If you've ever found yourself face-to-face with a beautiful charcuterie board and been stumped by rinds on any cheeses, you're not alone. Not all cheese rinds are meant to be eaten, but plenty are.

The distinctive smells they give off come from the cheeses’ rinds—specifically, the multitude of microbes blooming on the crumbly or waxy surface of the creamy curd. “The cheese rind microbiome lets ...