Wu Ming — 1 year ago(November 04, 2024 01:15 PM)

Casu Marzu - Maggot Cheese is the most dangerous Cheese in the World
Forbidden, says EU law.
Forbidden good, say the Sardinians.
If you want to try Casu Marzu, you need strong nerves and a robust stomach.
The cheese comes with live ingredients.
Casu Marzu is a delicacy in Sardinia - the live maggots are part of the taste experience.
The
Casu Marzu
from Sardinia has the reputation of being the most dangerous cheese in the world and is in the Guinness Book of Records with this title since 2009. For the Sardinians, the
"spoiled cheese"
is a delicacy and is considered forbidden. Opinions differ here.
The European Food Safety Authority has banned its production and made its sale illegal.
Because the cheese has its own inner life: Tons of maggots.
Relish with Live Maggots
Casu Marzu
has a long tradition for centuries and goes back to shepherding.
This tradition includes eating the maggots with the cheese. The fitness of the maggots is considered a sign of quality. How well the animals are doing can be seen by their ability to jump. They are said to be able to jump up to 15 centimeters when they sense danger - sometimes directly into the eaters' faces. That's not for the faint of heart.
The consumption of insects is trendy, as they're considered to be great sources of protein, but the EU authorities believe that a limit has been exceeded when it comes to the animals that populate the
Casu Marzu
. This has nothing to do with disgust, but rather with health protection. Eating the cheese is considered too dangerous. Maggots that are swallowed alive can cause serious damage to the body. In order to survive, the worms gnaw on the walls of the human stomach and intestines, and in the worst case, they cause holes. The result: nausea, vomiting, pain, bloody diarrhea. Closing your eyes and swallowing it quickly isn't an option.
The maggots must either be chewed very well or applied to bread as a cheese-maggot paste.
Delicacy with Danger
It's not just the possibility of maggot infestation in the gastrointestinal tract that causes beads of sweat on the foreheads of food scientists. They also complain that bacteria such as salmonella get into the cheese via the flies and that the maggots produce corpse poisons as they work their way through the cheese. To eliminate such dangers, cheese producers are now working with bred germ-free cheese flies.
That didn't stimulate the EU's appetite for maggot cheese.
Officially it's no longer allowed to be sold in stores, but the Ursardian specialty is still sold, albeit secretly and at a high price. In true style, the cheese is served on Pane Carasau, a Sardinian flatbread, and red wine.
https://www.stern.de/genuss/casu-marzu--der-gefaehrlichste-kaese-der-welt-kommt-aus-sardinien-und-ist-voller-maden-9553548.html
November 03, 2024
Balloon Bread & Maggot Cheese ​🥪​ 🪱 Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern in Sardinia