Yesterday Emmy was reading the book, School of Fear about four kids who get sent to an elite school for eradicating children’s fears when she looked up and said, “Mom what is Casu Marzu?”
“I have no idea”, I said. “Let’s look it up.”
And so we did. And then . . . oh my god. People, it’s maggot cheese! Literally. It is a cheese from Sardinia, derived from Pecorino, where fly larvae are purposefully introduced into the cheese. The digestive action of the larvae breaks down the cheese’s fats making the texture of the cheese very, very soft. (Because it’s putrified) Eeeew.
We can’t get enough and keep reading about the cheese. We’re saying, “Casu marzu!” to each other and shrieking. I say to Emmy, “Listen, some day mommy is going to get old and dotty and it is YOUR JOB to make sure that I never eat Casu marzu. Seriously kid, don’t ever let me accidentally eat this.”
The cheese has all these tiny translucent white worms in it. And apparently some people just eat it maggots and all, while other de-maggot the cheese by sticking it in a paper bag. As the larvae are starved for oxygen they launch themselves out of the cheese making a pitter-patter sound on the side of the paper bag. When the pitter-patter subsides, the maggots are dead and ready to be spread on a nice crust of bread.
Can’t you just see how it happened? Some guy’s like, “Ah dang, the cheese is bad. Oh well, I’m gonna eat it anyway.” And so he did. And then everybody else noticed that he didn’t die and plus he kept insisting, “Whoa, that’s really, really good”. And thus, Casu Marzu.
