Epoisses

Last night we cut into the stinky cheese we bought last Monday morning at the Whole Foods in Vienna, Va. Every time we opened the refrigerator door this week, we’ve commented on the stink o’ the cheese.

I let the cheese come up to room temperature as I had read something about how that would help the cheese become softer. When I took the cheese out of the wooden container, I was a little skeptical about the stink. It really wasn’t stinky any more but truly stanky. We decided to go ahead and eat it since one of the descriptions we’d read was that it had a barnyard aroma. I volunteered to eat the first piece since it was my brilliant idea to buy the stinkiest cheese ever.

It was delicious and creamy and nutty. We paired it with beef summer sausage and Milano salami. We made little open-faced sandwiches with some crusty French bread. We sipped on Chateau Thivin beaujolais.

All was peachy keen until after about 10 minutes we both started to think the ammonia smell (since when does barnyard really mean litter box?) was beyond a good thing. I thought if I worked around the rind that I could continue to enjoy the cheese. Unfortunately, I couldn’t deal with it. The better-half gave up shortly thereafter.

We threw away the cheese and took out the trash. I washed my hands several times and we switched plates and napkins. We finished eating the meats and bread and ate lots of grapes. While we were finishing, I couldn’t help but think that I could still smell the cheese. The better-half said he couldn’t smell it at all. It turns out that there was a little residue on my wine glass. I switched wine glasses.

An aside: If anyone in my family is reading this post, they should remember the time we went to Maymont and Daddy petted the male goat. Remember how he couldn’t get rid of the stench?

We both liked the Epoisses by Berthaut but we think it was a little past its prime and would like to try the cheese again. I don’t think we’ll be buying another round though since it was a pretty expensive experiment. The next time I try the cheese will be in a cheese shop or in a restaurant.