Cheese Database

Limburger vs Lüneberg cheese

Limburger, field guide plate
Limburger, photographed

Limburger

Facts

Milk
Cow
Texture
Semi-soft
Type
Washed rind
Rind
Washed rind
Country
Netherlands

Limburger is a semi-soft washed-rind cheese from the Netherlands. It is made from cow's milk and shaped in small bricks with a moist orange rind. The smell is famously strong, while the paste inside is milder than that smell suggests. Salt, moisture, and the washed surface define it more than a sharp aged bite. Shops sell it for bread and hearty plates, not as a hard cheese for grating.

Lüneberg cheese

Facts

Milk
Cow
Texture
Semi-hard
Type
Pressed
Rind
Washed rind
Country
Austria

Lüneberg cheese is an Austrian cow's milk cheese made in an Alpine style. Saffron goes into the milk, which tints the paste yellow and adds a faint spice note. The body is semi-hard, with many irregular eyes, and the rind is salted, rubbed, and washed as it matures. Ripe cheese sits between a nutty cheese with eyes and a stronger washed-rind cheese. The saffron is the mark that sets it apart from a plain Alpine wheel.