Milbenkäse, the unusual German cheese infested with live mites

Milbenkäse is a unique type of goat cheese ripened in wooden boxes infested with millions of tiny cheese mites and enjoyed together with the tiny critters for added taste.
For those unfamiliar with the cheese, the “strange” aspect is the rind, which isn’t a rind at all, but 50,000 or so live mites who were instrumental in transforming a log of quark or curd into this unusual specialty!
Its history can be traced back to the Middle Ages when it was produced in Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia regions of Germany, but the cheese-making tradition faded with time, and in 1970 the recipe was nearly lost forever.
At least, until an elderly woman in the village of Würchwitz remained the only person in the world who knew how to make this special cheese, and she passed on her knowledge to local science teacher Helmut Pöschel who, in turn, partnered with theologian Christian Schmelzer and together they managed to revitalize the production of the so-called “spider cheese”.
And today Würchwitz, in the mostly rural Burgenlandkreis county, just southwest of Leipzig in Germany, is the only place in the world where Milbenkäse is still produced.

To make this special cheese, cheesemakers begin by seasoning small balls of quark or curd with salt caraway, and elderflower.
Then they place them in large wooden boxes and cover them up in a thick layer of live mites, actually millions of them, and lt them cure the cheese for three months to a year. An enzyme in the digestive juices excreted by the mites causes the cheese to ripen, giving it a strong, unpleasant ammonia smell, but also a delicious nutty flavor with a zesty aftertaste.
Interestingly, the mite-infested cheese “rind” is also consumed with the cheese.
The Tyrophagus casei mites that work their magic on Milbenkäse are regularly fed nutritious rye flour throughout the ripening process, because they would otherwise consume the whole piece of cheese, instead of nibbling at the rind and curing it.
After about a month the rind starts to turn yellow, after three months, it becomes brown, but some producers cure it for a week, at which point the “rind” is black.

Either way Milbenkäse is said to be very beneficial for digestion, and some say that exposure to cheese mites even can alleviate the allergic reactions triggered by their relatives, dust mites.
However, according to some sources, prolonged exposure to large quantities of cheese mites can actually cause a mild allergic reaction.
In addition, a lot of people just aren’t comfortable eating a piece of cheese infested with tiny live arachnids.
If you don’t like mite-coated dairy, you share an aversion with the leadership of the former German Democratic Republic.
After surviving World War II, this regional specialty nearly disappeared under the GDR, which banned the production and distribution of live-mite food products.
What survived was just a dwindling pool of farmers and grandmothers making the cheese in wooden boxes at home for private consumption.
Of course, intentional use of mites in the production of Milbenkäse has sparked controversy in Germany, as it puts the cheese in a sort of grey area.
According to EU law, the sale of foods containing living animals is permitted if they are “prepared for placing on the market for human consumption”. However, cheese mites or their digestive juices are not explicitly permitted as cheese ingredients.
As a result, Milbenkäse can only be produced under a permit by the local food safety office.

Either way, don’t worry Given both its limited availability and the fact that it’s coated in tiny arachnids, the cheese isn’t widely consumed, but among chefs and laypeople who know it and love it, it is typically eaten cut into thin rounds and spread on top of buttered rye bread, and pairs well with wine, beer, or cocoa.

Images from web – Google Research