Liederkranz Cheese

Liederkranz Cheese

Liederkranz® is an American cheese designed to be reminiscent of Limburger cheese, while having a far milder taste and aroma. It is sold in small blocks.

Made from pasteurized whole cow’s milk, it is washed with brine as it is matured.

When young the cheeses are semi-firm and pale inside, but as they age they become soft, almost spreadable, and turn a honey colour inside. The rind also changes from pale yellow to golden. It has a strong aroma.

The cheesemakers give this description:

“An American cousin to Germany’s famed Limburger cheese, Liederkranz® cheese has the same texture and unique aroma, but features a distinctively robust and buttery flavor. Its moist, edible, golden yellow crust cradles a pale ivory interior with a honey-like consistency.” ^[1] DCI Cheese Company, October 2011. Accessed April 2022 at https://web.archive.org/web/20111128150019/http://www.dcicheeseco.com/liederkranz/liederkranz

The cheese had died off but was revived at the start of the 2000s. The Master Cheesemaker responsible for its revival (see history below) said:

“It doesn’t seem to have as much ammonia or bitterness as Limburger does…But it still packs a punch.” ^[2]Johnson, Ron. Limburger, Liederkranz: Cheeses of ‘dis-stink-tion’. Sauk Center, Minnesota: Dairy Star. Monday, 11 June 2012. Accessed April 2022 at https://dairystar.com/Content/News/Print-edition-click-here-/Article/Limburger-Liederkranz-Cheeses-of-dis-stink-tion-/1/1/7543

Cooking Tips

The traditional eating advice for Liederkranz Cheese is to serve at room temperature.

When the cheese was revived in 2010 (see history below), the company reviving it gave this advice:

“It pairs particularly well with dark bread and dark beer and is enjoyed as an appetizer, on salads or sandwiches, or with fruits.” ^[3] DCI Cheese Company, October 2011. Accessed April 2022 at https://web.archive.org/web/20111128150019/http://www.dcicheeseco.com/liederkranz/liederkranz

Substitutes

Limburger cheese

History Notes

Throughout its history, the cheese has been made in three different American states: first New York State, then Ohio, and now, Wisconsin.

Invention of Leiderkranz cheese

Liederkranz cheese was created by Emil Frey as a North American version of Limburger, in 1892, in Monroe, New York, USA.

Frey (born Switzerland 1867 – died 11 January 1951) had come to the United States with his father, a cheesemaker and farmer. He started working for the Monroe Cheese Company on Stage Road in Monroe, New York in 1888. (Frey would later go on as well to invent Velveeta Cheese in 1918.)

One of the company owners was a man named Adolphe Tode. He also owned a delicatessen (the Manhattan Delicatessen) in New York City, and found that in the days before refrigerated ship holds too many of the cheeses he imported for his deli were spoiled by the time they arrived. Consequently, in 1889, Tode asked his people at the cheese factory to come up with a version of Limburger cheese (known as Bismarck Schlosskasse cheese at the time) so he could have a reliable local source of it.

In 1891, Frey came up with Liederkranz. It wasn’t exactly Limburger, but Tode liked it nonetheless — and asked him to concentrate on it. They named the cheese after the name of a New York choral singing group called the “Liederkranz” group. In the same year, though, Tode lost ownership of the cheese when the company was foreclosed by the Goshen Savings Bank, and sold to a Jacob Weisl, a New York food wholesaler.

Production of the cheese continued, though, with Frey as the supervisor. During World War 1 (1914 – 1918), when the United States was at war with Germany for two years, the cheese was temporarily renamed to “La Vatel”, because popular sentiment was against German-sounding things.

The move to Ohio

In the 1920s, farmland in New York started to disappear, making it harder to get milk in the quantities and at the prices needed. Consequently, in January 1926, production of Liederkrantz was moved to Van Wert, Ohio. ^[4]Van Wert Cheese Plant is Opened. Lima, Ohio: Lima Morning Star and Republican Gazette. Tuesday, 3 August 1926. Page 1, col. 1.Frey, his wife, and their daughter Mildred moved to the Ohio plant in July of that year. (The couple also had a son named Robert.)

The first batch of Liederkranz in Ohio was a disaster — it didn’t taste anything like what it was supposed to. Frey subsequently had all the wooden shelving from Monroe shipped to him in order to recover the bacteria for the cheese from the wood. He was successful, and the next batch came out true.

By 1927, the Ohio plant was making four million blocks, totalling one million pounds, of Liederkranz cheese a year. (At that time, the cheese was made in 4-oz. blocks.)

Monroe Cheese Popular in U.S. Firm’s Product. Lima, Ohio: Lima Morning Star and Republican Gazette. Sunday, 13 November 1927. Page 12, col. 2.

In 1929, Carl Weisl, president of Monroe, announced the sale of the company to Borden. It was not a bad change, though. Sales of Liederkranz prospered under Borden.

Frey had stayed with the cheese through all these changes, even advancing to become a General Manager of the company. He finally retired in 1938, but even in retirement, he often dropped in to check on his cheese and offer advice.

In June, 1943, Liederkrantz along with other soft cheeses was added to the list of wartime-rationed foods in the United States. ^[5]Ration Soft Cheeses Beginning in June. Spokane, Washington: The Spokesman-Review. Sunday, 23 May 1943. Page 2, col. 5.

In January 1951, jars of Liederkrantz cheese spread, a spreadable version of the cheese, with a certain batch number dating from December 1949 were recalled after a Los Angeles man died of botulism poisoning. A jar of the spread in his refrigerator was found to contain c. botulinum bacteria. ^[6]Liederkrantz Cheese Called Back; Man Dies. Lodi, California: Lodi News-Sentinel. Monday, 29 January 1951. Page 5. A second case of botulism death was also linked to the cheese spread. ^[7]”[The federal food and drug administration] reported that two cases of botulism infection resulting in death have been reported in California and reportedly traced to the Liederkranz spread as bottled.” — U.S. Urges Recall of Liederkranz. Pocatello, Idaho: Idaho State Journal. Wednesday, 14 February 1941. Page 10, col. 1.

Poisoned Cheese Jar Discovered in Valley Home. Hollywood, California: Los Angeles Evening Citizen News. Thursday, 1 February 1951. Page 2, col. 5.

In 1973, fire damaged part of the cheese factory where the Liederkranz was produced, reducing output for a while. Some conspiracy theorists speculated that the fire was deliberately set in an attempt to destroy the special wooden shelving and the bacteria in the wood.

On 18 December 1981, Borden ceased production of any cheeses except processed cheeses. They closed the Van Wert, Ohio, factory completely.

In June 1982, the Van Wert plant and the rights to make Liederkranz were bought by the Fisher Cheese Company.

In August 1985, a batch of Liederkranz (and other cheeses) was found to be contaminated with Listeria. Fisher withdrew the cheeses, and Liederkranz never reappeared on the market.

Some food writers speculated that the special bacterial cultures needed for the cheese were lost after this; some speculated that they were kept alive, frozen.

The dormant rights to make the cheese passed to the Beatrice Foods Company, and then to Conagra, when it absorbed Beatrice in 1990.

During the years of Liederkranz’s absence from the market, the Marin French Cheese Company of California touted their version of Limburger, “Schlosskranz”, as a substitute for Liederkranz.

Revival of Liederkranz Cheese and the move to Wisconsin

By 2010 the DCI Cheese Company (founded 1975) of Richfield, Wisconsin, had acquired the rights to make the cheese and announced:

“DCI is pleased to bring back this time-tested favorite of cheese connoisseurs after a 25-year hiatus.” ^[8] DCI Cheese Company, October 2011. Accessed April 2022 at https://web.archive.org/web/20111128150019/http://www.dcicheeseco.com/liederkranz/liederkranz

To help them revive the cheese, they engaged the services of Myron Olson, a Master Cheesemaker at the Chalet Cheese Co-op in Monroe, Wisconsin.  They got the Chalet Cheese Co-op to make the cheese for them:

“In 2010, DCI… and Chalet Cheese Cooperative worked together to bring Liederkranz back to the market. Chalet Master Cheesemaker, Myron Olson, had already been producing Limburger for many years and had even worked with the Center for Dairy Research experimenting with Liederkranz style cheese, so the partnership was ideal.” ^[9]Dairy Pipeline. Wisconsin Center for Dairy Research. Vol 26, No. 2, 2014. Page 1. ^[10]Dominique Delugeau, VP Sales & Marketing, DCI Cheese Company. In: Liederkranz is back! May 2010. Accessed April 2022 at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XR41yxMukPk

Myron had done some research to inform himself about what he was aiming for:

“I had never tasted [the original] myself,” Myron said. But he was told Liederkranz has a creamier texture early on, and would later develop a strong flavor.”  ^[11]Johnson, Ron. Limburger, Liederkranz: Cheeses of ‘dis-stink-tion’. Sauk Center, Minnesota: Dairy Star. Monday, 11 June 2012. Accessed April 2022 at https://dairystar.com/Content/News/Print-edition-click-here-/Article/Limburger-Liederkranz-Cheeses-of-dis-stink-tion-/1/1/7543

It turned out, rumours were correct, and the original cultures appeared to have been lost or perhaps were unviable. New ones had to be developed:

“Liederkranz, not quite as smelly as its cousin Limburger, was recently revived at Chalet Cheese. This variety has a long history but had not been made for 25 years, and that was in Ohio. DCI Cheese Company, Richfield, Wis., acquired the Liederkranz recipe awhile back and decided to reintroduce it. Myron and staff at the Center for Dairy Research re-created Liederkranz using the original recipes and new cultures. ^[12]Johnson, Ron. Limburger, Liederkranz: Cheeses of ‘dis-stink-tion’. Sauk Center, Minnesota: Dairy Star. Monday, 11 June 2012. Accessed April 2022 at https://dairystar.com/Content/News/Print-edition-click-here-/Article/Limburger-Liederkranz-Cheeses-of-dis-stink-tion-/1/1/7543

The revived cheese was reintroduced to the world in March 2010 at the World Champion Cheese Contest in Madison, Wisconsin:

“Olson manufactured the new Liederkranz and it was unveiled at the 2010 World Champion Cheese Contest.” ^[13]Dairy Pipeline. Wisconsin Center for Dairy Research. Vol 26, No. 2, 2014. Page 1. ^[14]Dominique Delugeau, VP Sales & Marketing, DCI Cheese Company. In: Liederkranz is back! May 2010. Accessed April 2022 at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XR41yxMukPk

At the time of its reintroduction, at least, the revived cheese was being made with a mixture of milk from two different breeds of cows:

“Like Limburger, Chalet Cheese Co-op’s Liederkranz and other cheeses are made with only the milk from its 21 member farms that lie within an 18-mile radius of the factory. Myron said the cows on those farms are 75 percent Holsteins and 25 percent Brown Swiss. “We feel it gives a little different characteristic to the cheese,” he said.” ^[15]Johnson, Ron. Limburger, Liederkranz: Cheeses of ‘dis-stink-tion’. Sauk Center, Minnesota: Dairy Star. Monday, 11 June 2012. Accessed April 2022 at https://dairystar.com/Content/News/Print-edition-click-here-/Article/Limburger-Liederkranz-Cheeses-of-dis-stink-tion-/1/1/7543

In spring 2011, the DCI Cheese Company became part of the Saputo Dairy conglomerate out of Montreal. ^[16]Saputo to acquire DCI Cheese Co. Milwaukee Business Journal. 17 February 2011. Accessed April 2022 at https://www.bizjournals.com/milwaukee/news/2011/02/17/saputo-to-acquire-dci-cheese-co.html

The revived cheese won “Third Award” for “Open Class: Smear Ripened Semi-soft (semi-Hard) Cheeses” at the 2017 US Championship Cheese Contest in Green Bay, Wisconsin. ^[17]Here are the winning Wisconsin cheeses from the US Championship Cheese Contest. Madison, Wisconsin: Wisconsin State Journal. 8 March 2017. Accessed April 2022 at https://madison.com/wsj/business/here-are-the-winning-wisconsin-cheeses-from-the-us-championship-cheese-contest/article_0745f422-b03c-5651-8219-83d9b9cd1197.html

Literature and Lore

WREATH OF SONG
by Katy and Ed K., 1969

“Thou humble citizen,
O Emil Frey
Thou fabricator of the Liederkranz.
From small and quite obscure Van Wert, Ohi
Thy cheese, which equals that of France
Sprang forth unbidden from the reeking sock!
The simple man who tried to make Smearkase
Was summoned from the poor and common flock
To make instead a cheese of utmost grace!
O soft white interior, with a wet brown crust
An odor that makes strong men gag and choke!
The thought of you creates palatial lust!
O Emil Frey, Creator of the Kranz!”

Language Notes

Liederkranz means “Wreath of Songs.”

Further reading

The History of Cheese Making in Monroe. (Monroe Historical Society of New York)