I tasted ‘world’s smelliest cheese’ The Minger – and it is scrumptious

It’s been dubbed the ‘world’s smelliest cheese’, producing a fearsome pong that ‘dominates the room’. 

Now, MailOn-line has received its fingers on ‘The Minger’, the brand new product from Scotland that even cheesemakers are scared to attempt. 

The Minger is a British tender cheese just like a Camembert with an oozy inside that is ‘pure pleasure on the palate’, its creators say. 

It’s a kind of washed-rind cheese, which means it has been moistened often in briny answer whereas maturing for 2 months. 

This course of encourages the expansion of Brevibacterium linens – the microbe liable for smelly toes with an aroma identified to draw bugs. 

The Minger is the creation of Highland Fine Cheeses, primarily based at Blarliath Farm close to the city of Tain within the Highlands of Scotland. 

The firm has been working with Myconeos, a University of Nottingham spinout, to provide new strains of moulds for its merchandise. 

Rory Stone, cheesemaker-in-chief at Highland Fine Cheeses, mentioned The Minger is especially ‘hellish on the nostril’, however admitted he is not completely certain why. 

Besides, it is not the primary washed-rind cheese to hold the pungent Brevibacterium linens microbe.  

‘We do appear to be good at making issues go mouldy,’ Mr Stone advised MailOn-line. 

‘The damp atmosphere – and Scotland is extraordinarily damp proper now – helps promote yeasts and penicilliums that we use.’ 

Prior to tasting, I requested Mr Stone how lengthy The Minger must be out of the fridge previous to consumption, and he replied: ‘Your shout, I by no means eat it.’

This left me barely apprehensive – how potent should a cheese be that even its creator will not contact the stuff? 

When it arrived, it was wrapped in a heavy-duty silver packaging that jogged my memory of the shiny materials NASA makes use of to insulate its area telescopes. 

Clearly, stockists aren’t taking any dangers in the case of delivering The Minger – more and more dubbed ‘the world’s smelliest cheese’ on social media.   

Immediately after unwrapping the wax paper I’m struck by the rind, which seems unimaginable, with gnarled bumps and a shiny orange color.  

According to Mr Stone, that is as a result of addition of annatto – a pure orange colouring derived from the seeds of the achiote tree – to the brine answer.

I take an preliminary cautious sniff and get faint traces of salty air and farmyard, however in any other case it is nowhere close to as sturdy as I used to be anticipating. 

My knife plunges simply by The Minger’s vivid rind and the attractive gooey innards unfold nicely on a cracker. 

I chomp on the entire thing in a single mouthful, anticipating the worst, nevertheless it’s completely scrumptious – salty and milky with a tang of umami. 

I’m actually shocked, as from what I’ve heard about The Minger I used to be fearing I’d should spit it again out and run away in terror. 

This is nowhere close to the smelly British cheeses I’ve tasted up to now that my father presents me each Christmas, like Tunworth from Hampshire, the ‘English Camembert ok to make a Frenchman weep’.

But nothing takes the crown from the well-known Stinking Bishop from Gloucestershire, which makes The Minger style like strawberries and cream. 

Nearly 20 years in the past, demand for Stinking Bishop soared after Gromit used it to revive Wallace from the brink of dying of their movie, ‘The Curse of the Were-Rabbit’.  

While by some means I do not assume it could have the identical impact even within the fictional universe, the cheese-loving duo would absolutely go crackers for The Minger. 

It’s not the world’s smelliest cheese – not by an extended chalk – however by god it is good. 

The Minger is that can be purchased from Scottish Asda shops at £3 for a 125g triangle, though the grocery store is allegedly fascinated with stocking it additional south too