Stinky Cheese

Cranfield University in England has ranked the stinkiest cheeses in the world. Clearly they have not had Red Hawk.


Red Hawk cheese from Cowgirl Creamery


Smelliest Cheese Honour
Patrick Barkham

The odour of rotting vegetables and the scent of a goat on heat wafted down Farringdon Road a full five minutes before the cheese strolled in the door. "It's gone to the post room," said the man in the courier hut. "It was smelling the place out."

The post room hurriedly passed the parcel upstairs, where it sweated inside a cool bag: 430g of olfactory overload, the whiffiest cheese in the world.

Unwrapped from its plastic covering the Vieux Boulogne sent an aroma of six-week-old earwax floating through the Guardian's offices. From a safe distance of 50 metres, the cheese emitted a pleasant eau de farmyard, replete with dung and Barbour jackets. Close up, its firm orange flesh, flecked with a delicate mould, recalled varnish.

This French cheese, constructed from cow's milk by cheesemaker Philippe Olivier, was judged the smelliest in the world by 19 members of a human olfactory panel and one hi-tech electronic nose deployed by Cranfield University. It beat 14 other cheeses to the title, including Camembert de Normandie, Munster, Brie de Meaux, Roquefort, and mature Cheddar. Pongy old Parmesan came 11th.

The university blind-tested 15 cheeses for the Fine Cheese From France campaign. The cheeses were then put in sealed vessels and electronic sensors reacting to the gaseous molecules producing the smells completed the process.

Stephen Wright, senior research officer at Cranfield University, said: "What was interesting was that the smelliest cheeses produced similar [computer] fingerprints, which were quite distinct from the less smelly cheeses. The electronic nose found the top three - Vieux Boulogne, Pont l'Evêque and Camembert de Normandie - had significantly smellier fingerprints than the rest."

While Vieux Boulogne was an instant cure for winter colds, Pont l'Evêque gave off a pleasing whiff of damp autumn earth, and the Camembert offered a warm almost mild milky nasal embrace.

But those brave enough to taste Vieux Boulogne are in for a pleasant surprise: behind the stinking rind is a smooth cheese that, say the experts, cries out for an accompanying jug of beer.

"These cheeses," said Patricia Michelson, of La Fromagerie, a specialist cheese shop in London, "are very representative of northern France. The terrain is wet and the grass the animals graze is lush. It makes a rich cheese, which is then washed to stop it looking bland and white. That turns it orange and gives off the odour, but inside the cheese is mellow. It goes particularly well with beer."

Robust cheeses are catching on as British cheesemakers follow the French and consumers react against bland supermarket cheese.

"Customers' first reaction is 'pooh, that smells a bit off!' because their normal perception is that these ... are farmyard smells. But when they taste it they get a lovely rich, mellow flavour," said Ms Michelson.

And the whiffers are...

1 Vieux Boulogne
Cow's milk cheese from Boulogne sur Mer, aged 7-9 weeks
2 Pont l'Evêque AOC
Cow's milk, from Normandy, aged 6 weeks
3 Camembert de Normandie AOC
Cow's milk, from Normandy, minimum age 21 days
4 Munster
Cow's milk, from Alsace Lorraine, aged 3 weeks
5 Brie de Meaux AOC
Cow's milk, from Ile de France, aged 4-8 weeks
6 Roquefort AOC
Sheep's milk, from Roquefort, aged 3 months
7 Reblochon AOC
Cow's milk, from Savoie region in France, aged 3-4 weeks
8 Livarot AOC
Cow's milk, from Normandy, aged 90 days
9 Banon AOC
Goat's milk, from the Provence region, aged 1-2 weeks
10 Epoisses de Bourgogne AOC
Cow's milk, from Burgundy, aged 4-6 weeks
11 Parmesan
Cow's milk, from Italy, aged 2 years
12 Raclette
Cow's milk, from French Alps, aged 2 months
13 Ossau Iraty AOC
Sheep's milk, from Basque region, aged 3 months
14 Cheddar
Cow's milk, from UK, aged 6-24 months
15 Crottin de Chavignol AOC
Goat's milk cheese from Chavignol, aged up to 6 months