What Makes Stinky Cheese, Well, Stinky, and Why You Should Try It

Just because an ingredient or dish is polarizing doesn’t mean it’s not worth your time. As a child I didn’t like mushrooms — their somewhat slippery texture can be off-putting — but learning to love them over the years has opened up new opportunities to enjoy a meaty, umami-packed, and versatile ingredient. What would I do without buttery mushroom pastas and crispy fried fungi in my life now?

Among the world of misunderstood ingredients, perhaps none is as renowned stinky cheeses. Taleggio, Limburger, Époisses, raclette, and Gruyère are all varieties of this pungent category of dairy products. While their funky, earthy aromas may make it difficult to try them at first, their scent reveals incredibly complex, delicious, and often milder flavors beneath.

In a recent episode of the podcast Pizza Quest with baker, author, and bread expert Peter Reinhart, the host sat down with fellow food enthusiast Mark Todd, often known as “the cheese dude,” to learn all about the fascinating production process and history of stinky cheeses. As Todd’s nickname implies, he has consulted for the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board, the U.S. Dairy Export Council, and the California Milk Advisory Board about what he loves most: cheese. So who better to explain the nuanced background behind these funky cheeses — and potentially convince you to try one?

Stinky cheeses are actually called washed-rind cheeses

I regret to inform you that this genre of dairy products is not officially titled “stinky cheeses.” The proper term for these aromatic delicacies is “washed-rind cheeses,” which points to the unique process that makes them.

Todd starts out by noting that the production of these cheeses is so intricate, “the food science that goes on inside washed-rind cheeses is probably second only to the Maillard reaction as far as the complexity of the chemistry that goes on on the surface of that cheese.” But to give a very brief overview, as these cheeses mature, their rind is regularly washed with a brine. Some may occasionally be rinsed with other liquids like wine or beer, but a salt water solution is the most common.

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While this brine can prevent the growth of mold, it does encourage the cultivation of certain bacteria, the most common of which is Brevibacterium linens. Todd notes that it’s “Brevibacteria that causes that orange rind” — a hallmark of many washed-rind cheeses, which you can often recognize by their orange-colored exterior — as well as their distinct smell and funky flavor.

Washed-rind cheeses have a long history

Diving into the history of washed-rind cheeses, which dates back as far as the 7th century, gives even more insight into how they're made. Todd explains the story of the first stinky cheeses, saying “There's debate as to whether it was an accident or an intention, but basically a Benedictine monk in the Alsace-Lorraine region, doing his diligence of trying to keep mold off the cheese, would take his little wash — which was either alcohol, like [diluted] beer or wine… or salt water, or both, and rub the cheeses to keep the mold off.

“He noticed that mold was coming back on one, so he would scrub it and scrub it and scrub it. Three or four days later, the mold's back. So he would scrub it again. And god, this one… would not quit, and it molded again and it molded again.

Related: 5 Surprising Facts You Should Know About Cheese, According to an Expert

“And about the fifth time it molded, he had kept the cheese so moist with his cleaning that it encouraged different bacteria completely to grow on the outside of the cheese because of the moist environment. That had not happened before. And this young monk went to his boss and said... ‘Hey, boss. Come here…’ And the boss said, ‘Dude, you made it. You taste it.’ And the next [thing] you know, it's all history after that.”

If the monk hadn’t washed the mold off of this cheese, it would have become something more similar to a Brie, which is covered in white mold as it matures, but ends up with a much milder flavor than its washed-rind cousins. Although there are a wide variety of washed-rind cheeses — they’re not all soft, small wheels like an Époisses, which looks strikingly similar to a Brie, and some are quite hard such as Gruyère — this comparison does a good job of demonstrating how much funk and aroma bacteria can contribute.

Yes, you can eat the rind

Don’t let the word “bacteria” scare you, the rinds of these stinky cheeses are absolutely fine to eat. While tasting a variety of Taleggio with “the cheese dude,” Pizza Quest host Peter Reinhart exclaims that although the interior of the cheese is soft and flavorful, the rind “is on another level altogether.” Todd says this is because “the super complex food chemistry going on, that rind is where it's happening.” For a firm washed-rind cheese like Gruyère, it may be physically harder to eat the rind because it's hard, but you still can if you'd like.

Consider this a friendly reminder that you can actually eat the rinds of most cheeses — just avoid any that are coated in wax or cloth. Of course, if you still don’t want to eat the rind on a stinky cheese, you can also trim it off — but both Todd and Reinhart say it would be a waste, especially if you want to taste the full flavor potential of a washed-rind cheese.

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