France: Le Fromage qui Pue le Plus

That headline—which translates as ‘the cheese that stinks the most’—isn’t an official designation, probably for the obvious reason, but a British university recently studied French cheeses to determine which ones might have an odor detectable across the Channel.

No, not seriously, but food scientists at Cranfield University did carry out what they described as a detailed scientific study of the scent profiles of various cheeses, using both expert human testers and electronic ‘noses.’

The seven winners, each with a smell and a story of its own, are not among the common smelly cheeses like Brie and Camembert; those hardly come near the category!

The title went to a cheese that’s probably best eaten outdoors, and preferably with a breeze: Vieux-Boulogne, a cheese made in Boulogne-sur-Mer on the northern coast.

It’s a cow’s milk cheese whose maturing process includes washing the cheese rind in beer, which produces a fermenting combination of beer and cheese that gives it an odor one British journalist described as “a farmyard aroma, replete with dung.”

Runners-up included

• Epoisses de Bourgogne: Like durians in Asia, the story goes, it is forbidden to take this one on a train with you
• Saint Nectaire: So oozy it will slide off the board. Made since the Middle Ages, it was reportedly a favorite of Louis XIV despite a dung-like aroma
• Pont l’Eveque: Made in Normandy since 1230, it’s been described as being like Camembert, but way more so
• Maroilles: Also a brine-washed cheese from the north, it’s said to smell of salt marsh and sweaty feet. Some locals dip it in coffee
• Munster: Not the bland supermarket slice, but the real one from Alsace. It’s a soft cheese, by the way
• Reblochon: Usually used for cooking, especially in baked stews