On Food and Cooking

the original food, but not beyond the point
of edibility. In cheese, animal fats and
proteins are broken down into highly
odorous molecules. Many of the same
molecules are also produced during
uncontrolled spoilage, as well as by
microbial activity in the digestive tract and
on moist, warm, sheltered areas of human
skin.
An aversion to the odor of decay has the
obvious biological value of steering us
away from possible food poisoning, so it’s
no wonder that an animal food that gives
off whiffs of shoes and soil and the stable
takes some getting used to. Once acquired,
however, the taste for partial spoilage can
become a passion, an embrace of the earthy
side of life that expresses itself best in
paradoxes. The French call a particular
plant fungus the pourriture noble, or
“noble rot,” for its influence on the
character of certain wines, and the