Stinky cheese is not exactly high in demand. But once upon time, it was.
In the roaring '20s, when the limburger cheese was popular among European immigrant communities, one small Wisconsin county alone produced nearly 3.8 million pounds of the stuff each year. Now, that same county -- Green County, Wisc. -- is home to the last remaining American manufacturer of limburger cheese: Chalet Cheese Cooperative.
Myron Olson has been in the business for 40 years, and is only the third general manager in Chalet Cheese's 125-year history. The company makes about 700,000 pounds of limburger cheese each year and ships it all over the world.
As for the smell, Olson says Chalet makes sure its limburger lives up to its fragrant reputation.
"Ours does not have that stinky, gym-locker smell to it. It's more of a countryside, barny smell," he says. "It's the granddaddy of the stinky cheese, and it's an honor -- a tradition that everybody's proud of."
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