Human Cheese

Sweet Airy Equity

Airily aged in a room high above the east village while the cheese is still very young, this tough little cheese is a human-cow blend. Made from the milk of a kind young mother of Chinese descent hailing from midtown Manhattan, and a cow born and raised in the Catskills. Between working in private equity and eating lots of sweets, this mother has retained hints of her pregnant plumpness, producing a sweet, creamy milk, a delightful balance to the grassy cow milk it intermingles with. Sweet airy equity is a mild hard cheese that crumbles in your mouth, with a smooth lingering finish that leaves only the slightest hint of walnut on your tongue.

Disgust, uncomfortable, intrigued, fascination...all words to describe my reactions while reading an interview with Miriam Simun who recently created three kinds of human cheese. Whatever the response, the idea of human cheese is thought provoking and raises a lot of interesting questions.

From Food and Tech Connect...

Human cheese is initially a pretty shocking concept to most people. In that way its a great conversation starter – people very quickly bring up all sorts of different issues. I’ve had questions come up like, is it OK for a vegan? Is it empowering or exploitative of the woman? Is it dangerous or actually healthier? Many people feel uncomfortable because they don’t know the woman, or what she is eating – but how often do you know the cows of your cheese, and what they are eating? The sustainability question is great too, a lot of people totally get it, they love that I’m using human extracts to make human food – while others think of cannibalism. But the best is when people are tasting it (or not). There’s something really visceral and instinctual about eating – its no longer an idea to play with, but something you have to chew and swallow.