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Casu Martzu
- ctur 5y agoNope nope nope. Not for me. This cheese is illegal for a reason!
- geocrasher 5y agoa traditional Sardinian sheep milk cheese that contains live insect larvae (maggots). Nope Nope Nope Nope. Whole lotta Nope.
- karatinversion 5y ago> Because the larvae in the cheese can launch themselves for distances up to 15 centimetres (6 in) when disturbed,[4][11] diners hold their hands above the sandwich to prevent the maggots from leaping. Noooooope nope nope nope nope.
- SkyMarshal 5y agoThere are some things that no matter how good they may taste, I just don’t need to eat and it won’t improve my life in any measurable way. As a wise man once said: “Casu Martzu may taste like pumpkin pie, but I'd never know 'cause I wouldn't eat the filthy motherf*er.”*
- HeyLaughingBoy 5y agoFunny how tastes are. I think pumpkin pie is nasty.
- nneonneo 5y ago> According to some food scientists, it is possible for the larvae to survive the stomach acid and remain in the intestine, leading to a condition called pseudomyiasis. There have been documented cases of pseudomyiasis with P. casei.[13][14] Noooooooooooooope nope nope nope.
- wanda 5y agoBecause the larvae in the cheese can launch themselves for distances up to 15 centimetres (6 in) when disturbed, diners hold their hands above the sandwich to prevent the maggots from leaping.
- lvass 5y agoIt's a feature.
- joe-collins 5y agoIt is unquestionably a bug.
- stephc_int13 5y agoSometimes, when a dish is local and doesn't travel, those locals have got to ask themselves why it's not traveling. --Richard Ayoade
- Udik 5y agoThis actually travels. By itself.
- eplanit 5y agoRelated: My theory is that all of Scottish cuisine is based on a dare. Mike Myers
- carlob 5y agoScottish cuisine is pretty good, maybe you meant English...
- ThePowerOfFuet 5y ago¿Por qué no los dos?
- kergonath 5y agoEnglish cuisine tends to be a bit bland in comparison. No need for dares.
- 5y ago
- raverbashing 5y agoYeah I think I wouldn't be too bothered if there was a way of getting rid of the larvae. Just freezing might do the trick for me. Not sure if it's more or less appetizing than Hakarl (I guess it smells better). Still better than Balut though. That's definitely a no for me.
- madengr 5y agoBalut reminds me of live Taspar, for you Star Trek fans. https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Taspar https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Taspar
- senkora 5y ago> Casu martzu is considered by Sardinian aficionados to be unsafe to eat when the maggots in the cheese have died.[8] Because of this, only cheese in which the maggots are still alive is usually eaten, although allowances are made for cheese that has been refrigerated, which results in the maggots being killed. Looks like that’s an option!
- yreg 5y agoThere's another option further down >Some who eat the cheese prefer not to ingest the maggots. Those who do not wish to eat them place the cheese in a sealed paper bag. The maggots, starved for oxygen, writhe and jump in the bag, creating a "pitter-patter" sound. When the sounds subside, the maggots are dead and the cheese can be eaten.
- codeulike 5y agoWhen the sounds subside, the popcorns are dead and the microwave popcorn can be eaten.
- contriban 5y agoBalut is fine if eaten right. Only in Vietnam and Cambodia you can have decent balut with pickled papaya salad and tasty leaves. Or deep fried. Philippines and Thailand like it with just spicy vinegar and hot sauce respectively.
- dividuum 5y agoAs known from Asterix: https://theoldwolf.com/ccdesan/Banquet/CasuMarzu.html https://theoldwolf.com/ccdesan/Banquet/CasuMarzu.html / https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-pidrIBjgTjE/UdFeryVlmHI/AAAAAAAAyWI/l6HUqueC5kI/s1600/IMG_0510.JPG https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-pidrIBjgTjE/UdFeryVlmHI/AAAAAAAAy... :-)
- dash2 5y ago... and Dogmatix faints dead away ...
- Lucasoato 5y agoI'm so lucky that society hasn't decayed enough to wipe out this cultural and culinary masterpiece.
- always_left 5y agoAnother bit about this cheese is that the maggots are large enough that they can also sometimes leap onto your face when you lean for a bite
- Kivutar 5y agoWe have this where I come from (Corsica) and it's not so bad. You have to drink wine when eating this, like stroooong red wine. Note that even if it's a traditional dish here, only a minority of people are OK to give it a try. Often to impress other people around the table. My grandmother used to prepare it. It's quite simple to make. Put the right kind of cheese in a pot, cover it with a green cabage leaf, cover and wait for a week.
- thaumasiotes 5y ago> it's not so bad. > You have to drink wine when eating this, like stroooong red wine. You know, I don't generally associate "you'd have to be dead drunk to eat this" with "it's not so bad".
- capableweb 5y agoI don't think previous commenter was thinking about the promille of the wine but rather referring to a strong flavour, in order to mask the taste/feeling of eating maggots.
- brazzy 5y agoSame thing on a different level, inspires just as little confidence in the statement that it's "not so bad".
- capableweb 5y agoHard disagree. If you have two dishes, the only one can only be eaten when "dead drunk" and the other one only with strong wine, then I'd say the first is most likely way worse than the second, if strong wine doesn't even mask the taste of the first one and requires you to be "dead drunk".
- crowbahr 5y agoThe urban legend I always heard was drink high ABV wine to kill the maggots in your stomach.
- madengr 5y agoI wonder how it tastes when spread on Kiviak (fermented birds in a seal skin bag)?
- hn_throwaway_99 5y agoI always wonder how disgusting foods like this come in to being. I have to believe it's primarily kids daring each other. My other favorite example is Korean Hongeo-hoe, fermented skate, which has been described as "like licking a urinal." My, sounds delish!!
- wantoncl 5y agoWonder if it's for the same reasons as this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C3%A1karl https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C3%A1karl
- wyager 5y agoProbably desperation. Someone left a cheese around too long and didn’t have anything else to eat. Cheese itself is pretty gross as a concept, at least until you get enough experience cultivating the right kinds of fungus.
- thaumasiotes 5y ago> Cheese itself is pretty gross as a concept, at least until you get enough experience cultivating the right kinds of fungus. A basic cheese doesn't involve any fungus...?
- masklinn 5y ago> I always wonder how disgusting foods like this come in to being. The answers tends to be either finding a way to eat the inedible (because there are times where calories > no calories regardless of the source of calories), or finding a way to conserve it somewhat / somehow. Even ignoring its use in creating alcohol from sugars, fermentation can do both (separately or at the same time) and more. Often these become typical delicacies (the flavors can be intriguing or interesting, or "interesting" in the case of some like Hákarl and possibly the Hongeo-hoe you're talking about). For Casu marzu, it's probably either finding a way to control spoliation such that the result is still edible, though it's also possible that uncontrolled spoliation simply resulted in something those adventurous (or desperate) enough to try eating it took a liking to. I'd expect the latter to be the story here: hard cheeses like Pecorino keep a while until they're "open" and you start eating them, and it's not a huge cheese (I believe pecorino wheels are under 2kg, we're not talking the 30+ wheels of a parmesan or comte). Or maybe sardinia regularly has conditions where the cheese can't be kept and so a controlled decomposition was superior to just losing the cheese.
- dheera 5y agoSome videos about it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8F-0Ogp4fU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8F-0Ogp4fU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPzWZzwdaoM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPzWZzwdaoM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vScPvwAq7M https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vScPvwAq7M
- isoprophlex 5y agoAnother interesting forbidden food: Tempeh Bongkrek[1], tempeh fermented with coconut which creates the wonderfully named respiratory toxin "bongkrekic acid". https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tempeh#Tempe_bongkrèk https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tempeh#Tempe_bongkrèk
- perihelions 5y ago"Fatalities from contaminated tempeh bongkrèk were once common in the area where it was produced.[42] Thus, its sale is now prohibited by the law; clandestine manufacture continues, however, due to the popular flavor." Remarkable. It joins fugu on a very short list of "things that are lethally poisonous, but also food". Wikipedia even has a category for this! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Potentially_dangerous_food https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Potentially_dangerous... ("Category:Potentially_dangerous_food") Casu Martzu, tempeh bongkrèk, fugu are all on there. But I think it's missing a couple interesting ones: raw cassava root (glycosides that are metabolized to cyanide) and rhubarb (oxalic acid (which is also the toxic metabolic product of ethylene glycol, the antifreeze fluid)). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassava#Potential_toxicity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassava#Potential_toxicity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhubarb#Oxalic_acid https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhubarb#Oxalic_acid https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxalic_acid#Occurrence_in_foods_and_plants https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxalic_acid#Occurrence_in_food... (several other obscure foods)
- pcthrowaway 5y agoAlso missing: potato Contains solanine, especially concentrated in sprouts and green sections, which is toxic. Also produces a gas which can be lethal. See this [1] article about a girl who was left orphaned after her parents, brother, and grandmother were killed by a sac of potatoes left too long in the cellar. [1] https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2409920/Russian-girl-8--orphaned-ENTIRE-family-wiped-deadly-gas-caused-rotting-potatoes-cellar.html https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2409920/Russian-gir...
- zzzbra 5y agono idea why this isn’t more popular.
- throwaway29303 5y agoIt's because it's a cheese that bugs people off.
- code_duck 5y agoI recall this being on HN at least once previously, probably more, so I guess it is, in a way.
- funebre 5y agoMy 2nd favourite cheese. For those concerned about the maggots, they are born in cheese, eat cheese and shit cheese all their life as maggots, they are basically living cheese :)
- riffraff 5y agoI have to ask, what is the first? I'd be disappointed if it's just pecorino sardo, tho I like that :)
- huhtenberg 5y agoLimburger probably.
- funebre 5y agoReplied above. In general I love strong, flavourful cheeses.
- lr4444lr 5y agoI'm afraid to ask what your #1 favorite is.
- funebre 5y agoIt is "Su Caggiu", probably one of the first cheeses discovered. Here is an (italian) article about it https://www.onaf.it/index.php?c=index&a=schedaformaggio&id=358 https://www.onaf.it/index.php?c=index&a=schedaformaggio&id=3... Google Translate version: https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=it&tl=en&u=https://www.onaf.it/index.php?c%3Dindex%26a%3Dschedaformaggio%26id%3D358 https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=it&tl=en&u=https:/...
- andrewmcwatters 5y ago“Illegal cheese” sounds really cool, but then you read this and it’s just really nasty.
- wirrbel 5y agohttps://jasperfforde.com/specops/cheese_classa.html https://jasperfforde.com/specops/cheese_classa.html
- CyberRabbi 5y agoWhat was interesting to me was the claim of pseudomyiasis from ingestion. I can’t imagine the maggots would live very long or even necessarily be in the digestive system very long even if they did live, so it doesn’t seem like a severe or dangerous condition. What am I missing?
- vkk8 5y agoI was wondering about this too. The article also says that the maggots can be killed by suffocating them in a paper bag. Wouldn't the gut also suffocate them? I desperately need to know this, because if I ever travel to Sardinia I will definitely try this unless there's a chance of getting infested by flesh eating maggots.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- corty 5y agoYour stomach will contain some nitrogen/oxygen swallowed while eating and some carbon dioxide from carbonated drinks (both of which is what will make you burp if the pressure gets too high). Same (to a lesser degree) for your intestines. However, the nitrogen/oxygen atmosphere will be gradually mixed with methane and traces of other stuff when traveling further down the digestive system, and loose oxygen. Some insect larvae are also capable of breathing from a bubble of air clinging to their behind if they are immersed in fluid. But I think the risk of any larvae surviving for long in your stomach will be low. What you can do to make sure they die: Schnaps will cause more stomach acid to be released. And as always, chew properly.
- trhway 5y agogiving the climate change contribution from meat production, population growth, etc. i think our future diet here on Earth will look more like this Klingon reminding cheese. And insects and maggots are probably the most suitable way to farm protein on space stations/colonies. It is interesting though why we, humans, haven't got to regularly eat the insects, snails, frogs, etc. (except for a few cuisines) - i mean until the 2nd half of the 20th century the malnutrition was very widespread, and so you'd expect that all the possible cheapest ways of food production would have been utilized. I wonder are there any hidden aspects which would naturally select out people/communities who would go that way in any substantial ways (say high risk of mistakes leading to poisoning? though we do eat mushrooms and fish then why not say frogs? the frogs for example were eaten only during famines in Russia, yet not in normal times).
- kkotak 5y agoWhy?
- streamofdigits 5y agoyou may not like it now, but a future you will be craving it https://www.nia.nih.gov/health/smell-and-taste https://www.nia.nih.gov/health/smell-and-taste
- dariosalvi78 5y agoI had it from someone I know who produces it in Sardegna and I can only say that it's amazing. I couldn't stop eating it.
- SMAAART 5y ago> Because of European Union food hygiene-health regulations, the cheese has been outlawed, and offenders face heavy fines.[12] However, some Sardinians organized themselves in order to make casu martzu available on the black market, where it may be sold for double the price of an ordinary block of pecorino cheese.[10][8] As of 2019, the illegal production of this cheese was estimated as 100 tonnes (98 long tons; 110 short tons) per year, worth 2-3 m€.[15]
- 0x456 5y agoThere is a meme going around that "Elites Want You to Eat Bugs". This dish would allow them to characterize the practice as "traditional" instead of "novel".
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- codeulike 5y agoReminds me of the 1903 film 'Cheese Mites', one of the first films to be censored because Cheesemakers were concerned that it would put people off of their cheese. The original film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wR2DystgByQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wR2DystgByQ Warning: It might actually put you off cheese source: https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/20570/cheese-mites-how-cheese-eating-pests-became-cinematic-stars https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/20570/cheese-mites-how-c...
- shadowlight 5y agoSardinia Italy is a blue zone with some of the longest living people in the world. Many people live to and past 100 in this area. Guess Casu Martzu must be the secret ingredient.
- danbr 5y agoI first learned about this cheese from a essay prompt while studying for the GREs. Grossed me out.