Casu Marzu (maggot cheese) - anyone TRIED it ?

[Easy 10]

Anyone watching Ramsay last night would have seen this exclusively Sardinian delicacy. Basically, its rotten cheese infested with live maggots.

They make it from sheeps milk, kneeding it into a fairly solid curd, before leaving it in a fly-infested shack for three weeks. During those three weeks, the flies lay their eggs in the cheese, which then hatch into writhing maggots. The cheese is usually eaten (complete with maggots) with Sardinian bread (pane carasau), and apparently has a stupendously sour flavour that leaves an aftertaste for hours. There is a small risk of an undigested maggot living and breeding in your lower instestine, before causing serious leisions as they attempt to bore through the intestinal wall. This can lead to nausea, vomiting, and blood-strewn diarrohea.

1. Has anyone tried this cheese ?
2. Why ?

 

[Munkfish]

I would possible rather suck a used tampon dry.

 

[Timbo]

I saw that. Absolutely vile.

 

[Titanic]

Sounds like it would make great bait for chubb fishing.

 

[eastlondonseagull]

1. Has anyone tried this cheese ?
2. Why ?

.

 

[Barrel of Fun]

I was reading about it the other day for some strange reason.

It looks as though someone has eaten the contents of the cheese rind and then vomited it straight back in.

 

[keaton]

Antonio Carluccio ate it on one of his last series, and said he needed a lot of wine to try and finish a bowl of it

 

[Easy 10]

Well I know we like our cheese threads on NSC. Just thought this was worth bringing to peoples attention. I bet Lord B knows all about it, he's well into Italy and all that.

 

[¤DãŃn¥ §êãGüLL¤]

It wouldn't be so much eating the maggots I'd have an issue with.

It's the fact you'd have to let flies crawl all over it first, who of course spend most of their days landing on dog shit and treading through their own vomit they need to produce to digest food.

 

[MattBackHome]

It wouldn't be so much eating the maggots I'd have an issue with.

It's the fact you'd have to let flies crawl all over it first, who of course spend most of their days landing on dog shit and treading through their own vomit they need to produce to digest food.

Apparently its only made with flies they raise themselves (for hygiene) so they don't go anywhere near dogshit.

My issue with eating it is very much the maggots, so I'm with you anyway.

 

[Easy 10]

Interesting, last night on the show when they cut the crusty top off one of these cheeses to sample its tempting wares, amongst the live maggots was a small fly that flew (as they do) out of its cheesey maisonette and landed on the table, before being promplty dispatched to Dairylea Heaven by a crushing Ramsay right-hander.

 

[Trufflehound]

Antonio Carluccio ate it on one of his last series, and said he needed a lot of wine to try and finish a bowl of it

I saw that.

I will eat "almost" anything - have done witchetty grubs, tarantulas, crickets, and ants. Even air fresheners and the contents of ashtrays as drunken bets. But having watched Carluccio, even i would have trouble with this one I think.

 

[London Calling]

There is also a spanish mountain version which is equally vile. Where do these latin types get their bonking ideas from? It is obviously too much cheap wine and sun?

 

[maffew]

I'd try it I reckon. The family who grew the fucker were lapping it up, even the kids

 

[Easy 10]

It gets worse..

A piece of casu marzu can be populated by thousands of maggots. As the maggots feed on the cheese, they cause the cheese to ferment and the fats in it to decompose. The cheese becomes very soft, with liquid weeping out of it. The drops of liquid are called "lagrima", meaning "tears."

The finished cheese has a very strong, pungent burning taste. It is generally served with the Sardinian bread called "pane carasau" and red wine.

Some people wear eye protection when eating the cheese, because the maggots can jump up to 6 inches (15 cm.) Some remove the maggots before eating the cheese, most people do not. They just focus on eating the cheese.

The maggots can be forced out by sealing the cheese in a bag, suffocating them. You'll hear the worms hitting the side of the bag as they jump out of the cheese, looking for air.

Casu Marzu is seen as a manly thing to eat. Most women tend to avoid it.

 

[eastlondonseagull]

There is also a spanish mountain version which is equally vile. Where do these latin types get their bonking ideas from?

They BONK in maggots?!

.

 

[Fred Oliver - Legend]

I would possible rather suck a used tampon dry.

almost wet myself laughing at that!!

think i'd rather eat the cheese tho!

 

[Everest]

This can lead to nausea, vomiting, and blood-strewn diarrohea.

Casu Marzu - sometimes called the Forfars Cheese

 

[Barrel of Fun]

[yt]4CGseBM85gc[/yt]

 

[Hiney]

This can lead to nausea, vomiting, and blood-strewn diarrohea.

8 pints of Old Rosie will have the same effect and tastes much better

You also get the added bonus of paralysis from the waist down for 12 hours.