Cheese mites
Tiny mites that feed on the rinds of aged cheeses, kept deliberately on Mimolette and German Milbenkäse.
Also: Acarus siro, Milbenkäse, mite rind
Cheese mites are microscopic relatives of spiders that live on the rinds of hard, aged cheeses and eat the surface, leaving a dusty, cratered grey crust. Most cheesemakers brush them away, since they can bore into a wheel. A few cheeses depend on them. French Mimolette, the bright orange ball of Lille, gets its pocked, rocky rind and some of its fruity flavour from mites allowed to work on it for months. In Würchwitz, in eastern Germany, Milbenkäse is made by leaving small cheeses in a box of rye flour with mites for months, a custom revived in the twentieth century. They are the only cheeses where mites are an ingredient.