Poll: Stinky cheese

[braumeister]

Since we seem to be in a poll-making period here, this is something I'm genuinely curious about.

How many here enjoy what DW refers to as "stinky cheese?"

I got started early in life, when my grandfather introduced me to sandwiches made of Limburger cheese spread on pumpernickel or dark rye bread with a slice of raw onion. Nobody else in the family would go near it, but I loved it as much as he did.

These days, my favorites are the Trappist cheeses of Belgium like Chimay, but pretty much any very aromatic cheese is welcome at my table. These are generally described as semi-soft, washed rind cheeses where the aroma comes from the bacterial cultures in the rind. The most famous (besides Limburger) is probably Epoisse de Bourgogne, but a true French Munster (nothing like the supermarket kind) is another.

 

[REWahoo]

Pheeeewwww! No thank you.

 

[Nemo2]

Limburger cheese spread on pumpernickel or dark rye bread with a slice of raw onion.

Sounds great!!

 

[HFWR]

Sounds great!!

Back in my Boy Scout days, one of my fellow Scouts always brought an onion on troop hikes, which he ate like an apple.

Not sure about limburger, but I like blue/bleu cheese.

 

[Sojourner]

About the most pungent cheeses I typically eat are the occasional Gorgonzola or Blue Stilton.

I was curious about Limburger many years ago, given its infamous reputation, and so I found some at the grocery store wrapped in foil and decided to peel back the foil just a bit and take a deep whiff of it. Oh boy.... big mistake!! Honestly one of the worst odors I have ever encountered from any sort of food item, either fresh or rotten. I cannot imagine eating something that tasted like that cheese smelled. I can only assume the taste isn't nearly as putrid, otherwise I really don't see how anyone could stomach it.

 

[Souschef]

Cheese story

[FONT=&quot]Now for the cheese story! We discovered, much to our dismay that as our Camembert ripened, it gave off a power smell! We kept it in our refrigerator and had it in a zip lock bag and covered in aluminum foil. That helped some, but it was still pungent. None of the little towns we stopped at had markets to buy more zip lock bags until we got to Dijon.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Our tour manager told me of a market named Lafayette 4 blocks away that should have something. I found the place, and much to my dismay, it was a 6 floor department store! I found the directory, and headed up to house wares on the top floor. They did not have any bags, but I found a round Tupperware that would work. It cost as much as the 2 wheels of cheese, but we had to do something.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]DW told me it was going in my suitcase on the way home because she did not want her clothes smelled up![/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]. My only concern about going through customs and immigration was the cheese. I could see one of the beagles they use taking one sniff and rolling over! The cheese container did its job and I did not have any stinky clothes.[/FONT]

 

[Nemo2]

Back in my Boy Scout days, one of my fellow Scouts always brought an onion on troop hikes, which he ate like an apple.

When I was a kid we'd eat an entire garlic and then look for crowds to mingle with and exhale deeply among.

 

[NW-Bound]

My son will not eat shrimp, but will eat tons of blue cheese. The stinkier, the more he likes it.

When I was in Nova Scotia, ran across a farm that made this blue cheese. Too bad it was not convenient for me to get some to bring back for my son.

 

[THUNDER_75]

This happended about 45 years ago. My great uncle, a WW 2 vet had a few to many and left some limburger cheese on a grate just above our old style radiator heater. Well you know what happened. It left a stinky smell for a while. LOL

 

[scrinch]

I remember the whole house stinking as a child when my grandfather would bring home the Limburger cheese. Wheew! I don't even like the bitterness of bleu cheese, much less the really aromatic ones like Limburger.

I live in the land of durian, which is a big, spiky, smelly fruit. I've tried over and over to like it, but just can't get over putting something in my mouth that smells that bad! The taste is just a little unpleasant, but it is overwhelmed by the vile smell.

 

[NW-Bound]

From Wikipedia on Limburger cheese:

The cheese is especially known for its pungent odor caused by the bacteria Brevibacterium linens, which is partially responsible for body odor and particularly smelly feet.​

How yummy! Some types of blue cheese also have this bacteria Brevibacterium linens. Nice!

 

[FUEGO]

I'll definitely try just about any kind of stinky cheese. We bought some Vacherin cheese at a fromagerie in Montreal that was so stinky we had to hold our noses to eat it. The best way to describe the smell is vomit. After eating it with my fingers, my fingers smelled like vomit. Tasted pretty good on some thin sliced baguette bread. I picked it because it was the stinkiest one in the whole store (you could distinctly smell it through the cellophane).

These days when we do a Trader Joe's run we'll usually get our staples (that aren't particularly stinky) like parmesan, havarti, gouda, or brie. And try one new cheese. Blue cheese, gorgonzola, camambert have been recent tries. Not a fan of camambert (I prefer brie) but the blue cheese and gorgonzola is delicious especially on salads.

 

[FUEGO]

I live in the land of durian, which is a big, spiky, smelly fruit. I've tried over and over to like it, but just can't get over putting something in my mouth that smells that bad! The taste is just a little unpleasant, but it is overwhelmed by the vile smell.

Durian is up there with some pretty stinky cheeses. The few times I've had durian at my SE Asian in-laws' house, it was delicious but wow did it stink going down the hatch.

Fun story. I once bought some durian flavor wafer cookies from the Asian store. I opened one up, tried it, gagged and spit it into the sink (not nearly as good a taste as ripe durian. I forgot about the package and went out for a while. When I came back, I smelled that distinctive natural gas leak stink. I thought my house was going to explode. Turns out it was just the cookies in the kitchen.

 

[Sunset]

As a kid my friend's father travelled the world, so I got to try some of those smelly cheese, but currently I confess to being at best a blue cheese fan (if you consider that a smelly cheese).

 

[braumeister]

22% is a much higher positive percentage than I expected. Obviously we have some serious cheese lovers here.

BTW, probably the stinkiest cheese I've ever encountered is Brussels Kaas. AFAIK it's only available in some cheese shops in Brussels, but it's worth your while to try it if you're there. There is a good cheese shop quite close to the Grand Place that carries it (along with many other wonderful cheeses).

 

[NW-Bound]

I have not run across a cheese I cannot eat. Cheese too stinky, I just eat a small piece.

My favorite type is the pedestrian cheddar, but not the typical cheddar. I like aged Kerrygold myself.

 

[Gumby]

My favorite is Taleggio, from Italy.

 

[GravitySucks]

Love blue and Gorgonzola. There was a tavern near a job site back in the 70s that had a lunch special once a week that consisted of a small Limburger and onion sandwich and a 6 oz. Genny draft all for a quarter.

 

[MRG]

Love blue and Gorgonzola. There was a tavern near a job site back in the 70s that had a lunch special once a week that consisted of a small Limburger and onion sandwich and a 6 oz. Genny draft all for a quarter.

Have a Genny for me!

I love the blues. Learned to eat them on Megacorp's buck in the UK and Europe. It was a transition from something I didn't care for to something I love. A favorite is to grill half peachs and add blue cheese to the middle.

 

[traineeinvestor]

I love the stuff. So does my cat (who turns her nose up at most human food) - if I bring out some blue cheese after dinner she will be queuing up for her share.

 

[Gone4Good]

Food's an adventure ripe for discovery, so I like to try everything I can. But growing up in the U.S. the only "cheese" I knew was an industrial orange-colored plasticy substance wrapped in cellophane . . . pee-yew.

It wasn't until I went on my first trip to France where I was introduced to cheese. After our meal the waiter brought around a tray containing stuff I had never seen, nor smelled anywhere in my life. So naturally I selected the blackest, foulest, smelliest, ripest cheeses on the plate. It was a revelation.

Now I'm a huge cheese lover, especially (and essentially) with a glass of wine. Bring on the cheese course!

 

[bUU]

Gorgonzola is my limit, but actually also my ideal (strange how that works). I'm less interested in eating Colby than those cheeses more pungent than Gorgonzola, though a cheese so bland as to be a waste of time to eat, like Monterey Jack, can be redeemed with some chili peppers.

 

[BTravlin]

When I was a kid my father was in sales and traveled quite a bit. Every time he came back from Wisconsin he would bring home a wheel of Port Salut cheese. The refrigerator would stink for weeks but it's great cheese!

 

[athena53]

I love good cheese but try to avoid it because of the cholesterol and the calories. Who knows- maybe the experts will reverse course and tell us cheese is as good for us as nuts.

I definitely like the aromatic varieties.

 

[MRG]

I love good cheese but try to avoid it because of the cholesterol and the calories. Who knows- maybe the experts will reverse course and tell us cheese is as good for us as nuts.

I definitely like the aromatic varieties.

I think the experts are changing their minds about dietary cholesterol and the cholesterol in our blood. See the attached. Cheese does have a lot of calories per gram because of its fat content, and is generally higher in sodium. So maybe it's the same as nuts.


http://articles.mercola.com/sites/a...us-guidelines-dietary-cholesterol-limits.aspx