There is a cheese that may stand alone. In proud fetidness, that is.
Rory Stone, a 59-year-old cheesemaker at Highland Fine Cheeses in Scotland, has been overrun with orders for a washed-rind cheese called the Minger, which he is billing as the most putrid-smelling cheese in the world.
“Everybody is still asking for samples, and it just hasn’t stopped,” Mr. Stone said in an interview. “And I find it really bizarre. I mean, it is a smelly cheese, but it is quite a lovely flavor. So the only problem now is I’ve run out of cheese.”
Mr. Stone, whose parents were also cheese makers, began selling the Minger seven years ago. (“Minger” is slang for someone who is ugly or smells bad. “There are some Urban Dictionary definitions which are a bit rude,” Mr. Stone said.)
Supermarkets initially rejected it, dismissing it as a gimmick. But it sold well enough in independent shops, and it has won several awards, including best specialty cheese at the Royal Highland Show in Edinburgh in 2019.
This week, however, Asda, a British supermarket chain, announced that it would stock the cheese in its stores, making it widely available for the first time. The Asda news release, which described the Minger as “pungent,” gave rise to a low-grade media frenzy, with Mr. Stone giving interviews to The Telegraph, Sky News and the BBC.
Mr. Stone said he hadn’t set out to create the world’s smelliest cheese. But he said he had encountered someone who applied that superlative to the Minger, and he embraced it.
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