Casu Marzu.Not your average cheese.

Since I'm on my nasty food rampage, I thought I'd blog about casa marzu. It's not French or completely inhumane. It's just intriguingly disgusting.This Sardinian favorite literally translates into “rotten cheese.” Not to mention, there's thousands of living maggots that live in this cheese.

It's made from Italian sheep’s milk, then soaked in a brine, lightly smoked, and usually ripens uncovered outside in the open. Maggots (AKA:cheese flies) are free to lay eggs inside of it. (Ewww.) Eggs hatch into thousands of maggots as they continually feed on the cheese. This process triggers enzymes that continue fermentation and the cheese to decompose. Believe it or not, this cheese is highly coveted by chef and foodies in Italy. It's local delicacy that people travel from all over the world to have at least once. I hear it's extremely pungent, has the texture of cream cheese and tends to burn the tongue a bit. It's like an over ripe Gorgonzola with living, breathing maggots. In fact, locals say that the cheese is only okay to eat if the maggots are still kicking and alive. Once the maggots are lifeless, the cheese is deemed too toxic for human consumption.


I'm sure the fact that Casa Marzu has been declared illegal unhygienic makes it more appealing to some. Obviously, it's can't be sold in public shops. Sometimes maggots can take up residency in the intestines if you have weak stomach acid(because this obviously kills them, but who knows the acid levels of their stomachs?) They can eat through intestinal walls and cause abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, internal bleeding and diarrhea. Is all this really worth the risk? No, if you ask me.

Despite ALL this, locals and tourists continue to buy this black market item out of "tradition." Locals swear it's been done for hundreds of year. ( I can personally name a ton of food practices that have been practiced for hundreds of years, but would not be acceptable to most people today.) Of course sellers will tell you this is an aphrodisiac. It's yet another concocted way to sell you an over priced rotten cheese.

How did CASU MARZU really come in to being? I have a theory of my own.

I believe many years ago a cheese maker had a family to feed. Maybe s/he was tired or forgetful one day and left a precious wheel of cheese out. S/he couldn't afford to get rid of this potential profit and was forced to to think of a clever solution. Perhaps they made up a story to a friend or naive tourist about how this was a unique, intentional creation that only few people could ever experience. Maybe they "fudged" and said it was safe, unique, local and even better, an aphrodisiac. Some people ate it and were fine. Others got sick and I'm sure they were dubbed weak or advised it wasn't for the faint of pallets. So, the "legend" of Casu Marzu lived and continues. That's what I'm pretty sure happened. I think casu marzu was a mistake made profitable with creative spin. Make your own call.