Not all Stiltons are created equal….or simply. PART II

Proper form. I have a great deal of admiration for the makers of Stilton; a preferred creamery in Nottingamshire would not release its Stilton, even though it was Christmas time and the Irish were out, not because we were Irish but because the cheese was too young. I like it when nature dictates to man.

This post, I should explain results from an interaction with my mother. She seemed to avoid buying cheese from me. I brought her home a block of Stilton one Christmas to discover that she had bought a quarter round somewhere else. Pints to a pub, I felt a little too late to have been of service.  It was after Christmas when she unexpectedly asked me why our Stilton should be so much better or any different to hers? A reprieve, I clarified that not all Stiltons are created equal and most assuredly, not the same.  There is more than one producer of Stilton and within that a range of good, particular, better to best.  I shall remain quiet about my bias, but now to the creameries.

Research indicates that there are currently six creameries making Stilton Cheese. I thought I knew which Stilton was my favourite but now I am not so sure – some of the stories add charm to the cheese and clarify the lack of, or plentitude of encounters.  Stilton must be made with pasteurized milk, in and from the counties of Derbyshire, Leicestershire or Nottinghamshire, the cheese be unpressed and formed in a cylindrical shape, the crust natural and the blue a result of piercing and not inoculation - the remaining differences lie in the touch of the hand.

The Creameries:

Cropwell Bishop, family run, they gave up their larger enterprise, Somerset Dairies, to focus on Stilton

making in Nottinghamshire. Their milk pools comes from 16 farms. Cropwell Bishop’s Stilton was the first and only Stilton to be served on the Concorde. They recommend it trying it with honey and walnuts.

Long Clawson of Leicestershire  have been all about Stilton for over a hundred years. There was a brief stint during the War when rationing, not reason, dictated that they had to make cheddar. Their milk pools comes from some 43 farms.

Tuxford & Tebbutt, also of Leicestershire with a long history of making cheese, Melton Mowbray’s pork pies, and gentlemen’s suit (does anyone see the expanding bias?). They let go of the other industries to focus on cheese making. One of the largest exporters of Stilton, it has been taken over a few times, at one stage by Milk Line, it is now owned by the very large cooperative Arla, a subsidiary on the international milk focused cooperative Arla based in Denmark.

Webster’s Dairy of Saxelbye, near Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire is a small operation run by the

Webster sisters, if you were to call the creamery I think that one of them might even answer the phone. It is a small operation but it has a following and much of their cheese is gone before it even has an opportunity to rest on fair Albion’s soil. Two sisters began the business 150 years ago, there were some brothers in between and now two sisters are in charge again. Elizabeth Scarborough might smile. I would like to taste their Stilton.

Hartingdon Creamery, Pikehall – the only makers of Stilton in Derbyshire. The Long Clawson Dairy

closed down in 2009 and these Magnificent Five, two cheese makers and three cheesemongers (two businesses) are taking up the Stilton standard for their county. The business is beginning, they have experience, they need time and support while they develop their market. Does anyone want to do a cheese class with them?

Colston-Bassett, of Nottinghamshire, have been championed by Neal’s Yard as their only Stilton for the past 30 years. The cooperative was established in 1913 after a local doctor encouraged the farmers to pool their milk resources and add value to it by making cheese. Initially cheddar happened, Stilton in 1920, cheddar rationing of the war took back the cheese line but over the 1950’s the creamery turned its focus solely, thankfully back to the blues.  The original 16 farms have been consolidated into 4, but it is the same land, the curds are still hand ladled and the cheese is terrific.

Hints may have happened but it could be fun, and an accomplishment, to line them up side by side, each bought as choice samples of that creamery, and try them with friends. What sweet dreams would follow?

Recipes:
Heston Blumenthal’s, Stilton on Chocolate Biscuits with Port Reduction

Pork Chops, Proscuitto and Stilton with Jamie Oliver

Eccles Cakes and Potted Stilton (Heston Blumenthal)

Tartine, with or out without pears. 

Stilton Pairing:
Port, the majority write Ruby some say Tawny
Sherry, Amontillado is more commonly praised but some staunch defensives for Olorosso

Close your eyes and guess.

Wines: Recioto, Tokaji, Icewine, Banyuls
Sauternes or, generally late harvest German or Austrian White Wines.

Not all Stiltons are created equal….or simply. PART I

I admire a country that takes a food that radiates out from its heart with matured blue green mould and names it the King of the Blues (but never les Bleus mon cher Roquefort). In what looks to be a well chosen English meal, in 1996 Stilton was the first cheese and amongst the first foods, Orkney Lamb, Jersey Potatoes etc to be granted PDO status in Britain.

Do origins matter? How wonderful are accepted myths?

A series of contradictions behind this wonderful cheese, it is English so are we surprised?

Much about the cheese that has been protected and promoted has so little to do with the cheese and the consumption of it. 

Point 1. Stilton village is in Cambridgeshire. Stilton cheese may only be made in the counties of Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire, of which Cambridgeshire is not one.

Point 2. Legend: Stilton was thought to have come from Quenby Hall in Hungarton village (great place names over there in Britain), near Melton Mowbray (see) in Leicestershire. The tale tells that a blue cheese was made by the housekeeper Elizabeth Scarborough and sold exclusively by her son-in-law, Cooper Thornhill at The Bell Inn from 1730 on, in Stilton, on the North Road leading, propitiously to London.

Reality: Subsequent arguments have shown that local cheese tended to be sold locally (see map above), that Stilton village had its own recipes for creamy blues and there was record of Stilton's blue cheese prior to 1730.

"Daniel Defoe, in his 'A tour thro' the whole island of Great Britain' of 1724-27 has; "we pass'd Stilton, a town famous for cheese, which is call'd our English Parmesan, and is brought to table with the mites, or maggots round it, so thick, that they bring a spoon with them for you to eat the mites with, as you do the cheese."

Next time you are given a Stilton Spoon,  will you say thank you?

Point 3.The Protected Stilton recipe is made with pasteurised milk. Stilton, in all of its debatable origins, must have been made with raw milk; pasteurisation was formalised by Louis Pasteur later on in the nineteenth century. When the PDO was introduced in 1996 the legislation protected it as a pasteurised blue cheese.

There is nothing wrong with my milk

Point 4. Joe Schneideer and Randolph Hodgson are making Stichelton, an unpasteurised Stilton. They use the Domesday name for the Stilton village as PDO regulation disallow them from calling it what it is.


Point 5. Stilton goes well with Port but, despite popular legend, you should never pour Port into Stilton. With hygiene and refrigeration, maggots are not the issue that they were and, look you have just wasted the Port and the Stilton.

Point 6. Despite Stilton being a favoured blue at Christmas time, it continues in its beauty well into the New Year when everyone now avoids it with resolutions to, ‘eat better’. Eat better what?

Point 7. Stilton, while traditionally blue has some relatives, Stilton White (a younger Stilton made without Penicillium Roqueforti), Shropshire Blue (orange by annatto) and some things with dried fruit, we call them eccentric relatives.  This is why people ask for ‘Blue Stilton’; no pretenders.

Stilton, Simply.

Taste Cubed, serving it up.

Taste cubed, never in cubes.

Italy, Thank you.

I have a quiet dread of cheese cubes. I guess it is now no longer quiet, I dread cheese cubes. They are acceptable, okay forgiveable, when done as samples in stores. They are there, quickly chopped, to be popped without too much thought by shopper-gatherers.  Even writing that sentence raised some of the issues in my mind – there is a haste and a lack of thought. I wish we would taste and act more carefully.

It is lovely when someone stops after they have tried a sample and goes back to search for the label. Like a bloom’s scent or the beginning of something that turns into a conversation, inhaled or begun by chance, it redirects you and pulls you willingly, curiously towards it.

Cheese tommes with their array of rinds: from bacterium linens umber reds, bright wax wraps to mottled fuzzy grey or white bloomed skins, and with their differing shapes: thick soft huge grey guilders of curds, perfect hardcore aged Dutch suns to such planetary rings that make you think of turning cart

They look like they have been bayoneted

wheels…. Becoming generic blocks of thoughtlessness thrown into a pile. It feels like Communism of the curd and I am sure their cheese was similarly good.                                                         

I don’t particularly like cutting cheese – unless it is to open it up and to encourage others to open up to it. Different guidelines would apply to different situations and sometimes you just go with what works but, to follow, here are a few thoughts to keep in mind.

Taste Cubed  

           Temperature x Aesthetics x Form

• The longer and the larger the cheese piece, the longer the flavour will remain intact. Open sides are like pores from which their quality will seep. 
• Cheese should be served at room temperature, if you are wearing a jacket inside – this is not room temperature.
• Food has less flavour when it is cold, cheese should be taken out of chilled storage at least 30 minutes before serving. The afternoon before the intended evening is also good.  My mother puts it in the pantry and not into the refrigerator (understand, cool window sill) if there are guests over for the weekend. 
• Keep the cheese wrapped up until it is being served (and between sneaky snacks) to prevent it from drying out.
• Soft (ripe) cheese should be given a few hours out, its flavour is invested in its fat molecules. These contract when they are cold and need to relax, to bulge or run in order to release their richness. We’ll discuss ripeness on another post.
• Opening slices of and into the cheese should not be done too long before they are being served.
• When cutting cheese cut according to the shape. You might do a few guiding cuts to show your guests and to encourage them to dig in. I have found that if you are serving a perfect shape or round of camembert - someone must make the initial intrusion or no one will.

from Cheese Matters, because it does

I do not like doings pieces that are too thick, not because I am mean but because the thinner slice, smaller pieces releases the flavour more delicately - who likes thick bars of dark chocolate wedged into their mouth? Squirrels.

If you must pre-cut the cheese, because flight, picnic or antipasta security will take all of your knives, be playful with the shapes and lay them out in a way that will encourage people to think of it as a treat. The cheese began pretty, keep it so. The cheese makers went to the bother, so can we.

Finally, simply, it is it not easier to just put out the cheese at the end of a long day and an extended meal and let people help themselves?