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Stilton is a British Blue Cheese that is milder than Roquefort and Gorgonzola.
Cow's milk is pasteurized first at 161 F (72 C )for 15 seconds. The milk is then cooled down to 86 F to 88 F (30 C to 31 C). Penicillium roqueforti and Rennet are added. The milk is allowed to curdle for an hour to an hour and a half. Then the curd is cut, allowed to settle for another 1 1/2 hours, then drained overnight.
The next morning it is salted and placed in cylindrical moulds. For the next 10 days, the moulds are turned daily. The cheese is then removed from the moulds, and its surfaces scraped and rubbed to even them. It's then let stand for about a week for mould to grow on the surface, then transferred to a ripening room. After 4 - 6 weeks of aging, the cheeses are pierced with needles to allow air in for the interior mould to grow. The cheese is ready to eat at 3 months old.
The scraping of the cheese's surface, done by hand, helps to give the cheese its crust, which turns out brown and wrinkled, and is edible.
Stilton is always made in a cylinder shape. All Stilton is now made in cheese factories. Only six dairies (or seven, depending on who you read) in the three English counties of Derbyshire, Leicestershire, and Nottinghamshire are allowed to make Stilton.
Crockery jars filled with Stilton (known as "Stilton pots") are filled with pieces of broken Stilton. The quality of the cheese in them isn't as good as a piece of Stilton -- after all, you are paying for the "cute" pot. BBC Food has deemed the top four pots to be Fortnum and Mason, Harrods, Webster's, and Cropwell.
Choose Stiltons with a rough, dry rind. The centre should be creamy without being crumbly -- if the centre is crumbly, the cheese is drying and needs to be used up.
Stilton is now a PDO cheese.
Cooking Tips
Crumble some Stilton on top of a bowl of cream of celery soup.
Equivalents
1 cup, crumbled = 1/4 pound = 115g
Storage
Store refrigerated for up to a month, wrapped tightly in tin foil. To freeze, wrap first in plastic wrap, then in tin foil.
History
In the town of Stilton, in 1730, a Mr Cooper Thornhill owned a public house called the Bell Inn on the Great North Road. It was a good spot for the Inn, as travellers going north from London went along this road and stopped at the Inn. It was about 70 miles north (110 km) of London, which made it the first stop after a day's travel from London going north by coach or horse.
While visiting a small farm in Lancashire, he tasted a blue cheese that he loved, and worked out a deal to give his inn the rights to distribute it. He promoted and sold the cheese at the Inn, and travellers from both the north and the south raved about it. He also sold it in the market at Melton Mowbray. Even though the cheese wasn't made in Stilton, it was still called that as that's where the cheese was supplied from.
A woman named Frances Pawlett made the best Stilton, and organized others at setting standards for the cheese. Thornhill worked with Frances Pawlett and her husband to promote the cheese.
Literature & Lore
The first written reference to Stilton dates back to 1722 in William Stukeley's "Itinerarium Curiosum"
See Also
Protected Designation of Origin
Other entries for Blue Cheeses
Beenleigh Blue Cheese, Bleu d'Auvergne, Bleu d'Causses, Bleu de Basque, Bleu de Gex, Bleu de Termignon, Blue Wensleydale, Buffalo Blue Cheese, Byland Blue Cheese, Cabrales Blue Cheese, Cambozola Cheese, Canterbury Blue Cheese, Caradon Blue Cheese, Cashel Blue Cheese, Cornish Blue Cheese, Crème de Saint Agur Cheese, Danish Blue Cheese, Devon Blue Cheese, Dorset Blue Vinney, Dunsyre Blue Cheese, Exmoor Blue Cheese, Fourme d'Ambert Cheese, Fourme de Montbrison Cheese, Gorgonzola Cheese, Guler Cheese, Harbourne Blue Cheese, Lanark Blue Cheese, Maytag Blue Cheese, Mrs Bells Blue Cheese, Oxford Blue Cheese, Penicillium Glaucum, Penicillium Roqueforti, Point Reyes Blue Cheese, Roquefort Cheese, Saint Agur Cheese, Shropshire Blue, Somerset Blue Cheese, Stilton, Strathdon Blue Cheese, Troo Bloo You Cheese, Valdeón Cheese
Other entries for Semi-Firm Cheeses
Appenzeller Cheese (Quarter Fat), Ardrahan Cheese, Asadero Cheese, Botton Cheese, Brunost Cheese, Caerphilly Cheese, Cantal Cheese, Carrigaline Farmhouse Cheese, Cheshire Cheese, Chèvre, Chihuahua Cheese, Cotherstone Cheese, Criollo Cheese, Danbo Cheese, Danish Fontina Cheese, Edam Cheese, Farmer's Cheese, Fontal Cheese, Gaperon Cheese, Grimbister Cheese, Jalapeño Cheese, Leerdammer Cheese, Liederkranz Cheese, Livarot Cheese, Maasdam Cheese, Manchego Cheese (Mexican), Monterey Jack Cheese, Morbier Cheese, Mozzarella Cheese, Pavé d'Auge Cheese, Pavé d'Isigny Cheese, Pavé de Berry Cheese, Penyston Cheese, Quartirolo Cheese, Queso con Loroco, Ricotta Salata Cheese, Tetilla Cheese, Vacherin Fribourgeois, Wensleydale Cheese
Other entries for Cheese
Affinage, American Cheeses, Casu Marzu, Cheese Rinds, Creamery, Double/Triple-Cream Cheese, Extra-Hard Cheeses, Firm Cheeses, Goat's Milk Cheeses, Mexican Cheeses, Pate (of a Cheese), Processed Cheese, Queso Fundido, Rennet, Sheep's Milk Cheeses, Skim-Milk Cheeses, Smear-Ripened Cheeses, Soft Cheeses, Surface-Ripened Cheeses, Sweet Curd Cheeses, The Crumblies, Truckle, Washed-Curd Cheeses, Washed-Rind Cheeses, Yak Cheese, Yeel Cheese
Other entries for Dairy
Butterfat, Butter, Milk, Nondairy Topping
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