"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" [Wikipedia]

  • Trent Hawkins

    It’s not rotten, it’s just got maggots living in it.

    • EvilSpirit

      … maggots which have helpfully transformed some of the cheese into maggot poop. That’s the part where they say “The acid from the maggots’ digestive system breaks down the cheese’s fats, making the texture of the cheese very soft,” except that they’re not saying the phrase “maggot poop.”

      • Antinous / Moderator

        …except that they’re not saying the phrase “maggot poop.”

        Most people don’t sweeten their tea with ‘bee puke’ either. Or dab a little ‘whale hurl’ behind their ears.

        • jackbird

          Well, except for the whole “The larvae can cause serious intestinal lesions as they attempt to bore through the intestinal walls” thing.

          The bee puke can have some botulinium toxin in it, but not enough to do anything bad if you’re old enough to walk.

  • CSBD

    This is almost as good as the girl pissing out the bus window story.

  • OldBrownSquirrel

    So kinda like microwave popcorn, but with maggots.

  • Mark_Frauenfelder

    I wrote about it in my book, World’s Worst

    • DeargDoom

      Did you try it first?

    • joshhaglund

      came here to point out that this wikipedia quote’s footnote reference is your book http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casu_marzu#cite_note-world.27s_worst-7

  • obeyken

    I need a Velveeta chaser

  • http://2012diaries.blogspot.com/ tristan eldritch

    I don’t know Butchie, instead.

  • GawainLavers

    “When disturbed, the larvae can launch themselves for distances up to 15 centimetres (6 in).  It attaches itself to the victim’s face and inserts an egg down the esophagus which, after a gestation period of several hours, erupts violently from the host’s chest resulting in the death of the host.”

  • ffabian

    If you don’t like cheese with larvae try it with mites! Milbenkäse (= mite cheese) is apparently a specialty from Saxony-Anhalt: 
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milbenkaese

  • woid
  • http://twitter.com/daemonnoire daemonnoire

    “Some people clear the larvae from the cheese before consuming while others do not.”

    O.O

    http://cheezburger.com/View/1526908160

    • corydodt

      Sure. It’s just like pulp in orange juice, right? Peanuts in peanut butter? Right?

      Never mind, I can’t rationalize this horror show.

  • Donald Petersen

    Every day I feel more justified in limiting my cheese intake to Kraft Singles.

    • Ashen Victor

      Wait!
       Kraft singles ARE cheese?!

      • phisrow

        For the purposes of CFR Title 21, Chapter 1, Part 133, apparently not.

        The FDA expressed their unhappiness some time back.

        More generally, given that ‘cheese’ is more or less the generic name for the solid form of almost any culture’s attempt to store milk substances cheaply and reasonably safely for later consumption, contemporary American processed cheeses(as exemplified by, but not limited to, Kraft), with their high stability, predictable shelf life, etc. are arguably highly advanced cheeses(aesthetically tepid; but you’ll notice that aesthetic criteria are not essential). Foodie culture snobs may prefer to pretend otherwise; but cheese is pretty much just a strategy to keep the milk from rotting so the peasants won’t starve before their utility is exhausted.

        • Moriarty

          “but cheese is pretty much just a strategy to keep the milk from rotting so the peasants won’t starve before their utility is exhausted.”

          And sex is pretty much just a way of making replacement peasants. But incidentally, both can also be pretty delightful.

          • Donald Petersen

            I won’t compare it to sex, but Kraft Singles make for the most delightful cheeseburgers.  Cheeseburgers with “real” cheese on them ain’t cheeseburgers.  My peasants won’t starve, but the hypertension may get them in the end.

            You foodies are welcome to all the maggot-infested or fungus-covered rotting curds you can stomach.  No thank you.

  • http://twitter.com/bazimmerman Brad Zimmerman

    “[...] fruit and  berries on  strange  planets  either  make  you  live  or  make  you die. Therefore the point at which to start toying with  them  is  when you’re  going  to  die if you don’t. That way you stay ahead. The secret of healthy hitch-hiking is to eat junk food.”  –Ford Prefect, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

    The above can also be applied to food that is still alive, bugs, worms, fungi, etc.

  • Gordon JC Pearce

    I’m a pretty dedicated omnivore.  I’ll eat damn near anything that’s put in front of me.  I grew up on a farm and realised at a very early age that this is the only sane ecological way to live.  We haven’t got the capacity to be picky about what we eat.  We’d better just get on with it.

    All that aside, I just don’t even want to *try* that.

    • OgilvyTheAstronomer

      What about long pig?

      • Donald Petersen

        If delicately prepared and elegantly served… why not?

  • Guest

    Also from the Wikipedia page: “Health concerns: Larvae, if eaten alive (accidentally or otherwise), can pass through the digestive system alive (human stomach acids do not usually kill them) and live for some time in the intestines. … The larvae can cause serious intestinal lesions as they attempt to bore through the intestinal walls. Symptoms include nausea, vomiting, pain in the abdomen, and bloody diarrhea.”

    Lovely.

  • iamlegion

    “When the sounds subside, the maggots are dead and the cheese can be eaten.”
    No. No it can’t.

  • http://www.youtube.com/user/PipLagenta Pip_R_Lagenta

    “Some people clear the (maggot) larvae from the [food item of your choice] before consuming while others do not.”  I am in the “clear away the maggots” group regarding every food item that ever existed.

  • http://orbitnet.com JIMWICh

    I find Casu Marzu to be particularly delightful when enjoyed with a freshly brewed cup of Kopi Luwak.

  • http://profiles.google.com/commanderkitty Scotty A

    GAH!! This and the civet coffee… THEY’RE NOT NEWS ANYMORE!!!

    • Antinous / Moderator

      How about if we get somebody to eat a maggot that’s been shit out by a civet cat? Would that make you happy?

  • http://twitter.com/winkytwit Neil Winkelmann

    “….served with strong red wine”. I’ll say.

  • Culturedropout

    W                  W        TTTTTTTTT         FFFFFFFFF
     W      W     W                   TT                  F      
       W W W W                    TT                  FFFFFF
         W W W                        TT                  F
            W W                          TT                  F
        

    SERIOUSLY.  Talk about marketing.  “OMG – we left the WHOLE shipment of CHEESE outside over the weekend in the sun!  It’s crawling with maggots!”   “Hey – *I* know…!”

    • Trent Hawkins

      Most delicacies are invented in a game of “let’s see what the stupid tourist will eat?”

  • outer rower

    This reminds me of a conversation I had in a market in Ho Chi Minh City years ago, with a stallholder selling grilled kebabs. 
    “What’s the meat in the kebab?” I asked. 
    “You try it first” said the grizzled barbequeist. So I did, and, naturally, they were delicious. All freshly grilled meat with a chilli/soy dipping sauce would be. 
    “So, what’s the meat then?” asks I. 
    “Rat”. Quoth he. 
    “So, I have to ask, what’s the most disgusting thing that you can think of, that you know people from western Europe eat?” Quick as a flash, he replied:
    “Blue Cheese. You make milk go rotten, then, when it’s gone hard, you make it go rotten again.”

    If only I’d known about Casu Marzu. I could have given him new depths of revolting to ponder.

    I wonder if this was discovered by accident or desperation (or both)?

  • PrettyBoyTim

    It seems unlikely to me that you could kill the maggots by putting them in a bag; surely the oxygen requirements of maggots are tiny. I’d have thought they’d take days to die.

    • noah django

      no doubt.  I once put a palmetto bug (giant floridian roach) in a jam jar and sealed it with duct tape.  it lived for over a week.

  • JhmL
  • nox

    “Larvae, if eaten alive (accidentally or otherwise), can pass through the digestive system alive (human stomach acids do not usually kill them) and live for some time in the intestines.[citation needed] This is referred to as an enteric myiasis.”

    If you want to make sure you never eat this cheese, click the myiasis link: 
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myiasis 

  • jhertzli

    So that’s what’s meant by “macrobiotic cheese”!

  • http://profiles.google.com/jwin74 jon winchester

    Insect larvae are not that big a deal. Today as I ate a few dozen ripe+ guava from the tree and ground I am sure there was some “animal protein” in there. And what is cheese anyway but bacteria waste products? Is bacteria poop so much more desirable than maggot poop?

  • daen

    “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”

    And then you can find another use for that paper bag!

  • Antinous / Moderator

    I feel strongly that mrweebl needs to tackle this maggot cheese.