Milbenkäse

The mite cheese ( also called Mellnkase dialect ) is a specialty cheese from the Saxony-Anhalt Würchwitz and the East Thuringian Altenburger Land. In the manufacture of cheese cheese mites of Tyrophagus casei type are used, the enzymes responsible for ripening. In almost all other cheeses bacteria or fungi are responsible for the maturation.

Production

To produce a thoroughly drained and a few days of dried cream cheese in skim stage (fat content in the dry matter is about 1 %) initially seasoned (especially with salt and cumin ) and then formed, for example, to poles or palm-sized balls, in which a Holunderblütenrispe is protrudes from the stem of the ball. That person, the elder pear shape allows the mites can penetrate the cheese to help from the inside to the ripening process. The correspondingly shaped cheeses are then one to twelve months stored in a box in which millions of cheese mites ( Tyroglyphus casei ) are located. A wheel of cheese is populated by approximately 500,000 of these 0.3 mm mites. For additional diet of mites rye flour used. This also prevents the mites themselves erode too much cheese. The saliva of the mite probably causes the fermentation of the Käserohmasse. In the course of running from the outside inwards maturation process, the exterior of the cheese becomes yellow after about four days, until it finally passes over three months in a reddish-brown and after one year in a blackish color. When eating the cheese mites are still alive and are eaten.

Its flavor is reminiscent of a depending on the degree of aging of mild to extremely strong Limburger cheese with a sparkling, slightly bitter aftertaste. The smell is, inter alia salmiakartig.

Physiologically the enjoyment of the cheese is harmless. The preparation has been approved by the Food Administration and is checked regularly, continue to take place regularly in-house microbiological checks instead.

History

Since the Middle Ages were grown in the area around Zeitz and Altenburg cheese mites. As in earlier times mite infestation represented a known risk in cheese storage, was made with the mite cheese production from a virtue of necessity by the pests actually performing mites were included as farm animals in the production process. Around 1970, threatened the tradition to be lost, since only a single older woman - Liesbeth Brauer - in Würchwitz produced cheese mites. The resident biology and chemistry teachers Helmut Pöschel then began even with the mites breed and was committed to the revival of the tradition by operating public relations and various events brought to life.

A few years ago the cheese mite a monument was erected on the occasion of the traditional clover feast in the village square in Würchwitz. It has recently been through the initiative of Helmut Pöschel and Christian Schmelzer of mite cheese in the " Ark of Taste ", an international project of Slow Food eV was added.