Question 1

Why do some cheeses smell so strong?

Accepted Answer

Because the microbes used to ripen them produce **sulphur and ammonia compounds**, and several of those compounds are chemically identical to ones the human nose evolved to treat as warnings.

**The main sources:**

**Washed-rind cheeses** — Époisses, Munster, Limburger, Taleggio, Stinking Bishop — are the strongest smelling. Their rinds are repeatedly washed in brine, beer, wine or spirits, which encourages ***Brevibacterium linens***.

This is the notorious one. *B. linens* is closely related to the bacteria living on human skin, and it produces some of the same volatile compounds — which is why washed-rind cheese genuinely smells like feet. The resemblance is not coincidental or metaphorical; it is the same chemistry. Research has found that mosquitoes attracted to human foot odour are also attracted to Limburger.

**Protein breakdown (proteolysis).** As cheese ages, enzymes break proteins into amino acids and then into smaller compounds, including **ammonia** — which is why an overripe brie smells sharply of it — and sulphur-containing compounds from methionine and cysteine.

**Fat breakdown (lipolysis)** releases **short-chain fatty acids**: butyric acid, which smells of vomit; caproic and caprylic acids, which are goaty. These are prominent in blue and hard Italian cheeses.

**Blue moulds** (*Penicillium roqueforti*) produce methyl ketones, giving the distinctive blue pungency.

**Why smell and taste diverge so sharply.** Much of a strong cheese's aroma is perceived **orthonasally** — through the nose before eating — where it registers as alarming. In the mouth, retronasal perception combines it with taste, texture and fat, producing a very different and usually far milder experience. This is why the standard reassurance that a cheese tastes better than it smells is literally true.

**Rind treatment matters more than age** for surface odour.

Question 2

How is cheese actually made?

Accepted Answer

By separating milk into curds and whey, then controlling what happens to the curd — and almost every difference between cheeses comes from decisions made in the hours and months after that

Question 3

Why do some cheeses melt smoothly and others do not?

Accepted Answer

Melting behaviour depends on three things: moisture, fat and how tightly the cheese's protein network is bound. Cheeses that melt into a smooth flow have enough moisture and fat, and a protein

Question 4

Why does sourdough need a starter, and what makes it sour?

Accepted Answer

A sourdough starter is a living culture of wild yeasts and lactic acid bacteria maintained in a flour-and-water mixture. It both raises the bread and produces the flavour, and those are two separate

Question 5

Why does coriander taste like soap to some people?

Accepted Answer

Because of genetics, and specifically because of how some people's olfactory receptors detect a group of chemicals that coriander shares with soap. Fresh coriander leaves — sold as cilantro in North

Question 6

Why does cooking oil go rancid, and how should you store it?

Accepted Answer

Rancidity is the chemical degradation of fats, producing the stale, waxy, crayon-like smell and taste of an old oil. There are two distinct mechanisms, and the storage advice follows from them.

Question 7

What is fermentation and why does it preserve food?

Accepted Answer

Fermentation is the controlled conversion of sugars and starches by microorganisms — bacteria, yeasts or moulds — into acids, alcohol or gases. It preserves food because those products create

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