Le Tour de Fromage Prologue 7.9km London A short dash around the highlights of London Fromage du Jour: Well they don't call it Fromage in the Ol' Dart. It's affectionately known as "Bended Knees" in rhyming slang. I thought I might just roll out with a bog standard Stilton or Cheddar but then I remembered "The Stinking Bishop". Although not actually from London, it's still worth a mention.

Stinking Bishop is a soft gourmet cheese produced since 1972 by Charles Martell and Son at Laurel Farm, Dymock, England. It is made from the milk of Gloucester cattle, which in 1972 consisted of only 68 Gloucester breed heifers. The breed has been revived to make production of the cheese possible, though it is often combined and pasteurised with the milk of Fresian cattle from a nearby county. The fat content is 48%.

The colour ranges from white/yellow to beige, with an orange to grey rind. It is moulded into wheels 2 kg in weight, 20 cm in diameter, and 4 cm deep. Though only about 340 kg is produced each year, Stinking Bishop's notorious odour, which is said to be similar to unwashed socks and wet towels, keeps it popular in the UK and abroad.

The distinctive odour comes from the process with which the cheese is washed during its ripening; it is immersed in perry made from the local Stinking Bishop pear (from which the cheese gets its name) every four weeks while it matures. As with the French cheese ?oisses de Bourgogne, the odour of Stinking Bishop is offensive to most people.