Cheese mites? Ha!
The process for making mimolette sounds pretty gross. The rind of this French gouda competitor is aerated by tiny cheese mites, which burrow into the skin. When the cheese is ready for market, the mites are removed—mostly. It's tough to get every single one of those little buggers off, which means the cheese poses a minute risk to customer who might be allergic to the mites.
The Food and Drug Administration's solution: Total cheese lockdown:
Since March, several hundred pounds of the bright orange cheese have been held up by US customs because of a warning by the Food and Drug Administration that it contained microscopic cheese mites....MORE
I laugh at your tiny cheese mites.
From Under the Tuscan Gun:
Sardinia and its Illegal Cheese
There are countries that offer far more adventurous eating opportunities than Italy.
To someone like Andrew Zimmern, Mr. “if it looks like something no one should eat, I’ll eat it,” Italy likely ranks far down the list of places to go for cuisine that’s exotic or strange.
Unless, that is, you go to Sardinia in search of illegal cheese.
Italians love their cheeses, and you’ll find varieties of cheese made from cow, sheep, and goat milk throughout the country. There are certainly distinct differences among the cheeses of Italy, but only one rises to the level of “shocking.” And that’s casu marzu.Kinda takes the "Live food" movement to a whole new level.
Sardinia’s infamous casu marzu cheese begins its life as a fairly standard pecorino, a hard cheese made from sheep’s milk. The sheep on the island have adapated to a less lush environment, and while they still produce a fair amount of milk it’s far less than what other sheep in grassier places might produce. In other words, the pecorino made from a Sardinian sheep’s milk has some distinctive qualities from the start – but not distinctive enough for the Sardinians.
Once this pecorino has had a chance to cure, the cheese is opened up – typically by slicing the top rind off like a lid – and the exposed cheese is left outside in order to attract flies. No, your eyes aren’t decieving you, the cheese makers actually want flies to be drawn to the open pecorino so they’ll lay eggs in the cheese. These so-called “cheese flies” lay their eggs inside the pecorino wheels, and when the larvae start eating their way through the cheese is when it really becomes casu marzu.
As the larvae eat the cheese (and, it has to be said, pass it back out again), this – understandably – changes the flavor and texture of the cheese. It goes from being a relatively standard, hard pecorino to a softer and stronger cheese inside a hard shell.
The larvae aren’t just there to perform the service of transforming the cheese, however, they’re part of the meal. When it’s ready to be eaten, the cheese is scooped out with a spoon or a knife, usually onto traditional Sardinian flatbread, and eaten – maggots and all.
Now, as if this idea weren’t difficult enough to stomach, consider this – the particular maggots that make casu marzu what it is have the ability to jump up to about 6 inches. This means that as you’re putting a piece of cheese-covered bread into your mouth, you may notice larvae flying off in all directions, including at your face. Indeed, it’s said that the maggots have an uncanny ability to land squarely in the eyes. In order to prevent the maggots from leaping off the bread, then, Sardinians put their hands over the meal until it’s deposited safely in their mouths – or they make a sandwich with two pieces of flatbread and clamp their hands over the sides to prevent escaping maggots.
Yes, you’re reading this correctly. The Sardinians actively prevent maggots – jumping maggots, no less – from getting out of the cheese they’re about to eat....MORE
One quick note: only eat casu marzu while the maggots still live. If the cheese has decayed to the point that it kills the little critters it is also too toxic for you.
