h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

My Norwegian grandmother told me about what she referred to as 'Norwegian smellly cheeses' years ago and she said that the worst of all was one called Piltost. I don't know if she was pulling my leg or not--she was apt to do that--but she described how the cheese was cured by burying it in the barnyard where it was kept at a constant temperature under the decaying manure. She said it had an 'unusual' fragrance. Ever heard of it? Was she pulling my leg?

It's probably pultost. I doubt it was ever cured under decaying manure, but it's made from sour skimmed milk, and smells awfull. It's a crumbly, white mass, with the occasional carraway seed.

The other smelly cheese, gammalost (lit. old cheese, refering to it being an old invention, and not its fragrance surprisingly) is nastier. It's also made from skimmed milk, and molds growing on the outside of the cheese is "combed" down to work their way into the cheese, making it a lightish bgown marbled mass, and smelly.

Sadly, she was not pulling your leg. Pultost is a more rancid member of the norwegian cheese family... I've only smelt it, and from that brief experience I promised myself never to eat any.