Cuisine of Saxony-Anhalt

Milbenkäse ("mite cheese"), called Mellnkase in the local dialect and often known as Spinnenkäse ("spider cheese"), is a German speciality cheese. It is made by flavouring balls of quark (a type of soft cheese) with caraway and salt, allowing them to dry, and then leaving them in a wooden box containing rye flour and cheese mites for about three months. An enzyme in the digestive juices excreted by the mites causes the cheese to ripen. Milbenkäse tastes similar to Harzer cheese, but with a bitter note (increasing with age) and a zesty aftertaste. Mites clinging to the cheese rind are consumed