Washed rind
Cheeses washed during aging with brine, wine, beer, or spirits — encouraging Brevibacterium linens to form an orange-pink "stinky" rind. The most divisive cheese category.
Technical description
Surface is washed (or "smeared") periodically with a liquid — typically a salt brine, sometimes with wine, beer, marc, or eau-de-vie. The moisture and salinity create conditions for Brevibacterium linens to colonize, producing the orange-pink rind, the assertive ammoniacal aroma, and the meaty, often funky flavor of the paste. Wash frequency ranges from twice weekly (Époisses) to weekly (Munster) to less frequent (Taleggio). Some cheeses are wrapped in spruce bark during aging (Vacherin Mont d'Or, Harbison) to support the paste structurally as it liquefies.
Aging parameters
Microbial environment
Brevibacterium linens (the dominant smear bacterium, gives orange-red color and meaty aroma), often accompanied by Arthrobacter, Corynebacterium, and yeasts including Debaryomyces hansenii. The wash liquid carries and transfers these communities across batches — the rind microbiome is part of the production tradition.
The orange smear technique, step by step
"Smear" is the working cheesemaker's word for the wash itself — the thin, tacky film of brine and bacteria worked across the surface by hand, cloth, or brush. The orange colour is not a dye or an additive: it is pigment produced by Brevibacterium linens and its companion coryneform bacteria, which only thrive in the narrow conditions the smear creates.
- The wash liquid. A dilute salt brine is the baseline. Wine, beer, marc, or eau-de-vie are added for flavour and to steer the microflora — Époisses is finished with marc de Bourgogne, Chimay with its own beer.
- Why it works. Salt and moisture suppress unwanted molds while leaving the surface wet and salt-tolerant enough for B. linens, which can only establish once the acidic surface has been deacidified. Salt-tolerant yeasts do that first — chiefly Debaryomyces hansenii and Geotrichum candidum, which metabolise lactic acid at the surface and raise the pH. The smear is a hand-off between organisms, not a single one.
- Frequency. Two to three times weekly for the wettest, most assertive styles (Époisses), weekly for Munster and Taleggio, tapering as the rind sets. Cheeses are turned at each wash so the smear stays even.
- Conditions. 10–15°C / 50–59°F at 92–98% humidity. Too dry and the rind cracks and stalls; too wet and the surface slips into slime and ammonia.
- An established rind. Colour moves from pale straw to pink to full orange over several weeks, and the paste beneath softens as surface proteolysis works inward.
Home cheesemakers usually start from a mother culture of B. linens stirred into the brine; commercial affineurs often rely on the "house" flora already living on the boards and cellar walls, which is why a washed rind can be very hard to reproduce exactly outside its own cave.
Surface-flora succession and aging conditions per Gianaclis Caldwell, Mastering Artisan Cheesemaking (Chelsea Green), "Washed Rind Surface-Ripened Cheeses".
History
Many washed-rind cheeses originated in monastery dairies — medieval Trappist and Cistercian monks developed several of the foundational recipes, partly because of fasting rules that allowed cheese consumption when meat was forbidden. Époisses was reportedly perfected by 16th-century Cistercians in Burgundy. The "stink-cheese" category nearly went extinct in the 20th century: Époisses production stopped in WWII and was revived in 1956 by Robert Berthaut. Limburger emigrated to Wisconsin with German-speaking immigrants and is now produced mostly in the US.
Signature cheeses
- Époisses de Bourgogne AOP (washed in marc de Bourgogne)
- Munster AOP / Munster-Géromé AOP
- Reblochon AOP
- Taleggio DOP
- Vacherin Mont d'Or AOP (spruce-bark wrapped)
- Limburger
- Pont-l'Évêque AOP
- Stinking Bishop (perry-washed)
- Grayson (Meadow Creek Dairy, USA)
Key regions
AOP / DOP designations
- Époisses de Bourgogne AOP (France, 1991)
- Munster / Munster-Géromé AOP (France, 1969)
- Reblochon de Savoie AOP (France, 1958)
- Taleggio DOP (Italy, 1996)
- Vacherin Mont d'Or AOP (France, 1981)
- Pont-l'Évêque AOP (France, 1972)
- Livarot AOP (France, 1975)