Milbenkäse

What is Milbenkäse Cheese?

Milbenkäse was historically made in the Zeitz and Altenburg districts on the Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia border. Today only one place produces it: the village of Würchwitz in Saxony-Anhalt. The method dates back to the Middle Ages and had almost vanished by 1970, when only the elderly Liesbeth Brauer still knew how. Local science teacher Helmut Pöschel learned the technique and revived it with his associate Christian Schmelzer. A Cheese Mite Memorial was later put up at Würchwitz to mark the revival.

Production begins with quark flavoured with salt and caraway, shaped into small balls, cylinders or wheels, and dried. The pieces then sit in a wooden box of rye flour inhabited by Tyrophagus casei mites for at least three months. Digestive juices from the mites diffuse into the cheese and ferment it. The flour is there so the mites nibble at the crust rather than eating the whole cheese.

The rind turns yellow after one month and reddish brown after three. Some producers push the ripening to a full year, by which point the cheese has gone black. The taste is close to Harzer, with a bitter note that grows stronger with age and a zesty aftertaste.

Mites still clinging to the rind are eaten with the cheese. Its legal status is unsettled. European Union rules allow the sale of foods containing living animals when they are prepared for placing on the market for human consumption, while the German Zusatzstoff-Zulassungsverordnung and Käseverordnung do not explicitly permit cheese mites or their digestive juices as cheese additives. It is made under a permit from the local food safety office, with HACCP compliance enforced.