The Italian island of Sardinia lies in the middle of the Tyrrhenian Sea, overlooking Italy in the distance. Surrounded by a 1,849-kilometer coastline of white-sand beaches and emerald waters, the island’s interior landscape quickly rises to form impermeable hills and mountains.
And it’s within these bold curves that shepherds produce casu marzu, a maggot-infested cheese that, in 2009, the Guinness World Record proclaimed the world’s most dangerous cheese.
cheese fly, Piophila married lays its eggs in crevices that form in cheese, usually Sardinian fiore, the island’s salty pecorino.
The larvae hatch, making their way through the paste, digesting proteins in the process and turning the product into a soft, creamy cheese. Then the cheesemaker opens the top – which is almost untouched by larvae – to scoop out a spoonful of the creamy delicacy.
It is not a time for the faint of heart. At this point, the larvae begin to squirm frantically. Some villagers spin the cheese through a centrifuge to fuse the maggots with the cheese. Others like it naturally. They open their mouths and eat everything.
If you can get past the understandable disgust, marzu has an intense flavor with memories of Mediterranean pastures, and spicy with a flavor that lingers for hours.
Some say it’s an aphrodisiac. Others say it can be dangerous to human health as the larvae can survive the bite and create myiasis, microperforations in the intestine, but so far no case has been linked to casu marzu.
The cheese is banned from commercial sale, but Sardinians have been eating it, including maggots, for centuries. “The maggot infestation is the charm and delight of this cheese,” says Paolo Solinas, a 29-year-old gastronome from Sardinia.
However, if you are adventurous enough, it is possible to find the casu marzu. It shouldn’t be seen as a weird attraction, but as a product that keeps alive an ancient tradition and gives tips on what the future of food will be like.
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