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stilton cheese


Fred McGriff

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I was talking to a clerk at Tescos about this - he claims that 9/10 people prefer cow's cheese over goat cheese so grocers have taken to selling Stilton as a cheese produced with cow's milk. In truth, cows rarely produce enough milk to make a blue cheese...you can also tell a goat cheese from a cow cheese by the veins running along it.

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i dont buy it. the regulations on what makes stilton stilton seem very well guarded. so if it aint cows milk and if it doesnt come from those three counties that it has to come from, then it aint stilton by definition.

 

actually maybe you're right what do i know lol

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though further research on the matter seems vague on the cowsmilk/goatsmilk issue, which would support your argument, i did find this morsel over at stiltoncheese.com:

 

"According to Stilton historian, Mr. Trevor Hickman, resident of Wymondham (why-mon-dum) in east Leicestershire, the background of the cheese is somewhat cloudy. However, "a blue-veined cream cheese from cow's milk was produced by farmers at Wymondham as soon as pastures were enclosed within the open-field system." The first written reference to Stilton cheese was in William Stukeley’s Itinerarium Curiosum, letter V, dated October 1722. Other references made about the same time clearly indicate that Stilton was a hot item even then.

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So how does this cheese get blue? As you can see, the basic recipe for blue cheese starts like any other cheese. The difference is the addition of the blue mold spores added to the milk. Since mold needs air to grow, the cheeses are pierced with stainless steel needles when they are about 6 weeks old and have formed the traditional Stilton crust, allowing air to enter the body of the cheese and permitting the growth of its famed blue veins. At about 9 weeks of age, by which time each cheese will weigh about 17 lbs, the cheese is ready to be sold. But before this happens every cheese must be graded using a cheese iron. The iron is used to bore into the cheese and extract a plug of cheese. By visual inspection and by smell the grader can determine whether the cheese is up to the mark and able to be sold as Stilton. Cheese that does not satisfy the Stilton criteria will be sold simply as "blue cheese."

 

 

source: internets

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That's probably the first result on google when you type in "Stilton". It sounds vaguely accurate but there's a large history behind the cheese that they're simply glossing over in that treatment. I would recommend picking up "Shades of Blue: A history of Stilton Cheese" by Winston Hamford. It's available on Oxford University Press and has an excellent appendix about mixing blue cheese with different types of wine.

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I live near the village of Stilton. I went there for a meal earlier in the month. Good food. I had a winter vegetable soup with stilton cheese dumplings.

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The pioneer of blue Stilton was Cooper Thornhill, owner of the Bell Inn on the Great North Road, in the village of Stilton.

 

That's where I had lunch.

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stiklton is awesome.

 

so is..

 

brie,

cambazola

dolce latte

gorgonzola

isle of mull truckle cheddar.

graviera

 

etc.

 

possibly the finest culinary creation in mankind's history.

 

although that might be red wine.

 

fuck it, they're both number one in my book.

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hey they make a vegetarian haggis .. !!

 

 

Ingredients include: oatmeal, kidney beans, lentils, nuts, root vegetables & mushrooms. Contains no artificial preservatives, colourings or flavourings.

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