Stilton (cheese)
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| Stilton | |
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| Country of origin | England |
|---|---|
| Region, town | Derbyshire, Leicestershire, and Nottinghamshire |
| Source of milk | Cows |
| Pasteurised | Yes |
| Texture | semi-soft, crumbly, creamier with increasing age |
| Aging time | 9 weeks minimum |
| Certification | PDO |
Stilton is a cheese of England. It is produced in two varieties: the well-known blue and the lesser-known white. Both have been granted the status of a protected designation of origin by the European Commission. Only cheese produced in the three counties of Derbyshire, Leicestershire, and Nottinghamshire—and made according to a strict code–may be called "Stilton".
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[edit] History
The pioneer of blue Stilton was Cooper Thornhill, owner of the Bell Inn on the Great North Road, in the village of Stilton. In 1730, Thornhill discovered a distinctive blue cheese while visiting a small farm near Melton Mowbray in rural Leicestershire - possibly Quenby Hall in Hungarton.[1] He fell in love with the cheese and made a business arrangement that granted the Bell Inn exclusive marketing rights to blue Stilton. Soon thereafter, wagon loads of cheese were being delivered to the inn. Since the main stagecoach routes from London to Northern England passed through the village of Stilton he was able to promote the sale of this cheese and the legend of Stilton rapidly spread.
In 1936 the Stilton Cheesemakers' Association (SCMA) was formed to lobby for regulation to protect the quality and origin of the cheese, and in 1966 Stilton was granted legal protection via a certification trademark, the only British cheese to have received this status.[2]
[edit] Manufacture and PDO status
Stilton's distinctive blue veins are created by piercing the crust of the cheese with stainless steel needles, allowing air into the core. The manufacturing and ripening process takes approximately nine weeks.
There are currently just eight dairies licensed to make Stilton, each being subject to regular audit by an independent inspection agency accredited to European Standard EN 45011. At present, all but two of the licensed dairies are based in the Vale of Belvoir, which straddles the Nottinghamshire-Leicestershire border. This area is commonly regarded as the heartland of Stilton production, with dairies located in the town of Melton Mowbray and the villages of Colston Bassett, Cropwell Bishop (two producers), Long Clawson and Saxelbye. The other Leicestershire dairy is at Quenby Hall in Hungarton, which is outside the generally-accepted boundaries of the Vale of Belvoir.
The only dairy currently producing Stilton elsewhere (at Hartington in Derbyshire) owes this fact to a native of the Vale who bought the dairy over a century ago. The site was acquired by the Long Clawson dairy in 2008 and is to close during 2009, with production transferred to Leicestershire.
Oddly, Stilton cheese cannot legally be made in the village that gave the cheese its name. Stilton cheese was never made in the village of Stilton. Stilton village is in the administrative county of Cambridgeshire, and in the historic county of Huntingdonshire.
[edit] Characteristics
To be called blue Stilton, a cheese must:
- Be made only in the three counties from local milk, which is pasteurised before use.
- Be made only in a traditional cylindrical shape.
- Be allowed to form its own crust or coat.
- Be unpressed.
- Have delicate blue veins radiating from the centre.
- Have a "taste profile typical of Stilton".
Stilton has a typical fat content of ~35%, and protein content of ~23%.
[edit] Similar cheeses
A number of blue cheeses, including Gorgonzola cheese of Italy, are made in a similar way to Stilton. All these cheeses get their blue veins from the saprotrophic fungus Penicillium roqueforti.
Stichelton is another similar cheese but is made with unpasteurised milk, while Roquefort is made with ewe's milk.
[edit] Stilton consumption
Blue Stilton is often eaten with celery or pears. It is also commonly added as a flavouring to vegetable soup, most notably to cream of celery or broccoli.[3] Alternatively it is eaten with various crackers, biscuits and bread. It can also been used to make a blue cheese sauce to be served drizzled over a steak, or can be crumbled over a salad. Traditionally, port is drunk with blue Stilton. The cheese is traditionally eaten at Christmas.[4] The rind of the cheese forms naturally during the ageing process, so it is perfectly edible, unlike some other cheeses such as Edam or Port-Salut.
White Stilton has not had the Penicillium roqueforti mould introduced into it which would otherwise lead to the blue veining normally associated with Stilton. It is often blended with other materials such as dried fruit, and has even been used as the flavouring for chocolate.[5]
Huntsman cheese is made with both blue Stilton and Double Gloucester.
[edit] Bizarre dreams
A 2005 survey carried out by the British Cheese Board reported that when it came to dream types, Stilton cheese seemed to cause odder dreams than other cheese, with 75% of men and 85% of women experiencing "odd and vivid" dreams after eating a 20-gram serving of the cheese half an hour before going to sleep.[6]
[edit] Cultural references
British author G. K. Chesterton wrote a couple of essays on cheese, specifically on the absence of cheese in art. In one of his essays he recalls a time when he, by chance, visited a small town in the fenlands of England, which turned out to be Stilton. His experience in Stilton left a deep impression on him, which he expressed through poetry in his Sonnet to a Stilton Cheese:
Stilton, thou shouldst be living at this hour
And so thou art. Nor losest grace thereby;
England has need of thee, and so have I--
She is a Fen. Far as the eye can scour,
League after grassy league from Lincoln tower
To Stilton in the fields, she is a Fen.
Yet this high cheese, by choice of fenland men,
Like a tall green volcano rose in power.
Plain living and long drinking are no more,
And pure religion reading "Household Words",
And sturdy manhood sitting still all day
Shrink, like this cheese that crumbles to its core;
While my digestion, like the House of Lords,
The heaviest burdens on herself doth lay.
- G.K. Chesterton
This is in part a parody of William Wordsworth's sonnet London, 1802, the opening line of which was "Milton! thou shouldst be living at this hour."
British author and journalist George Orwell wrote an essay/article of sorts, "In Defence of English Cooking", first published in the Evening Standard on 15 December 1945. While enumerating the high-points of British cuisine, he touches on Stilton: "Then there are the English cheeses. There are not many of them but I fancy that Stilton is the best cheese of its type in the world, with Wensleydale not far behind."
The Jeeves stories of English humorist author P.G. Wodehouse included a character called G. D'Arcy "Stilton" Cheesewright.
In Edward Lear's nonsense poem "The Jumblies", the main characters' purchases include "no end of Stilton cheese."[7]
[edit] References
- ^ "The cheese that broke the mould". Daily Telegraph. 20 June 2006. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/wine/main.jhtml?xml=/wine/2006/06/20/hstilton20.xml.
- ^ "Stilton Cheese: The Story of Stilton". stiltoncheese.com. http://www.stiltoncheese.com/UK/pr/uk.cfm.
- ^ "Broccoli & Stilton Soup recipe". The Accidental Smallholder. http://www.accidentalsmallholder.net/articles/recipes/broccolistiltonsoup/.
- ^ "Food - Christmas". BBC. http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/christmas/essentials_stilton.shtml.
- ^ "Chocolate cheese hits the shelves". Which? magazine. April 5, 2007. http://www.which.co.uk/reports_and_campaigns/food_and_drink/reports/taste_tests/food/chocolate_cheese_news_article_557_112219.jsp.
- ^ "Sweet Dreams Are Made of Cheese". 2005-09-25. http://web.archive.org/web/20060115000115/http://www.cheeseboard.co.uk/news.cfm?page_id=240. Retrieved on 2007-07-20.
- ^ Lear, E. (1888). Nonsense Books, page 80.
[edit] External links
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