometer that is you know?

I would try mixing them with honey. Start with honey, add some ant caviar, mash it in, and taste. Add more until you hit the right spot or it starts tasting bad in which case you can discard that species.

reading material for eating ants.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Eat-Bug-Cookbook-Revised/dp/16077443 68/hopspressbooksto

Dal and momos.

I can crush a million momos, it is my favorite food in the universe.

Homer: American sweets may be gross but all the Indian sweets I've tried are a million times worse.