Stinky Cheese

The fragrance of the well-ripened cheeses of the world have occasionally been compared (somewhat unfavorably) to that of a well-ripened sweat sock.  Odor compounds can be complex, but they're not that weird, so I figured there were just similar compounds floating around in the mix.  It happens.

Turns out, the connection may be even more direct than I thought.  The distinctive odors associated with sweaty feet stem less from the sweat per se, and more from the organisms that feed off of the proteins, electrolytes, etc that come with the sweat.  On most of your skin, that's bacteria (perfectly ordinary and harmless, don't worry), but your feet also tend to contain traces of fungus (also ordinary and harmless, unless you don't wash them enough).  And fungus = mold, the living component to many of the Continent's very finest stinky cheeses.  Now, of course, it's probably not the same fungus, but all the same, a certain similarity in biological output would not be unexpected.