Limburger Cheese substitute

Best substitute

Taleggio

Use the same amount as the limburger cheese you are replacing

Best for Limburger and onion sandwiches

Close match

Taleggio is the easiest real swap to find and goes 1:1, matching the soft sliceable body and the salt while being much less confrontational. Aged Wisconsin brick cheese was developed as an American Limburger and is the traditional stand-in for a Limburger and onion sandwich on rye. If you want the aroma as well as the taste, ask a cheese counter for a washed rind: French Munster, Belgian Herve, Reblochon, Chaumes or Epoisses. What Limburger contributes is pungent aroma plus deep salty savouriness in a cheese that melts smoothly, so a mild cheese cannot stand in for it, only a funky one can.

Other limburger cheese substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Aged Brick Cheese
Different texture
Use the same amount
Literally created in Wisconsin as an American answer to Limburger, and the classic Midwestern German-American substitute.
What changes
Aged brick is tangy with a real whiff of funk, firmer and easier to slice than Limburger, and it melts cleanly. Young brick is mild and will not do the job, so look for aged.
Best for
sandwiches on rye, grilled cheese, melting, burgers
Prep. Slice cold, then let it warm on the bread for 10 minutes before eating.
Ask for aged or ripened brick specifically. Most supermarket brick is the mild young kind.
3French Munster or Belgian Herve
Close match
Use the same amount
The closest true matches.
What changes
Herve is the Belgian cheese Limburger descends from, and French Munster is the same washed-rind style, both with real barnyard aroma. Both taste a little creamier and rounder than Limburger, with less of its salty edge. If a cheese shop is available, this is what to buy.
Best for
Limburger sandwiches, cheese boards, with beer, with boiled potatoes
Prep. Serve at room temperature. Eat or discard the rind as you prefer; both are edible.
American Muenster is not the same cheese and is not a substitute. French Munster or Munster-Geromee is.
4Epoisses, Reblochon, Chaumes or Port Salut
Different texture
Use the same amount
A sliding scale within the same washed-rind family.
What changes
Epoisses is the funkiest and is so soft it spreads rather than slices, so use it on toast rather than in a stacked sandwich. Reblochon and Chaumes sit in the middle and are the best all-rounders. Port Salut is very mild and mostly gives you the texture and the melt without the aroma.
Best for
cheese boards, melting, toast, tartiflette-style potato dishes
Prep. Spoon Epoisses onto bread; slice Reblochon, Chaumes and Port Salut cold.
Pick by how much funk you actually want: Epoisses is more pungent than Limburger, Port Salut far less.
5Ripe Brie or Camembert plus a Little Blue Cheese
Different taste
Use the same amount plus about 1 tsp crumbled blue per ounce
A constructed substitute for when only supermarket cheese is available.
What changes
Bloomy rind rather than washed rind, so the aroma reads mushroomy and ammoniated rather than beefy, and the blue supplies the missing pungency at the cost of a sharper, saltier bite. Mash the two together for melting; layer them for a sandwich.
Best for
sandwiches, melting, when there is no cheese shop
Prep. Let the brie ripen until it bulges. Mash with the blue cheese using a fork.
Use a mild blue such as Gorgonzola dolce. A hard Roquefort will simply taste of Roquefort.
6Havarti, American Muenster or Monterey Jack
Different taste
Use the same amount honestly not recommended
Worth naming so you can rule them out.
What changes
All three melt beautifully and slice neatly, and none of them has any of the aroma or savoury depth that made the recipe specify Limburger. Use them and you will make a nice cheese sandwich that has nothing to do with the dish you were cooking. If no washed-rind cheese is reachable, this is the least-bad filler.
Best for
a mild sandwich when nothing else is available
Prep. Slice thin, use with plenty of mustard and raw onion to add back some assertiveness.
Add a teaspoon of mustard and a thick slice of onion; those two carry more of the original character than the cheese will.

What is Limburger Cheese?

Limburger Cheese is a soft, washed-rind cow's milk cheese from the old Duchy of Limburg, ripened with Brevibacterium linens, which gives it a famously powerful smell and a surprisingly mild, salty, mushroomy taste.

Cooking tips

The smell lives on the rind. Unwrap it, let it breathe for twenty minutes, and either eat the rind or trim it. Either way the flavour is far milder than the aroma leads you to expect, so do not over-correct by using less than the recipe says.
Store it double-wrapped in wax paper and then in a sealed box, or everything else in the fridge will taste of it. The same applies to any washed rind you swap in, Taleggio and Epoisses very much included.
The traditional Limburger sandwich is thick slices of cheese with raw onion and mustard on dark rye or pumpernickel. Those are not garnishes. The onion and the mustard cut the salt and the fat, so keep them even when the cheese is a milder substitute.
Age changes it more than variety does. A two-month Limburger is mild and nutty; a four-month one is aggressive. Match the intensity you expected rather than just picking the same category.
It melts smoothly but breaks if pushed hard, so melt it over low heat or under a broiler for well under a minute. Because it is salty, use noticeably less than you would of cheddar and salt the rest of the dish afterwards.

Frequently asked questions

Can I just leave it out?

Not really, because in almost every recipe that names Limburger the cheese is the dish. If you need something on the bread, aged brick cheese or Taleggio is a far better answer than nothing, and a Limburger and onion sandwich without cheese is just onion on rye.

Does Limburger taste as strong as it smells?

No, and this is the most useful thing to know about it. The aroma comes from Brevibacterium linens, the same bacterium that lives on human skin, which is why it reads as sweaty. The flavour is mild, salty and mushroomy, closer to a good Brie than to a blue cheese.

Is Limburger the same as Muenster?

It depends which Muenster. American Muenster is a mild soft cheese with an orange rind and no funk at all, and it is not a substitute. French Munster, sometimes Munster-Geromee, is a genuine washed-rind cheese and is a very good substitute.

What is a good beginner washed-rind cheese?

Taleggio or Port Salut. Both give you the soft body, the salt and a hint of the character without the full force, so they work if you are cooking for people who might balk at the real thing.

Can I cook with it?

Yes. It is excellent melted over boiled or fried potatoes, in a grilled cheese with onion, or on top of Himmel und Erde. Melt it gently, use less than you would of a mild cheese, and hold back the salt elsewhere in the dish because Limburger is already salty.

Related substitutes

More cheese substitutes

Limburger Cheese substitute

Other limburger cheese substitutes

2Aged Brick Cheese

3French Munster or Belgian Herve

4Epoisses, Reblochon, Chaumes or Port Salut

5Ripe Brie or Camembert plus a Little Blue Cheese

6Havarti, American Muenster or Monterey Jack