Suggested for Limburger or other pungent cheeses: Serve with crackers or, as Baumgartner's in Monroe does, on rye with an onion.
Posted on 04/05/2009 6:25:40 PM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
Hold your nose, stinky cheese is back!
Not that it ever entirely went away, though only one small cheese factory in North America continues to make Limburger -- the king of smelly cheeses. (It's the Chalet Cheese Cooperative just outside of Monroe.)
Now, though, pungent fromage has been rediscovered by Foodies.
And, cheese sellers say, many artisan cheesemakers are creating cheeses that pack a punch to the schnozz.
One, Felix Thalhammer of Blue River, has created five smelly washed-rind cheeses that he markets to stores and restaurants from Milwaukee to Viroqua and beyond.
Thalhammer also sells his cheeses -- some of which are made with goat's milk -- at the Dane County Farmers' Market. The "Washed Bear" is the stinkiest, says Thalhammer, who said the smell of his Swiss-style washed-rind cheeses diminishes over time -- unlike Limburger, which gets more powerful.
"It's great that people are getting more adventurous with their taste in cheese," says Thalhammer, a native of Switzerland who began making cheese nine years ago at the Capri Cheesery.
Bill Anderson, the head cheesemonger at Fromagination, says his shop on Madison's Capitol Square sells Limburger and a range of other smelly cheeses from around Wisconsin, the United States and abroad.
"We have some customers who come in and specifically ask for pungent cheeses," says Anderson, who links the rise in interest to fascination with small, farmstead producers.
Anderson says washed-rind cheeses -- cheeses that are washed with a solution -- are generally the smelliest and the washes, which range from salt brine to beer or wine, add complexity to the flavor. All the washed-rind cheeses, though, start out by being rinsed with the B-linens baceteria, he says.
Anderson's favorite smelly cheese? It's called Epoissses and comes from France. It has a powerful smell, but an "elegant taste and silky texture."
(Napoleon was said to be especially fond of Epoisses. But, like Limburger, it is so strong that it has reportedly been banned on some public transport in France.)
Another winner, he says, is the Soft Wheel from Twig Farm in Vermont, which has a "savory taste, rich and meaty." Anderson recommends eating these aromatic cheeses on crackers or bread and serving them with fruit and wine. Beer, too, is a fine choice to accompany cheese; Fromagination will host a "Funky Beer and Stinky Cheese" tasting later this month.
An aromatic range
Other cheesemongers recommend buying pungent fromage in small amounts.
"If it sits too long in the fridge, even in a zip-top bag, you'll need Arm & Hammer baking soda for the smell," says Richard Wong, a Whole Foods specialty buyer in Chicago.
Wong says other cheeses such as blue can be smelly, but he they can't hold a candle to their washed-rind varieties.
"In my opinion, the blues have a more musty smell, not really a stink."
Grant Moore, the deli manager at Madison's Willy Street Co-op, agrees that the heightened increased interest in artisanal cheeses has led to more people trying smelly fromage.
"It's kind of like the wine market a decade or more ago," he says. "Here in Wisconsin, there has been an explosion of small local cheesemakers. So people are expanding what they are willing to try."
Moore says the stinkiest cheeses at the co-op include Limburger, which he calls the "old standby," and a surface-ripened brick made by Widmer's Cheese Cellars in Theresa.
Jeanne Carpenter, executive director of Wisconsin Cheese Originals (and its Web site, www.wisconsincheeseoriginals.com
), says she has noticed in recent years that people are no longer afraid to try pungent cheeses.
"I think the smell used to stop them," says Carpenter, who grew up on southwest Wisconsin cattle farm eating Velveeta.
"They'd take one whiff and say 'Oh no, that's not what I want.' But now, many consumers are more educated and they're eating more cheese and are willing to get past their offended noses.
"Once they do that, they discover that these cheeses taste completely different than how they smell," says Carpenter, who blogs about cheese.
"The bark is worse than the bite," she says. "Five years ago you couldn't get people to try things. Now they are reading on their own and know what more exotic cheeses are even before I start talking about them."
Carpenter says she thinks she's like a lot of foodies when it comes to fromage.
"The older I get, the more I want to try bolder cheeses," says the 37-year-old Carpenter, who will be teaching a class on smelly cheeses in November at the Wisconsin Original Cheese Festival at the Monona Terrace.
Greg O'Neill, co-owner of the Pastoral cheese shops in Chicago, said many nationalities can claim their own stinky cheese, some of which are fruity and mild and won't "blow your mouth away."
"If you are Italian, it's Telaggio; French, Epoisses or Munster," he says. "There are many different types. These are the kinds of cheeses that you love or hate, without a whole lot of room in the middle."
Limburger, at last
Which brings us back to Limburger, the granddaddy of surface-ripened cheeses. Not too many years ago, scores of American cheese factories made this sometimes notorious cheese.
And Green County -- home to Chalet Cheese Cooperative, the country's last Limburger maker -- used to produce 4 million pounds annually in the 1920s and 1930s.
"Tastes change, but now there is a revival and people are saying it smells like perfume again," jokes Myron Olson, master cheesemaker and manager of the Chalet Coop. "The first cheese factory in Green County was a Limburger plant and that was 145 years ago."
In the 1970s, Chalet was producing 2 million pounds of Limburger a year.
But about a decade ago, the demand for Limburger had declined so much that Kraft, which had been buying the smelly cheese from Chalet for 70 years, cancelled its contract for 400,000 pounds annually.
After Kraft pulled the plug, production of Limburger dropped to 500,000 pounds. In recent years, it has climbed to 900,000 pounds and is going strong, says Olson. It is now sold under the Country Castle label.
"Now we're just keeping up with demand and the past five months have been especially strong," says Olson, whose factory also makes firmer, surfaced-ripened German Brick and award-winning Baby Swiss and Swiss varieties.
Over at Baumgartner's, a 78-year-old tavern in downtown Monroe, the construction workers who sidled up to the bar don't mind the smell or the taste.
Nor does Baumgartner's co-owner Chris Soukup, who sells up to 100 pounds of the cheese a week.
"I grew up eating Limburger and really like the flavor," says Jeff Hochman, 42, of McConnell, Ill. "The smell doesn't bother me a bit."
"My grandfather was from Switzerland and my father was a cheesemaker, so I love this stuff," says Hochman, who was eating a no-frills sandwich made of Limburger on rye bread with onion. He washed it down with a beer.
Wisconsin's smelliest cheeses
To paraphrase Shakespeare, a slice of ripe Limburger cheese -- by any other name -- would smell as foul as sweaty socks left for a couple of days in your gym bag.
Then again, some foodies and diehard Limburger fans would say a whiff of this fromage makes their taste buds water.
Jeanne Carpenter, a Madison-based cheese connoisseur and consultant, says picking a pungent cheese is mostly subjective.
Regardless, she says Wisconsin's many washed-rind and bloomy rind cheeses are some of the best in the country and have placed the Badger State at the "forefront of the national farmstead and artisan cheese movement."
So, here's her ranking of seven of Wisconsin's stinkiest, starting with -- but of course -- Monroe's claim to fame.
1. Country Castle Limburger, Chalet Cheese Cooperative, Monroe: The last of all U.S. cheesemakers crafting the granddaddy of stinky cheeses is Myron Olson at Chalet. This pungent smelling, surface-ripened cheese is often compared to the odor of stinky feet, but once it reaches the palette, it pairs exceptionally well with hearty rye breads and a slice of onion.
2. Earth Schmier, Bleu Mont Dairy, Blue Mounds: This signature raw milk, washed-rind Havarti-based cheese was created by cheesemaker Willi Lehner. He injects the cheese with microbes harvested from his farm in southwestern Wisconsin, giving a whole new level to the meaning of "terroir."
3. Aged Brick, Widmer's Cheese Cellars, Theresa: Master cheesemaker Joe Widmer makes this surface-ripened stinking beauty by hand filling each cheese mold with curd and weighting it down with the same bricks his grandfather used. After resting in a brine bath, the cheeses are aged on wooden shelves and hand-washed daily.
4. Braukäse, Roth Käse USA, Monroe: The aging cellar masters at Roth Käse USA gently coat this washed-rind Brau Käse cheese with brewer's yeast to impart an earthy flavor, creating a creamy interior perfectly balanced with a slightly assertive rind.
5. St. Pauline, Capri Cheesery, Blue River: This mixed milk, washed-rind cheese is crafted using both goat's and cow's milk and is aged four to eight months by cheesemaker Felix Thalhammer. A firm, raw milk cheese, it is an American Original best described as a cross between gouda and havarti. It's cured on cedar boards for at least three months.
6. Petit Frere, Crave Brothers Farmstead Cheese, Waterloo: Cheesemaker George Crave created this rich, washed-rind cheese to reflect his family's Irish-French heritage. Made in small batches, ladled into draining molds, and then washed daily, the cheese carries an earthy, fruity flavor and velvety texture.
7. Fleurie Noir, Fantome Farm, Ridgeway: This award-winning bloomy-rind goat's milk cheese is hand-ladled into forms, dusted with ash and salt, and then allowed to age for several weeks. Cheesemaker Anne Topham sells this pyramid-shaped delicacy at the Dane County Farmers; Market between April and November.
Suggested for Limburger or other pungent cheeses: Serve with crackers or, as Baumgartner's in Monroe does, on rye with an onion.
Bring back leiderkranz!!!
I was just about to comment on Liederkranz!!! I never thought anyone else would know it...the litttle wooden box? I love it!!!
All your Leiderkranz are belong to me...and I done ate it!
Époisses is one of my favorites also. If Mr. Anderson likes Époisses, he might also enjoy Livarot, another flavorful wash cheese.
The world’s best blue cheese in made in Newton Iowa.
And a side of lutefisk?
Hear! Hear! The Marin French Cheese co. sells a cheese, Rouge et Noir Schloss, that they say is similar to the late lamented Liederkranz. A little pricey, though.
http://www.marinfrenchcheese.com/Store/Cheese/CheeseProducts.aspx?prod_id=106&CatgroupId=1&CatId=1
Back during my misspent youth in Wisconsin, we bought some limburger (sp?) cheese to put in people’s tail pipes. We heard that it would add “aroma” to the vehicle. Never found out because my dad ate it! LOL! Nasty little punks were we.
One man’s cheese is another man’s spoiled milk...
I am a foodie, I will NEVER put a sweat-sock smelling cheese in my mouth, EVER! I cannot get past the smell.
I was at a food show in Portland, OR last week. A distributor was handing out samples of various cheeses. Some were locally made (I found an excellent semi-soft cheese from Port Townsend, WA...delicious!), and some were imported from Germany, Switzerland, and Austria. I found the German cheeses to be the stinkiest.
I sampled one of those German cheeses and put it in my mouth without getting a whiff of it beforehand. I almost gagged. I cannot remember the type of cheese, which is just as well.
Has anyone here tried Stinking Bishop cheese?
Sorry, the cat got it.
What some call a proliferation of stinky cheese, is just Michelle Obama leaving her shoes everywhere.
I can’t decide whether limburger smells more like dirty smelly feet or cat feces. It’s kind of an unholy mix of the two.
Widmer’s Aged Brick is highly recommended...get the stuff in the foil wrapper...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.