This Afternoon

My parents left behind cheese from their stop over in Wisconsin.

Curious (and hungry), I opened up these cheeses for a little snack. Two were delicious. I nearly passed out when I opened the third and had to spit it out after I tried to eat it:

First, I called my mom to tell her she had picked a horrible tasting cheese.

Next, I brought it over to Mikes to have a whiff.

Me: Mikes, you have to smell this. It's the worst smell I've ever smelled.
Mikes: No.
Me: No serious.
Then I proceeded to open it's zip locked container to take another sniff. Just to make sure it was truly the worst smell ever.
Me: Gag. Whhhooooaaa! That smells terrible!!!
Mikes: I'm not smelling that.
Mikes gets a plastic bag from the drawer, deposits the cheese into it, and throws it all away.

Finally, I googled "Engine Red Cheese" to see if this cheese was truly intended to be a foul smelling cheese or whether it had turned rancid in my fridge. This is what I found:

"In honour of the Fire Engines and the Firemen who fought tirelessly to defend the Jindi factory in February 2009. This cheese expresses many of the characteristics of those wonderful people. Its powerful, and courageous, aromatic and at times challenging, but let it work over the palate and the memory will linger on.

The red rind occurs by regular scrubbing with Brevibacterium linens. The affect of the bacteria contributes to the strong and at time over powering aroma of this cheese. One might well ask ‘how can a cheese that smells so bad taste so good? In true French tradition it is recommended for first timers to peel the rind back and scoop the cheese from the middle. Its flavour characteristics will include caramel and cauliflower and cabbage, it has a soft texture and is a truly flavour driven cheese."

--http://www.otrbyjindi.com.au/range.html

So there it is. I was spot on with the smell, but clearly need to develop my cheese tasting palate a little more.