Limburger cheese
Encyclopedia
Limburger is a cheese
that originated during the 19th century in the historical Duchy of Limburg
, which is now divided among modern-day Belgium
, Germany, and Netherlands
. The cheese is especially known for its pungent odor commonly compared to body odor
.
. The Chalet Cheese Cooperative in Monroe, Wisconsin
is the only American company that makes this cheese. This cheese also is manufactured in Canada by the Oak Grove Cheese Company in New Hamburg, Ontario.
Herve cheese
is a type of Limburger cheese still produced in the Land of Herve
, in the territory of the old Duchy of Limburg. Herve
is located near Liège
, and the borders separating Belgium
from the Netherlands
and Germany
. The "Pays de Herve" is a hilly area between the Vesdre
and Meuse river
s.
and many other smear-ripened cheeses is Brevibacterium linens, the same one found on human skin that is partially responsible for body odor
.
. However, it is markedly less popular among the descendants born after ca. 1960, mainly because of the permeating smell, and the inconvenience of going to specialty cheese and sausage shops to obtain it. In Wisconsin, the Limburger sandwich can be found on menus at certain restaurants, accompanied with brown mustard.
Limburger and its characteristic odor are a frequent butt of jokes and gags. In 2006, a study showing that the malaria mosquito
(Anopheles gambiae
) is attracted equally to the smell of Limburger and to the smell of human feet earned the Ig Nobel Prize
in the area of biology.
Cheese
Cheese is a generic term for a diverse group of milk-based food products. Cheese is produced throughout the world in wide-ranging flavors, textures, and forms....
that originated during the 19th century in the historical Duchy of Limburg
Duchy of Limburg
The Duchy of Limburg, situated in the Low Countries between the river Meuse and the city of Aachen, was a state of the Holy Roman Empire. Its territory is now divided between the Belgian provinces of Liège and Limburg , the Dutch province of Limburg , and a small part of North Rhine-Westphalia in...
, which is now divided among modern-day Belgium
Limburg (Belgium)
Limburg is the easternmost province of modern Flanders, which is one of the three main political and cultural sub-divisions of modern Belgium. It is located west of the river Meuse . It borders on the Dutch provinces of North Brabant and Limburg and the Belgian provinces of Liège, Flemish Brabant...
, Germany, and Netherlands
Limburg (Netherlands)
Limburg is the southernmost of the twelve provinces of the Netherlands. It is located in the southeastern part of the country and bordered by the province of Gelderland to the north, Germany to the east, Belgium to the south and part of the west, andthe Dutch province of North Brabant partly to...
. The cheese is especially known for its pungent odor commonly compared to body odor
Body odor
Body odor or body odour, sometimes colloquially abbreviated as B.O., is the smell of bacteria growing on the body. The bacteria multiply rapidly in the presence of sweat, but sweat itself is almost completely odorless to humans....
.
Manufacture
In America, it was first produced in 1867 by Rudolph Benkerts in his cellar from pasteurized goat's milk. A few years later, 25 factories produced this cheese. Today, most Limburger is made in GermanyGermany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
. The Chalet Cheese Cooperative in Monroe, Wisconsin
Monroe, Wisconsin
Monroe, known as "the Swiss Cheese Capital of the USA", is a city in and the county seat of Green County, Wisconsin, United States. The population, was 10,843 at the 2000 census. The city is located partially within the Town of Monroe and partially in the Town of Clarno.-Geography:Monroe is located...
is the only American company that makes this cheese. This cheese also is manufactured in Canada by the Oak Grove Cheese Company in New Hamburg, Ontario.
Herve cheese
Herve cheese
Herve is an aged cheese made from unpasteurized cow's milk. It is traditionally aged in humid caves.Herve comes from the Belgian town of the same name. It is a Limburger-like cheese: pungent and soft. It is sometimes flavored with herbs. Herve has a pale yellow interior with a glossy reddish-brown...
is a type of Limburger cheese still produced in the Land of Herve
Land of Herve
The Land of Herve is a 420 km² natural region of Wallonia located between the Vesdre and Meuse rivers and the borders separating Belgium from the Netherlands and Germany....
, in the territory of the old Duchy of Limburg. Herve
Herve
Herve is a Walloon municipality of Belgium in Province of Liège. On January 1, 2006 Herve had a total population of 16,772. The total area is 56.84 km² which gives a population density of 295 inhabitants per km²....
is located near Liège
Liège
Liège is a major city and municipality of Belgium located in the province of Liège, of which it is the economic capital, in Wallonia, the French-speaking region of Belgium....
, and the borders separating Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
from the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
and Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
. The "Pays de Herve" is a hilly area between the Vesdre
Vesdre
thumb|right|250px|The course of the VesdreThe Weser or Vesdre is a river in eastern Belgium, in the province of Liège, and is a right tributary to the river Ourthe. Its source lies in the High Fens , close to the border with Germany near Monschau...
and Meuse river
Meuse River
The Maas or Meuse is a major European river, rising in France and flowing through Belgium and the Netherlands before draining into the North Sea...
s.
Description
In its first month, the cheese is firmer and more crumbly, similar to the texture of feta cheese. After about six weeks, the cheese becomes softer along the edges but is still firm on the inside and can be described as salty and chalky. After two months of its life, it is mostly creamy and much smoother. Once it reaches three months, the cheese produces its notorious smell because the bacterium used to ferment Limburger cheeseCheese
Cheese is a generic term for a diverse group of milk-based food products. Cheese is produced throughout the world in wide-ranging flavors, textures, and forms....
and many other smear-ripened cheeses is Brevibacterium linens, the same one found on human skin that is partially responsible for body odor
Body odor
Body odor or body odour, sometimes colloquially abbreviated as B.O., is the smell of bacteria growing on the body. The bacteria multiply rapidly in the presence of sweat, but sweat itself is almost completely odorless to humans....
.
Uses
One of the most traditional forms of eating limburger is the limburger sandwich. After three months, when the cheese has ripened, it becomes spreadable. The cheese is often spread thickly (> 0.5 cm) on firm textured 100% rye bread, with a large, thick slice of onion, and is typically served with strong black coffee or lager beer. Alternatively, for heartier eaters, chunks or slices of the cheese up to 1.5 cm thick can be cut off the block and placed in the sandwich. This sandwich still remains very popular among the descendants of German immigrants residing in the midwest part of America, such as in Cincinnati, or German Village in Columbus, OhioColumbus, Ohio
Columbus is the capital of and the largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio. The broader metropolitan area encompasses several counties and is the third largest in Ohio behind those of Cleveland and Cincinnati. Columbus is the third largest city in the American Midwest, and the fifteenth largest city...
. However, it is markedly less popular among the descendants born after ca. 1960, mainly because of the permeating smell, and the inconvenience of going to specialty cheese and sausage shops to obtain it. In Wisconsin, the Limburger sandwich can be found on menus at certain restaurants, accompanied with brown mustard.
Limburger and its characteristic odor are a frequent butt of jokes and gags. In 2006, a study showing that the malaria mosquito
Mosquito
Mosquitoes are members of a family of nematocerid flies: the Culicidae . The word Mosquito is from the Spanish and Portuguese for little fly...
(Anopheles gambiae
Anopheles gambiae
Anopheles gambiae is a complex of at least seven morphologically distinguishable species of mosquitoes in the genus Anopheles. This complex was recognised in the 1960s and includes the most important vectors of malaria in sub-Saharan Africa and the most efficient malaria vectors known.This species...
) is attracted equally to the smell of Limburger and to the smell of human feet earned the Ig Nobel Prize
Ig Nobel Prize
The Ig Nobel Prizes are an American parody of the Nobel Prizes and are given each year in early October for ten unusual or trivial achievements in scientific research. The stated aim of the prizes is to "first make people laugh, and then make them think"...
in the area of biology.
Nutrition facts
A 100 gram serving of Limburger contains about 327 Calories (1,368,168 J) and has 27 grams of fat, which is about 42 percent of the daily value of a person eating on a 2000 Calories (8,368,000 J) per day diet. Although it does provide calcium, protein and Vitamin A, it also makes up for 30 percent of the daily value of cholesterol and 33 percent of the daily value of sodium. This assumes eating 3.5 servings of the cheese.In popular culture
- Limburger cheese is a main plot device in the 1877 short story "The Invalid's Story" and the posthumously produced play "Is He Dead", both by Mark Twain.
- Limburger was featured in various gags in the comedy shorts of The Three Stooges and in the The Little Rascals and Our GangOur GangOur Gang, also known as The Little Rascals or Hal Roach's Rascals, was a series of American comedy short films about a group of poor neighborhood children and the adventures they had together. Created by comedy producer Hal Roach, the series is noted for showing children behaving in a relatively...
comedies. Typically, a sick character would accidentally replace a jar of salve with Limburger cheese. This led to the cheese being spread on the character's chest instead of the salve. The character would then walk in public only to be shooed away because of the stench while the character was oblivious to the fact that he just smeared Limburger cheese on himself. Limburger was also a commonly-used device in Golden Age cartoons, for example in the Warner Bros.Warner Bros.Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
cartoon Porky's Pastry Pirates. In another Warner Bros cartoon Sylvester the cat is tricked by Speedy Gonzales and is trapped in a storage room filled with Limburger cheese. Sylvester quickly becomes ill and turns green from the odor of the cheese. - The 1979 song "Dance This Mess Around" by The B-52'sThe B-52'sThe B-52's are an American rock band, formed in Athens, Georgia in 1976. The original line-up consisted of Fred Schneider , Kate Pierson , Cindy Wilson , Ricky Wilson , and Keith Strickland . Following Ricky Wilson's death in 1985 Strickland switched to guitar...
features the repeatedly shouted line, "Why don't you dance with me?! I'm not no limburger!" in reference to this cheese's pungent odor. - A character in Samuel R Delany's The Mad ManThe Mad ManThe Mad Man is a sexually drenched literary novel by Samuel R. Delany, first published in 1994 by Richard Kasak. In a disclaimer that appears at the beginning of the book, Delany describes it as a "pornotopic fantasy". It was originally published in 1994, republished and slightly revised in 1996,...
describes the putrid spermSmegmaSmegma is a combination of exfoliated epithelial cells, transudated skin oils, and moisture. It occurs in both female and male mammalian genitalia.-Human smegma:Both females and males produce smegma...
in his foreskinForeskinIn male human anatomy, the foreskin is a generally retractable double-layered fold of skin and mucous membrane that covers the glans penis and protects the urinary meatus when the penis is not erect...
as "really first class Limburger". - One of the many cheeses asked for in the Cheese Shop sketch by Monty PythonMonty PythonMonty Python was a British surreal comedy group who created their influential Monty Python's Flying Circus, a British television comedy sketch show that first aired on the BBC on 5 October 1969. Forty-five episodes were made over four series...
. - Lawrence Limburger is the name of a character in the animated TV series Biker Mice from MarsBiker Mice from MarsBiker Mice from Mars is a science fiction animated series created by Rick Ungar that began airing in 1993 in the United States and lasted for three seasons before it was cancelled...
. - In Robert A. HeinleinRobert A. HeinleinRobert Anson Heinlein was an American science fiction writer. Often called the "dean of science fiction writers", he was one of the most influential and controversial authors of the genre. He set a standard for science and engineering plausibility and helped to raise the genre's standards of...
's The Cat Who Walks Through WallsThe Cat Who Walks Through WallsThe Cat Who Walks Through Walls: A Comedy of Manners is a science fiction novel by Robert A. Heinlein published in 1985. Like many of his later novels, it features Lazarus Long and Jubal Harshaw as supporting characters.-Plot summary:...
, Gwendolyn Novak surreptitiously places a piece of Limburger in a ventilation duct in the office of Station Administrator Sethos, turning down the thermostat so that the odor will not become apparent right away. When the office becomes uncomfortably cold, Sethos will turn up the heat, causing the cheese to melt. - In William Dana Street's fanciful short story Giant Grummer's Christmas, the eponymous villain lives in a castle constructed entirely of Limburger cheese.
- Mighty MouseMighty MouseMighty Mouse is an animated superhero mouse character created by the Terrytoons studio for 20th Century Fox.-History:The character was created by story man Izzy Klein as a super-powered housefly named Superfly. Studio head Paul Terry changed the character into a cartoon mouse instead...
's weakness is Limburger cheese, a la Superman'sSupermanSuperman is a fictional comic book superhero appearing in publications by DC Comics, widely considered to be an American cultural icon. Created by American writer Jerry Siegel and Canadian-born American artist Joe Shuster in 1932 while both were living in Cleveland, Ohio, and sold to Detective...
Kryponite. - In the 2001 game Luigi's Mansion, one of the boos is called Limbooger, a pun on Limburger.