Ask a cheesemonger for the smelliest cheese in the world and you will get an argument, a name and a small apology. Ask a laboratory and you get one answer, from one institution, which is more than most smells in this series can say. Everything after that is reputation, and every cheese on the reputation list has the same secret: it is washed, on purpose, so that bacteria will do the rest.
The short answer
Vieux-Boulogne, going by the one laboratory test we could find: Wikipedia says Cranfield University researchers rated it the “smelliest” of 15 French and British cheeses in 2004, and an electronic nose said the same in 2007. By reputation, Limburger, Époisses and Munster get named next. All of them are washed-rind cheeses, and the smell is bacteria, the same family that lives on feet.
Six contenders and their paperwork
There is no official ranking, so these are not ranked. They are the cheeses that come up most when people argue about this, in the order we felt like. Facts are from the pages listed under Sources, and quotation marks mean the wording is verbatim.
Vieux-Boulogne
Pas-de-Calais, France. Developed in 1982 by Antoine Bernard and Philippe Olivier
A square, unpasteurized cow's-milk cheese with a moist red-orange rind that is washed in beer during production. Wikipedia says it was found by Cranfield University researchers in November 2004 to be the “smelliest” of 15 French and British cheeses, and that a follow-up in March 2007 using “electronic nose” sensors reaffirmed it.
The only contender with a lab result. Every other cheese on this page is relying on reputation, which in this field is a smell that arrives before you do.
Limburger (Herve)
The Herve area of the old Duchy of Limburg, now Belgium. Made since the 15th century
A rind-washed soft cheese made from raw cow's milk. Wikipedia says it produces its notorious smell at about three months, because of Brevibacterium linens, and that its smell is a frequent butt of jokes in Looney Tunes, Little Rascals and Three Stooges shorts and in two Abbott and Costello films.
It has been the punchline for a block of dairy for longer than most sitcoms have existed, and the joke has never once needed updating.
Époisses
Burgundy, France. Appellation d'origine contrôlée since 1991
A pungent, smear-ripened soft cheese washed in brine and Marc de Bourgogne, the local pomace brandy, with a red-orange rind and a circular wooden box. Wikipedia says each cheese is rinsed up to three times per week and brushed by hand to spread the bacteria evenly, and that Napoleon was particularly fond of it.
It is washed in brandy, brushed by hand and sold in a wooden box, so it has had a better week than you.
Stinking Bishop
Dymock, Gloucestershire, England. Made since 1972 by Charles Martell and Son
A washed-rind cheese immersed in perry made from the local Stinking Bishop pear every four weeks while it matures, about 1,000 wheels a year. Wikipedia says Martell started making it to promote the Old Gloucester cattle breed, then down to 68 heifers, and that the breed had recovered to around 450 by 2016.
A stink with a conservation mission, which is more than most of us can say about ours.
Munster (Munster-géromé)
The Vosges mountains, France. Protected designation of origin in the European Union
A soft cheese whose rind is periodically washed with brine in damp cellars, five weeks for the small size and up to two or three months for the large. Wikipedia's description of a good one includes “a very strong and penetrating odor” and says it is at its best in the summer and the autumn.
The quality control checklist lists a very strong and penetrating odor as a pass. It is the only job description where that is true.
Maroilles
Picardy and Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France
A cow's-milk cheese in blocks with a moist orange-red washed rind and a strong smell, brushed and washed and cellared for at least five weeks. Wikipedia says it is often reported to have first been made in 962 by a monk at the Abbey of Maroilles, and that Philip II, Louis IX, Charles VI and Francis I were among its favorites.
Four kings, one cheese. Power has always come with a private office.
Limburger is also entry #9 on the Stenchi Smell Index, one place above butyric acid, which is also found in Parmesan.
Why stinky cheese smells like feet
Wikipedia says Brevibacterium linens is ubiquitously present on human skin, where it causes foot odor, and that the familiar odor is due to sulfur-containing compounds known as S-methyl thioesters. The same article lists the cheeses fermented with it: Munster, Limburger, Tilsit, Port-Salut, Raclette, Livarot, Pont l'Evêque, Époisses and Maroilles, among others. A cheese cellar and a pair of sneakers are running the same culture. Only one of them has an appellation.
The foot side has its own chemistry. Wikipedia's foot odor article says brevibacteria ingest dead skin on the feet and in the process convert the amino acid methionine into methanethiol, a colorless gas with a distinctive sulfuric aroma. It also names isovaleric acid, produced by Staphylococcus epidermidis, as another source of foot odor, and notes that the same bacterial species is present in several strong-smelling varieties of cheese. Methanethiol, also called methyl mercaptan, keeps turning up in this series: it is on the guest list of the durian report and the fart report, and there are only so many sulfur molecules to go around.
How a rind becomes a smell
Wikipedia says washed-rind cheeses are periodically cured in brine or mold-bearing agents that may include beer, wine, brandy and spices, making their surfaces amenable to Brevibacterium linens, the reddish-orange smear bacteria that impart pungent odors and distinctive flavors. The process requires regular washings, particularly in the early stages of production, so it is quite labor-intensive compared to other methods of cheese production. That is what the Rind Washer above does, without the labor and without the cellar.
The mosquitoes could not tell the difference
In 2006, Bart Knols of Wageningen Agricultural University in the Netherlands received an Ig Nobel Prize, along with his co-author Ruurd de Jong, for showing that the female malaria mosquito Anopheles gambiae is “attracted equally to the smell of Limburger cheese and to the smell of human feet.” The Ig Nobels are a satirical prize for research that, in the prize's own words, first makes people laugh and then makes them think. Wikipedia gives the 2006 prize as one in biology, and lists the results as published in The Lancet on 9 November 1996.
Then it made them think. Wikipedia says that as a direct result of the findings, traps baited with the cheese have been placed in strategic locations in some parts of Africa to combat malaria, and that Fredros Okumu of the Ifakara Health Institute in Tanzania later received grants in 2009 and 2011 to develop mosquito attractants and traps, using a blend of eight chemicals that was four times more effective than actual human secretions. Wikipedia's Brevibacterium linens article says its aroma also attracts mosquitoes.
The joke is that a mosquito cannot tell your socks from a cheese. The point is that malaria is serious and it turned out a block of Limburger is a useful thing to know about. It is the most helpful thing a cheese has ever done for a sock.
What Limburger actually tastes like
Wikipedia says Limburger is firmer and crumbly like feta in its first month, softens along the edges at about six weeks, is mostly creamy and smooth by two months, and at three months produces the smell. The young interior is sweet, and with age it becomes spicy. It is sometimes served as a Limburger sandwich: spread thick on firm rye with a large slice of onion, with strong black coffee or lager, a dish Wikipedia says remains popular among descendants of Swiss and German immigrants in the Midwestern United States, with brown mustard on menus in Wisconsin. Some cooks rinse or remove the rind to weaken the odor.
Rye, cheese, onion, black coffee. The onion is the only part of this sandwich that can keep up.
Questions people ask while holding their nose
What is the smelliest (or stinkiest) cheese in the world?
There is no official title. The only laboratory result we found is reported by Wikipedia: in November 2004, researchers at Cranfield University found Vieux-Boulogne to be the “smelliest” of the 15 French and British cheeses they tested, and a follow-up in March 2007 using “electronic nose” sensors reaffirmed it. Limburger, Époisses, Munster, Stinking Bishop and Maroilles are the other names that come up, and all of them are washed-rind cheeses.
Why does stinky cheese smell like feet?
Because the same bacterium is involved. Wikipedia says Brevibacterium linens is ubiquitously present on human skin, where it causes foot odor, which is due to sulfur-containing compounds known as S-methyl thioesters, and that the same bacterium is used to ferment washed-rind and smear-ripened cheeses including Munster, Limburger, Époisses and Maroilles. Wikipedia's foot odor article adds that brevibacteria convert the amino acid methionine into methanethiol, a colorless gas with a distinctive sulfuric aroma.
What does Limburger cheese smell like?
Feet, if you trust the chemistry. Wikipedia says Limburger produces its notorious smell once it reaches about three months of age, because of Brevibacterium linens, the bacterium found on human skin that is partially responsible for body odor, particularly foot odor. Younger cheese is milder: Wikipedia describes it as firm and crumbly like feta in the first month, and salty and chalky at about six weeks.
Why do mosquitoes like Limburger cheese?
A 1996 study found that the female malaria mosquito Anopheles gambiae is attracted equally to the smell of Limburger cheese and to the smell of human feet, which earned its authors the 2006 Ig Nobel Prize in biology. The sources we used do not spell out a mechanism beyond the shared smell, but Wikipedia does say the aroma of Brevibacterium linens attracts mosquitoes. The research was about malaria, which is serious, and the cheese-baited traps were the point.
How is stinky cheese made?
On purpose. Wikipedia says washed-rind cheeses are periodically treated with brine or mold-bearing agents that may include beer, wine, brandy and spices, which makes the surface amenable to Brevibacterium linens, the reddish-orange smear bacteria. The process requires regular washings, particularly in the early stages, so it is labor-intensive. Époisses is rinsed up to three times a week and brushed by hand. Stinking Bishop is washed every four weeks.
Why is it called Stinking Bishop?
After a pear. Wikipedia says the cheese is immersed in perry, the traditional pear cider of Gloucestershire, made from the local Stinking Bishop pear, from which the cheese gets its name. Charles Martell began making it in 1972 to promote the Old Gloucester cattle breed, then down to 68 heifers. Wikipedia says demand rose by 500 percent after Gromit used it to revive Wallace in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit in 2005.
Where is Limburger made?
Herve, a cheese that originated in the Herve area of the old Duchy of Limburg in what is now Belgium and has been made there since the 15th century. Wikipedia says the Herve name is the modern European protected name and Limburger is used for the same style made elsewhere. It was first produced in the United States in 1854 in Antwerp, New York, and Wikipedia says the only US producer today is Chalet Cheese Cooperative in Monroe, Wisconsin. Check before you plan a trip around that sentence.
Is the orange rind on stinky cheese mold?
Mostly bacteria, going by the sources we read. Wikipedia describes Brevibacterium linens as the reddish-orange smear bacteria of washed-rind cheeses, and says Limburger gets a glossy reddish-brown coating from the bacteria that grow during its three months of aging. The Maroilles article adds that the cheese is brushed to remove the natural white mould so its red bacteria can change the rind from yellow to red.
Is stinky cheese the same as blue cheese?
Not quite. Wikipedia says Brevibacterium linens is also used in the production of blue cheese, in addition to the mold Penicillium roqueforti, so the two families overlap. The classic stinky cheeses in this report get their smell from bacteria washed onto the rind, rather than from mold veins in the middle.