The Outcast Cheese

In 1999, my buddy Randy and I took a trip to Wisconsin. 

Any trip to Wisconsin requires a stop at a cheese house.  We found a wonderful cheese house, and loaded up on all kinds of cheese.  However, it was at the cheese house that I found out that my childhood cheese, liederkranz, is no more.

Liederkranz cheese was produced in upstate New York.  It had a yellow crust, a honey-like consistency, and a horrific aroma.  The aroma made it an outcast cheese.  Production ended in 1985.

So, I had to be content with buying another outcast cheese: limburger, which also falls in the horrific aroma category.

Back at home, I had to eat my limburger in isolation in the dining room.  As soon as I unwrapped the cheese, the dog showed up. 

The limburger was yummy, and I placed a piece of it on the floor.  The dog gobbled it up, showing that she approved of the flavor.  

Then the dog wanted to show me that she approved of the aroma.  She eyed the spot on the carpet where the cheese used to be, lowered her neck to the carpet, and proceeded to roll herself on that spot - just as if she were out in the backyard and had come across a wonderfully putrefied rodent carcass.

Randy did not approve of the aroma.  He said that the cheese had made the dining room smell like the bait used to catch catfish.

Now I have heard good news from the cheese world.  Production of liederkranz started back up last year.  I visited the DCI Cheese Company website, and scrolled through a list of dozens of cheeses: American…appenzeller…asiago…  I found liederkranz, and ordered a 6 oz. block.

A message appeared on the checkout screen.  “Liederkranz will be shipped separately from the rest of our cheeses.”

It is still an outcast cheese.

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NOTE: Doug's best stories have been collected into a book: Puppy Out Of Breath.  Price = $11.  You can purchase a copy at  http://www.puppyoutofbreath.com