{"id":28347,"date":"2016-08-24T17:00:15","date_gmt":"2016-08-24T21:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/?p=28347"},"modified":"2016-08-24T17:00:25","modified_gmt":"2016-08-24T21:00:25","slug":"mites-are-right","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/mites-are-right\/","title":{"rendered":"Cheese Talk: Mites Are Right"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was in the baroque Piedmontese town of Bra, Italy, on a sunny September weekend during the Cheese 2015<\/a> festival when a rumor started flying around: One of Italy’s “illegal cheeses” was available for tasting.<\/p>\n

The rogue wheel in question was marcetto, a sheep\u2019s milk cheese from Abruzzo, also known as formaggio con i vermi<\/i> or \u201ccheese with worms.\u201d It\u2019s closely related to the Piedmontese bross ch\u2019a marcia<\/i> (\u201cthe cheese that walks\u201d) and the more well-known Sardinian delicacy casu marzu<\/a><\/i> (\u201crotten cheese”)—for extreme foodies, sampling these rarities is the equivalent of free diving with a great white.<\/p>\n

The hint with all of these cheeses is in the name. Producers intentionally leave the freshly made pecorino<\/a> out so that the cheese fly (Piophila casei<\/i>) can lay eggs in the paste. While the cheese matures, the tiny, nearly translucent fly larvae (called salterini<\/i>, or \u201clittle jumpers,\u201d as they\u2019re capable of leaping up to six inches) vigorously emerge and begin to chew—and excrete—their way through the cheese.<\/p>\n

After two to three months, the top of the cheese is removed with a knife and the soft—liquidy in some spots—larvae-ridden interior is exposed. It\u2019s a stinker, heavily ammoniated, and its taste follows suit, reminiscent of an aged Gorgonzola<\/a>. While rich blue cheese fans may be the only ones enticed by the flavor, it\u2019s the gooey consistency—the result of the larvae\u2019s digestive acid interacting with the cheese—that is apparently most memorable.<\/p>\n

That said, slurping down the live maggots along with the cheese is probably fairly memorable, too. As the maggots are difficult to extricate—a cheese fly can lay up to five hundred eggs at a time—these cheeses are sometimes sealed in airtight bags, ultimately asphyxiating the larvae so they can be removed before consumption. Your doctor would advise the latter, as the swallowed larvae can survive in the digestive tract and potentially cause enteric myiasis<\/em>, an internal infestation that we don\u2019t recommend searching in Google Images.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not only the Italians who enjoy pests with their cheese—nearby Corsica has a casu marzu equivalent in casgiu merzu<\/i>. And there are tiny insect collaborators beyond the cheese fly; French mimolette<\/a> is (in)famous for its mild flavor, for being French president Charles de Gaulle\u2019s favorite cheese, and for being banned in the United States by the FDA in 2013. What the administration took exception to was how mites (Tyrophagus casei<\/i>) are encouraged to burrow into this Edam style\u2019s rind, which creates the cheese\u2019s trademark rugged exterior. So why do it? By embracing the critters—rather than eradicating them, as their cheesemaking brethren are wont to do—this group of artisans is keeping tradition alive and producing a richer-tasting cheese in the process.<\/p>\n

Mites also play a role in the production of the German quark-based Milbenka\u0308se<\/a>. The technique, dating back to the Middle Ages, involves mixing the salted quark with caraway seeds, then shaping and interring it in a wooden box containing rye flour and cheese mites. The bugs graze on the quark\u2019s developing rind; the rye flour sustains them just enough so they refrain from demolishing the entire cheese. The arthropods\u2019 digestive juices infuse the paste, influencing the taste and promoting fermentation. The color of the rind, which changes from yellow to rust and, after a year, to black—due to an interaction between fermentation and the mites\u2019 fluids—helps determine the ripeness of your Milbenka\u0308se.<\/p>\n

But Milbenka\u0308se, like casu marzu, is not beloved by EU hygiene regulators, and both currently fall into a legal gray area in Europe—that is, production is tolerated, but sales are frowned upon (not that there\u2019s a huge demand among deli goers for wriggly pests in their purchases). But if you think about it from a fundamentals-of-cheesemaking perspective, the bugs are just another tool in the arsenal of producers who introduce outside agents—be it starter culture microorganisms or Penicillium roqueforti<\/i> artfully veining creamy Stilton<\/a>—to influence maturing curd.<\/p>\n

As for the marcetto, I was delighted to encounter a small, hollowed-out round at Cheese 2015\u2019s stand B55. The kind attendant scraped some crumbs onto a piece of bread and handed it over. The initial mellow, nutty sheep\u2019s flavor gave way to a bitterness that settled in my molars for about an hour. Sad to report that all the larvae had been gobbled by other samplers—or leapt to freedom—ahead of my arrival.<\/p>\n

The early bird and all that…<\/p>\n

Feature Photo Credit: JPC-PROD | Shutterstock<\/em><\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cheesemaking collaborations with bugs go back centuries\u2014with results that continue to capture the imagination<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":28350,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"wprm-recipe-roundup-name":"","wprm-recipe-roundup-description":"","cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[589],"tags":[],"coauthors":[897],"class_list":["post-28347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cheese-talk"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nCheese Talk: Mites Are Right - culture: the word on cheese<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/mites-are-right\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Cheese Talk: Mites Are Right\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Cheesemaking collaborations with bugs go back centuries\u2014with results that continue to capture the imagination\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/mites-are-right\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"culture: the word on cheese\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/grantgbradley\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-08-24T21:00:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-08-24T21:00:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/SUM16_CheeseTalk_mimolette_ftr.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"750\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"368\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Chris Allsop\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Chris Allsop\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/mites-are-right\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/mites-are-right\/\",\"name\":\"Cheese Talk: Mites Are Right - culture: the word on cheese\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/mites-are-right\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/mites-are-right\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/SUM16_CheeseTalk_mimolette_ftr.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-08-24T21:00:15+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-08-24T21:00:25+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/#\/schema\/person\/29ccb80baa3c8b55dd1267fe06357064\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/mites-are-right\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/mites-are-right\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/mites-are-right\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/SUM16_CheeseTalk_mimolette_ftr.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/SUM16_CheeseTalk_mimolette_ftr.jpg\",\"width\":750,\"height\":368},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/mites-are-right\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Cheese Talk\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/category\/cheese-talk\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Cheese Talk: Mites Are Right\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/\",\"name\":\"culture: the word on cheese\",\"description\":\"Culture, America's magazine for cheese lovers, delivers stories about cheeses, cheesemakers, travel to gorgeous cheese regions, and practical tips on buying, presenting, and cooking with cheese.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/#\/schema\/person\/29ccb80baa3c8b55dd1267fe06357064\",\"name\":\"Grant Bradley\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/f6d2b1081ae59e4d02381dde1b6f7680\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Grant-Bradley-Headshot-500x500-96x96.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Grant-Bradley-Headshot-500x500-96x96.jpg\",\"caption\":\"Grant Bradley\"},\"description\":\"Grant Bradley is culture's former web editor and never ceases to thank his nameless human ancestor who figured that leaving some milk around for a while and then eating it was probably a great idea. Raised on California\u2019s Central Coast, educated in the Pacific Northwest, and transplanted to New England, Grant likes to write, edit, and code things.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/grantgbradley\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/author\/grant-bradley\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Cheese Talk: Mites Are Right - culture: the word on cheese","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/mites-are-right\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Cheese Talk: Mites Are Right","og_description":"Cheesemaking collaborations with bugs go back centuries\u2014with results that continue to capture the imagination","og_url":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/mites-are-right\/","og_site_name":"culture: the word on cheese","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/grantgbradley","article_published_time":"2016-08-24T21:00:15+00:00","article_modified_time":"2016-08-24T21:00:25+00:00","og_image":[{"width":750,"height":368,"url":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/SUM16_CheeseTalk_mimolette_ftr.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Chris Allsop","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Chris Allsop","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/mites-are-right\/","url":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/mites-are-right\/","name":"Cheese Talk: Mites Are Right - culture: the word on cheese","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/mites-are-right\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/mites-are-right\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/SUM16_CheeseTalk_mimolette_ftr.jpg","datePublished":"2016-08-24T21:00:15+00:00","dateModified":"2016-08-24T21:00:25+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/#\/schema\/person\/29ccb80baa3c8b55dd1267fe06357064"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/mites-are-right\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/mites-are-right\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/mites-are-right\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/SUM16_CheeseTalk_mimolette_ftr.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/SUM16_CheeseTalk_mimolette_ftr.jpg","width":750,"height":368},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/mites-are-right\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Cheese Talk","item":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/category\/cheese-talk\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Cheese Talk: Mites Are Right"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/#website","url":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/","name":"culture: the word on cheese","description":"Culture, America's magazine for cheese lovers, delivers stories about cheeses, cheesemakers, travel to gorgeous cheese regions, and practical tips on buying, presenting, and cooking with cheese.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/#\/schema\/person\/29ccb80baa3c8b55dd1267fe06357064","name":"Grant Bradley","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/f6d2b1081ae59e4d02381dde1b6f7680","url":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Grant-Bradley-Headshot-500x500-96x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Grant-Bradley-Headshot-500x500-96x96.jpg","caption":"Grant Bradley"},"description":"Grant Bradley is culture's former web editor and never ceases to thank his nameless human ancestor who figured that leaving some milk around for a while and then eating it was probably a great idea. Raised on California\u2019s Central Coast, educated in the Pacific Northwest, and transplanted to New England, Grant likes to write, edit, and code things.","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/grantgbradley"],"url":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/author\/grant-bradley\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28347"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28347\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28347"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=28347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}