A sort of lucky dip - stilton cheese
"great buttery rounds of blue-veined cheese, crumbly, sharp-tasting, fresh-scented, inside a pitted crust; what ought to be the finest food still produced in this country and nowhere else. The French may think they are on to something with Roquefort, but that is mere salty slime when set against a good stilton, not too ripe, or too soft."
Julian Glover - The Guardian
When I was flicking through those glossy magazines yesterday I came across this rather lovely photograph of a piece of Stilton cheese. Now I'm not a lover of blue cheese of any kind - indeed I really don't like it at all. But like the figs, which I also don't like, I do find them aesthetically pleasing to look at. I really liked the picture (above) and so I thought I would try and find out about Stilton. For I'm also sort of kicking myself for not trying harder to see if we could see how they made Roquefort when we were there. Though mind you it was a Sunday, so it probably wasn't possible anyway. So sort of a lucky dip post in the sense that I came across it, but not so lucky a dip that I deliberately and randomly picked a magazine. I just came across it by accident.
So Stilton cheese - the so-called King of English cheeses and with a European designated apellation. It can only be made in the counties of Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire. Ironically, where it was originally made - Stilton - is now in the county of Cambridgeshire (it used to be Huntingdonshire) and so cannot call any cheese made there, Stilton. Apparently they tried to get accreditation but it was refused. They get their own back though by having a cheese rolling competition every year. Teams of four compete in the village main street. You'd think it would be easy but apparently not. And I bet there is a lot of Stilton on sale there, not to mention other Stilton associated things.
Traditionally also it was made with unpasteurised milk, but the current rules forbid the use of unpasteurised milk - I think it was due to a faulty batch once. Some purists object to this and there is at least one cheeese-maker who does make a Stilton type cheese with unpasteurised cheese, but has to call it Stichelton.
Its commercial production dates back to the early 18th century when the village of Stilton became a staging post on the recently 'developed' Great North Road. Customers, of course, got stuck into the local cheese - which was a forerunner of today's Stilton - loved it and so it started to be made on a commercial scale to feed the demand. There are now 6 or is it 7 makers of the cheese - and it seems more is made than is needed. Well I wonder about that as the articles that said this were a few years old. And gourmet cheeses have become fashionable again. One factory in the village of Hartington in Derbyshire was closed down by the company that owned it, moving their operations back to Leicestershire. Around 180 people lost their jobs, but some locals came to the rescue - first bought the associated cheese shop and then, with some other locals, started up production again, finally receiving the appropriate accreditation. Which is why I wonder whether there are now 7 producers.
As to how it's made - well apparently it's difficult and labour intensive. I'm not sure when they add the mould - penicillin roquefort (the same that makes Roquefort?). but the cheeses have to be turned every day - I think by hand. Just google 'making stilton' and you will find lots of sites telling you about it. And there is, of course, a Stilton website which will tell you everything much better than I.
I remember reading many years ago that you could tell who had made the cheese by the rind - but I cannot find any reference to this, so I just don't know whether that is true or not. The rind is reasonably thick. And Will Studd - our Australian cheese guru - says that you should eat it from a whole wheel and from the centre outwards. Now really - who is going to buy a whole wheel of Stilton?
It's traditionally eaten at Christmas in England, when sales soar, but I cannot find why. And there is also a tradition of pouring some port into the centre - but I gather this was probably to cover up the taste of one that had gone off. Now you should just eat it with port not in it.
"The best cheese of its type in the world." George Orwell
