antique milk

June 16, 2020 12:37 PM

The Cheese That Stands Alone - "So how did a working-class cheese, one of the most popular in America, dwindle to but one producer? Not every immigrant’s story is a happy one, and such a tale is Limburger’s."

The Cheese That Nose No Equal

American Limburger Files, Part 1

Limburger Files: Pt. 2, Beer and Cheese Pairing - "Overall we found that we enjoyed the Limburger especially when eaten with rye bread and condiments. We agreed that the best Limburger pairing of the evening was Chimay. The flavors enhanced one another and brought out pleasant notes in each. Eric also enjoyed the Delirium Tremens and Alifair liked the Lindemans."

posted by the man of twists and turns (41 comments total)

I think Limburger's popularity with comedians is also that it could be used as a substitute fart/poop gag at a time when toilet jokes were highly restricted in public, although as popular as ever in private. But then, I have never smelled it; where would I?
posted by Countess Elena at 1:18 PM on June 16, 2020 [3 favorites]

Someone has to have tried limburger with salt-rising bread, the sweaty-sock stenching midwestern winter bread. Pair it with a cheeky little durian chutney for extra effect.
posted by scruss at 1:25 PM on June 16, 2020 [1 favorite]

previously: The Interstate Limburger War of 1935
posted by the man of twists and turns at 1:27 PM on June 16, 2020

A quality Limburger sandwich (black rye, fuck-you mustard or horseradish, raw onions and cheese) is a rare pleasure that every foodie should experience at least once. I prefer mine with an imperial stout.
posted by aramaic at 1:27 PM on June 16, 2020 [12 favorites]

My dad is a tremendous fan of the Limburger sandwich on rye with onions that this one bar in Wisconsin makes. So every road trip they get a couple.

I never could get over the smell when I was younger, but it's been a long time since I've been exposed to it. Maybe it's a thing I like now, like Brussel sprouts.
posted by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit at 1:28 PM on June 16, 2020 [2 favorites]

We always used to get the bag of half-price "ends and pieces" from the local grocery deli, and have Mixed Ends and Pieces Sandwiches. The rule was you had to taste the whole thing before you could pick anything out. That was the context of my first taste of Limburger, and I loved it. It just added something to the overall mélange.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 1:34 PM on June 16, 2020 [6 favorites]

My only knowledge of Limburger comes from Looney Tunes cartoons (IIRC), and the context being that it smelled awful.

If they wanted to market Limburger as an old-timey artisanal food product for discerning hipsters, they could promote it as an “extreme delicacy” you eat if you're daring enough, like Icelandic fermented shark or similar, only with some roarin'-20s cachet (think old black-and-white cartoons, ragtime piano, and those hats like the This Is Fine dog wears).
posted by acb at 1:37 PM on June 16, 2020 [3 favorites]

The thing that gets me is how the recipe is basically "dip it in this brine we've had sitting around for 100 years". I imagine when this last producer goes out of business and the mother culture is gone, that's it for ever making Limburger again. This must happen with cheese varieties all the time. I wonder if anyone's building something like a Svalbard Seed Vault for cheese cultures, or if that sort of thing's even feasible?
posted by The Wrong Trousers at 1:39 PM on June 16, 2020 [9 favorites]

I participated in a blind cheese tasting last year and was surprised to find that my #2 was Limburger. One expects a stink-bomb outlier, but as far as I was concerned it was just one among many soft, aromatic cheeses. I’d happily eat it today if it were locally available, but I’ve not seen it stocked around here.
posted by mumkin at 1:40 PM on June 16, 2020 [2 favorites]

one of the most popular in America

"Well, we don't get much call for it around here, sir."
posted by The Bellman at 1:42 PM on June 16, 2020 [11 favorites]

My second favorite cheese after Danish Esrom, a similarly smelly cheese but with a bit more interesting body. Neither is very available.
posted by semmi at 1:54 PM on June 16, 2020

I used to get Limburger at the supermarket (Newark, Delaware, 1970s). I have no idea whether it was the real thing. The taste was much milder than the smell. Flies would circle around it but not land on it.
posted by Nancy Lebovitz at 2:03 PM on June 16, 2020 [2 favorites]

Funny, it is relatively common locally (here in a German community in Southern Ontario). Often you see it alongside the not stinky Ski Queen Gjetost.
posted by Ashwagandha at 2:06 PM on June 16, 2020 [2 favorites]

"I remember a friend of mine, buying a couple of cheeses at Liverpool..."
posted by jim in austin at 2:13 PM on June 16, 2020 [3 favorites]

One of my jobs as a kid was to "turn the cheeses" every few days, so that as they aged and got softer, all the air pockets didn't migrate to the top. This was aged brick, not limburger, but the smell was quite similar, with notes of outhouse and dead animal. Every quarter we would go to the cheese factory to replenish my father's supply, and then my responsibilities would resume. The factory is still there today, owned by the same family, and making the same stinky cheese (now available by UPS). Widmer Cheese in Theresa WI The reason it is called "half-aged" is that you have to go through the process I described to fully age the cheese, we kept it in the basement where it was about 55F, mostly so it didn't stink up the whole house.
posted by ackptui at 2:14 PM on June 16, 2020 [8 favorites]

We had limburger all the time when I was a kid. Back then it was considered a totally normal cheese.
posted by acrasis at 2:43 PM on June 16, 2020 [1 favorite]

By 1930, Kraft sold a reported 40% of all cheese in the United States and promoted it by sponsoring the popular Kraft Music Hall radio show, which featured suave crooner Bing Crosby.

It had never occurred to me before, but Bing Crosby is exactly the musical equivalent of cream cheese.
posted by betweenthebars at 2:45 PM on June 16, 2020 [12 favorites]

The nastiest-smelling cheese I ever encountered was a Danish Tilsit. It literally smelled like ass.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 2:56 PM on June 16, 2020

Not only have I eaten and enjoyed Limburger, but as literally the only person who bought any during our local grocery's brief experiment with it, the cheesemonger shouted and chased me across the store to take home the last, unloved, expired block for free.

It was delicious.
posted by ivan ivanych samovar at 3:02 PM on June 16, 2020 [21 favorites]

My only knowledge of Limburger comes from Looney Tunes cartoons (IIRC), and the context being that it smelled awful.

Same but Little Rascals. I was always fascinated as a kid by this cheese that made everyone run away from the person eating it. My cheese knowledge at that point was mostly cheddar, mozzarella and Kraft singles so I didn't even know cheese could be like that.
posted by downtohisturtles at 3:51 PM on June 16, 2020 [1 favorite]

I mean, it can't possibly be the most disgusting cheese ever. [CW: it's not as bad as you think. It's far, far worse.]
posted by Halloween Jack at 3:52 PM on June 16, 2020 [6 favorites]

My only knowledge of Limburger comes from Looney Tunes cartoons...

Same but Little Rascals...

Don't forget Archie Comics
posted by Atom Eyes at 4:03 PM on June 16, 2020 [1 favorite]

It's so interesting how food and it's perception is both personal and cultural. Both in what we prefer to eat and drink but also in how food and it's likes and dislikes can be a fig leaf for racism. The "gross" cheese as a way to signal it was eaten by the "gross" middle europeans. "limburger" as a name for a cheese and as a way to deride an accent. You of course saw this later in how various other immigrant culture's foods were deemed "gross" in the lunchbox or the playground- at least until a few decades pass and it's the hottest new food trend. You see this still today even on metafilter where FPPs on durian get derailed or deleted because it's rude and racist to declare a food tradition "gross". Funny though how limburger hasn't really made a comeback except among cheese nerds- but that might be because of the difficulty in making in rather than a lack of interest.
posted by Homo neanderthalensis at 4:12 PM on June 16, 2020 [11 favorites]

My only experience with Limburger came in the early '70s living in a kind of ashram-y, commune-y house in a Midwestern university town with a mixed group of folk. Mid-fall and we'd just turned on the furnace when the whole house started smelling like long-dead rat/squirrel/mouse/bird/raccoon. Most of us are rushing around, opening up the furnace and ductwork and vents as we could, looking for the obviously rotting corpse. The one guy from the East Coast who lived there asked us what was going on, and when we informed him, he opened up the oven to reveal the open-faced limburger sandwich he was toasting. Never been tempted by the stuff since.
posted by ClingClang at 5:14 PM on June 16, 2020 [1 favorite]

→ food and it's likes and dislikes can be a fig leaf for racism

I remember as a kid having a sort of "funny peculiar" anecdote book and reading that "[City, USA] has a law against eating garlic before going on transit" and thinking (as a very sheltered kid) "lolAmericans", but thinking back on it, it had to be a way for the city to be racist.
posted by scruss at 5:43 PM on June 16, 2020 [4 favorites]

I feel like cheese preferences in North America have broadened enough that with a little bit of a marketing push there could be a thriving community making Limburger again. It looks like my local supermarket here in Toronto carries Limburger, but from Germany. I'll give it a try when I go next although I'm pretty sure that only my son and I will appreciate it.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 6:00 PM on June 16, 2020

If limburger makes a comeback maybe the same people can apply their skills to liverwurst. Neither is any worse than an aged French or Swiss cheese, or in the case of liverwurst, a pork pâte.
posted by fiercekitten at 7:40 PM on June 16, 2020

Like quicksand, limburger is one of those things I thought I'd have to deal with as an adult. And yet I lived in Wisconsin for five years and never encountered it. I just found a meat market in Chicago that stocks it, so maybe someday soon.
posted by hydrophonic at 8:29 PM on June 16, 2020 [2 favorites]

I just found a meat market in Chicago that stocks it, so maybe someday soon.

Recommendation for a newb from someone who was once a newb: don't breathe in just before you bite. Breathe OUT through the nose as you go to bite, remove remaining parcel from face area, then breathe in through nose. The smell really isn't that bad once you're used to it, but it can impair the sensory impact of the sandwich itself until you're used to it.
posted by aramaic at 8:51 PM on June 16, 2020 [2 favorites]

I like limburger, and I don't think of it as smellier than any other washed rind cheeses. Is the reason for the stereotype in the USA that this is the only kind of washed rind cheese most Americans are familiar with?

On the other hand, I lived for quite a few years in a region where a local speciality was Handkäs' mit Musk ("hand cheese with music", the "music" referring to the farts produced after eating it). This cheese tastes sour and somehow gelatinous, and smells wonderfully of dirty socks. Served with raw onions and often drippy liver sausage.
posted by lollusc at 9:02 PM on June 16, 2020 [2 favorites]

this is the only kind of washed rind cheese most Americans are familiar with?

While there are other washed-rind cheeses, the average American (or, IME, Canadian) will not be familiar with them. Most cheeses sold are dead. Indeed, blue cheese of any variety is often regarded as "challenging" for a pretty non-trivial percentage of the population.
posted by aramaic at 9:10 PM on June 16, 2020

I saw limburger once or twice at the Milk Pail, and always intended to try it some time, but I did not get around to it before the Pail's untimely death. Foolish me!
posted by tavella at 9:18 PM on June 16, 2020

I imagine when this last producer goes out of business and the mother culture is gone, that's it for ever making Limburger again.

Don't they still make Limburger in, I don't know, Limburg ?
posted by Pendragon at 12:18 AM on June 17, 2020

It might be like the Budweiser they brew in Česke Budejovice (formerly known as Budweis) or something.
posted by acb at 2:54 AM on June 17, 2020

Why don't you dance with me ?!?
posted by Meatbomb at 4:36 AM on June 17, 2020 [3 favorites]

If you are going to eat stinky things (and you should) now's the time to do it; when you won't be close enough for people to smell it on you. This is the excuse I also use for not brushing my teeth before I run an errand. I have a mask and they're (hopefully) 2+ meters away and (hopefully) wearing mask. If they smell my breath, that means they're too close and they can suffer the consequences: my bad breath.
posted by terrapin at 8:34 AM on June 17, 2020

My suggestion for a great stinky cheese experience: nakladany syr, from regions in Czech and Slovakia. (Maybe someone can correct my naming, I'm not sure if I got that right.) The cheese is very much still alive, and before serving they marinate it in beer and onions for a few hours. The bacteria rises like a dough and makes an almighty froth and stink, so much that if you put in a closed jar it can break the glass. Not something I'd eat often, but it was a good experience.
posted by illongruci at 10:03 AM on June 17, 2020 [1 favorite]

Handkäse! I love the stuff, but haven't been able to source it in Ottawa for years since the deli I got it at went out of business. Fortunately, Limburger is still pretty easy to find. I gre up with it, but can't convince my kids to try it. They turn their noses up at "dad's stinky sandwiches". Oh well. Maybe when they are old enough to enjoy it with a nice dark beer they will change their tune.
posted by fimbulvetr at 10:50 AM on June 17, 2020

In March 1902, the New York Times reported that Louisville, Kentucky’s health officer, Dr. M.K. Allen, banned Limburger and promised to prosecute any and all Limburger dealers. Determining that its bacteria made it “unwholesome,” he declared: “In fact, animal life is what makes Limburger pleasing to the taste—I mean to the taste of some people. I propose to stop the Limburger cheese traffic.”

Uh huh. "Some people." Obviously you can't imagine such an appreciation, Dr. Allen. An upright gentleman such as yourself could not possibly be tempted by the base and animalistic pleasures of Limburger - redolent with musk, so forbidden...
posted by ZaphodB at 12:00 PM on June 17, 2020 [2 favorites]

My dad loves Limburger and sultz on a saltine cracker.

Why, yes, he is an elderly midwesterner of German descent who grew up on a farm. Why do you ask?
posted by Big Al 8000 at 9:18 PM on June 17, 2020

salt-rising bread, the sweaty-sock stenching midwestern winter bread

Fun fact: salt-rising bread is raised by Clostridium difficile, the bacterial cause of
gas gangrene. Don't rub the raw dough into your wounds, but eating baked bread doesn't seem to cause trouble. I've never felt comfortable making it from a recipe, though, since what if I live in a different and nastier bacterial population?

(C. difficile also can be a food-poisoning agent, but that's when they're carrying an enterotoxin plasmid, which is apparently not typical in the household dust where the bread is made.)
posted by away for regrooving at 11:18 PM on June 17, 2020