Limburger is synonymous with "stinky cheese". When I was young I remember old cartoons and shorts in which strong smells of any kind were symbolized by this pungent cheese. If you ask someone what the worst smelling cheese is, possibly even the worst smelling anything, odds are they will say Limburger. Odds are also that many people who name it haven't even tried it.
And yet...
Limbuger is far from the stinkiest cheese I've come across. Munster
beats it by miles. Many other rind-washed cheeses are just as bad. But Limburger has the reputation over the decades for foul smells and unless ripened cheese catch on in the United States will probably hold on to it a few more years.
So why is Limburger smelly? Limburger and other rind-washed cheeses are fermented by a bacterium called Brevibacterium linens, the same bacterium found on human skin which is responsible in part for our bodily odor. Aside from the smell this bacterium provides the orange-brown color to the rinds of these cheeses.