LIMBURGER CHEESE AND ONION SANDWICH
(with optional variations from visitors using liverwurst, sardines or anchovies)

I had forgotten all about this sandwich until a visitor to the website, Melanie Ditzel, sent an email stating that it was a New Year's lunch tradition in her family. My grandmother often ate the sandwich with just the cheese and sliced onions. Limburger cheese is a semisoft cheese made from cow's milk. It originated in Belgium but, since the 19th century, it was produced in Germany. It is not for the faint of heart, as it develops an extremely pungent odor as it ripens. As a teenager, I really wanted to learn to like Limburger cheese. At first I thought it was awful. But I kept trying, and finally even developed a taste for it. After Grandmom passed away, I gave up on the cheese. I tried it many years later and it would have been like starting all over again. I haven't tried it since. However, if you are adventurous and like strong tasting cheeses, try one of these sandwiches. You might just start a new tradition of your own.

Variation I
This is the way my Grandmom Weber made the sandwich.

Thinly sliced pumpernickel or whole grain bread

Limburger cheese

Thinly sliced onions

Pepper to taste

Variation II
This is Melanie Ditzel's version.

Sliced pumpernickel or rye bread
Limburger cheese
Thinly sliced onions
Sliced liverwurst or braunschweiger
Horseradish to taste

Variation III
This version comes from Leo Volz, who lives in West Chester, PA. Leo saw my recipe and said it brought to mind a sandwich that the older German and Polish men used to eat at the ethnic social clubs in his neighborhood in north Philadelphia. They called it the "Stinky Sandwich". Leo wrote, "I thought I could eat anything, but I couldn't get the sandwich within a foot of my face, and the other men devoured plates full, piled high."

Hard-crusted rye bread
Limburger cheese
Bermuda onion, sliced 1/2-inch thick
Coarse brown mustard
Sardines

Variation IV
This version comes from Roger Kitchen, who lives in Pooler, GA. Roger wrote, "I was browsing your site and happened upon the page concerning Limburger cheese. I'm sorry you don't like it - and where I used to live in Pennsylvania many people considered it in the same general category as fruitcake - something of a joke! However, I am particularly partial to strong flavors, and especially cheeses, and my lovely wife and kids know that if they really want to give Dad a treat they only have to find the local market and buy some particularly obscure and yucky-looking cheese! Here is the best Limburger sandwich."

Pumperknickel bread, preferably German, or crusty seeded rye bread
Limburger cheese
Anchovy fillets in olive oil

"Spread two slices thickly with the cheese, then cover one slice with anchovy fillets. Drizzle a little of the olive oil from the anchovies on top of the fish, but not too much, and close the sandwich. I like to eat it with a few pickled herring snacks on the side (the ones pickled in wine vinegar, not the creamy ones), taking a few of the pickled onion slices from the jar as well. And you have to make sure to lean forward over the plate when you eat it, because there's no exposed bread to absorb the oil from the fish, so it tends to drip out!"

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LIMBURGER CHEESE AND ONION SANDWICH (with optional variations from visitors using liverwurst, sardines or anchovies)

LIMBURGER CHEESE AND ONION SANDWICH
(with optional variations from visitors using liverwurst, sardines or anchovies)