Status: Real
Thanks to Mark Holah (aka
Rennet) for bringing the Sardinian specialty known as Casu Marzu to my attention. Casu Marzu is a type of pecorino cheese infested with thousands of wriggling maggots. If the maggots are still wriggling, then it's okay to eat (if you have a strong stomach). If the maggots aren't wriggling, that means the cheese has become toxic. The
wikipedia entry for Casu Marzu is so bizarre, that you'd swear it has to be a joke:
Derived from Pecorino Sardo, casu marzu goes beyond typical fermentation to a stage most would consider to be decomposition, brought about by the digestive action of the larvae of the cheese fly, Piophila casei. These larvae are deliberately introduced to the cheese, promoting an advanced level of fermentation and breaking down the cheese's fats. The texture of the cheese becomes very soft, with some liquid (called "lagrima") seeping out. The larvae themselves appear as transparent, white worms, about 8 mm (1/3 inch) long. When disturbed, the larvae can jump for distances up to 15 cm (6 inches), prompting recommendations of eye protection for those eating the cheese. Some people clear the larvae from the cheese before consuming; others do not.
However, Casu Marzu is quite real. It's been described in a number of newspapers and magazines including
The Wall Street Journal and
Bon Appetit. Taras Grescoe recently wrote about it in
The Devil's Picnic: A Tour of Everything the Governments of the World Don't Want You to Try
.
Apparently Casu Marzu isn't even the most disgusting food Sardinians eat. According to a 2004 article in
Australian Magazine, that honor goes to 'tordi':
These are small, 10cm-long songbirds that feed on the island's plentiful myrtle berries. They are netted and poached, then served cold, three or four at a time, garnished with myrtle leaves. Their eyes are black, haunting, their necks spindly. They look like a plateful of baby dinosaurs. You are supposed to eat them whole - everything but the beak - in a few crunches.
If one is going to try some Casu Marzu, I think the perfect drink to wash it down would be some
Army Worm Wine.
Comments
Ewwwwwwww :sick:
It is worth noting that the cheese is, for want of a better term, utterly *RANK*. The smell does *not* come out of anything it touches. It is illegal to ship, store, or import it in many countries. People wanting a nibble of this stuff will smuggle it in with methods best used for heroin packets..
Personally, I think the civet-poop coffee is bad stuff, but at least that's been boiled..
As for Rennet's website, I love it. A great hoax in it's self. I'm sure there'll be many a person up in arms to save these poor little creatures being used for cheese making.
P.S. for those who don't know rennet is actually the inner lining of the fourth stomach of calves. Mmmm, much tastier!
In Sweden they eat fermented fish.. they catch it, clean it and then stick it the sun in barrels for 24 hours .. then let it ferment until it "smells right" then they can it or eat it... Its called surstromming. Norwegians also have something similar Rakfisk... neither of which would be appealing.
I can hardly eat the fish that you get at the market because its not fresh... fish isnt supposed to taste fishy really...
My people eat something called Czarnina (well I dont eat it... my mom loves it tho) which is duck blood soup.
Its amazing what people have found edible... (even McDonalds... )
i tried the youngest one.. its something kinda like hard boiled eggs. but i didnt finish the egg yolk since there were already feathers or something that already formed there.
There are also things which seem to be pure bravado or conspicuous consumption.
As Fozzie Bear says "One man's fish is another man's poisson."
If that cheese smells even a tiny bit like any of the maggots I've encountered, I don't want it within five miles of me.
"im from the phils... yup balut is a delicacy but there are various types of baluts.. depending how many days old the ducks eggs are... the shorter the days, the less ducky it comes out.
i tried the youngest one.. its something kinda like hard boiled eggs. but i didnt finish the egg yolk since there were already feathers or something that already formed there."
yckk! Vegetarians eat eggs because they were never alive. But this was alive, killed just as its life began. yck!
2. When I was ateenager there was a period in England when chocolate-coated insects were reasonably popular.
3. If Ian thinks eating eggs does not involve killing, he's not thought the process through. Every so often a bunch of eggs are allowed to be fertile and hatch: half the birds (the boys, obviously, in this femmy world) are condemned to immediate death. Nowadays they do it the 'kind' way by tossing them into a mincer; previously they just put them in plastic bags which they then sealed.
On a side note, I ate a cooked mealworm before at a local museum during 'bug week' and bought lolli pops with scorpions and 'tequila' worms in them. I also ate choco covered bugs too... I lived to tell! 😛
So i suppose the Sardinians who invented Casu Marzu just did it to just "freak out people and be all cool and trendy 'n stuff", right?
yeah, screw the cultural aspect, its ALLLL just a freaky trend..
people living in the south decided to start eatin gator and turtle and road kill cuz it sounded cool
argentinian gauchos eat bull balls and various cultures eat bugs not for survival, but to BE COOL! yeah, cuz they all live down the street from a taco bell and there'd be no other reason to eat weird things than to just be cool.
wow, you're certainly a learn-ed fella, huh?!
If the latter was true, you were lucky not to be killed by it ;D.
Some people are great hosts for bringing out an aged bottle of wine or whisky. If you are really hardcore with the boyz from Sardegna, they might celebrate fun times with maggot cheese. Maggots jumping 6 cm out of the cheese upon which you are nibbling. Yes! I want to do business with you so hell, let's eat some maggoty cheese!
I read about a wife of a Casu Marzu maker who put the cheese into a paper bag, sealed it, then all the maggots popped like popcorn and died. She said the "larvae" had made people sick.
Many people do not wash but rather leave their frying pans with a base coat of grease/fat for days or weeks. Maggots often infest that, but they are constantly cooked, so go unnoticed. People who have cooked in that manner and discovered an infestation of maggots in their bacon fat laden fry pan described the maggots as tasting "like gristle - crunchy" and given that they were dead, did not cause any disease to their tasters.
The Strange Society of the Maggot Cheese - calls to mind an artist who locks himself in a room with microbes, disease infested insects and such - may get infected, that's the art. Bioterrorist art, I believe it is called. His work makes a statement about disease and its research yet puts him in peril. Maggots can invade the intestine and cause some serious complications and death. The mealworms eaten on Fear Factor have no incidences of harm when consumed - in fact they are a secret ingredient in more restaurants than you would like to think, I am sure.
I guess Casa Marzu represents to its fans what is "forbidden" - you aren't truly aware of a taboo until you break it. They eat it largely due to the risk that it may kill them. Apparently it is served in many restaurants in Italy but it's all hush hush.
That it is a delicacy to some people is both frightening and fascinating.
Too bad I have to...
Of course, you cannot eat it everyday! But sure it is safer than a lot of industrial products and cleaner than a mussel!!!
Cheers. Ops... cheese
He'll try anything 😊