Stilton and Stichelton

“Flavoured white Stilton: Cranberry. Apricot. Mango and ginger. Each more delicious than the last – new novelties to tempt our jaded taste buds. Probably”.

God it makes me cross. How come there’s no foodie fundamentalists prepared to take extreme action against these sickos? What kind of twisted evil mind puts mango & ginger into Stilton? People should be chaining themselves to the mango lorries as they arrive in the country, chucking petrol bombs at the dried fruit vans as they arrive at the creamery.

What can I say; I don’t really think you should take up arms against the manufacturers of novelty cheese but I do believe this stuff matters. Blue Stilton is a world-class cheese and I’ve been thinking about it this week, as I’ve done a blind Blue Stilton tasting and tasted a great new cheese. The tasting results were surprising, but first there’s a couple of parallels to be drawn between the worlds of wine and cheese.

Most wine is given a geographical designation which specifies factors in where and how it was made. Many cheeses in Europe are designated PDO (protected denomination of origin), and Stilton is one of the few in the UK (Check out the DEFRA website and the Stilton Cheesemakers Association). These protections are fundamentally a good thing, otherwise unscrupulous producers would be labelling Hungarian Riesling as “Laski Montrachet” or making Stilton in Poland.

And yet, just to add another twist, we know from wine that it is often the rebels against regulation who are making the greatest wine or forcing change onto complacent administrators. Think of the IGT rebels in Tuscany 20 years ago, partially responsible for waking up a torpid Chianti.

And so it is with Stilton. Here we have PDO regulations with some important strengths. They state that the cheese has to be made in Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire or Leicestershire from local milk and according to tradition. So far, so good. Sadly the regulations are perverse in other ways. They allow for the production of modern novelty white Stiltons which undermine the very sense of locality that the PDO is intended to protect. Assuming the mango groves of Leicestershire are as unlikely as the Derbyshire ginger plantations, these ersatz cheeses mock the PDO system.

More seriously though, the PDO rules stipulate that Stilton may be made only from pasteurised milk. All of us who love great cheese know that unpasteurised milk makes a real, living, evolving product. If you want complexity and depth of flavour then pasteurisation is to be avoided.

Which brings us to Stichelton. Like the wine producers flouting the AC regulations in pursuit of excellence, Randolph Hodgeson of Neal’s Yard Dairy is trying to raise the bar for Stilton by making an unpasteurised version. From a dairy in north Nottinghamshire is emerging small quantities of this new cheese; Stichelton, because it can’t be called Stilton.

I bought some Stichelton recently and put it together in a blind tasting with four Stiltons. All were served single-blind following 6 hours at room temperature. Here are the results, given in the order of tasting and scored with the unique Wine Alchemy mouse system:

Colston Bassett Stilton **

This is a pale creamy off-white cheese with dense blue-green marbling which is much reduced towards the edge. It crumbles into non-curd lumps and is sticky between the fingers. The smell is buttery but with a note a bit like processed smoked cheese. It tastes buttery and creamy with decent balance but was distinctly lacking in bite, even in the very blue bits. Very hollow in the mid-palate and faded quickly. Edible, but nothing special.

Cropwell Bishop Stilton ***

Pale and buttery appearance with much more blue than the first cheese. The blue is in a fine and extensive web throughout the cheese. This was less sticky and crumbled better than the first cheese. It was hard to detect anything on the nose from this cheese. It is better in the mouth, with a nice coarse-grained texture and good complexity. It is salty but also has a good blue hit. The flavours linger and have good depth and length. Hint of ammonia on the finish, but not distracting.

Stichelton *****

This looks really appealing. The cheese is a shade darker than the first two and on the plate it is naturally crumbling into curd-shaped bits. The blue is extensive and coarse-veined. This smells lactic and cheesy. There’s also a bready or malty richness on the nose. By far the most complex and appealing. In the mouth this is distinctly lighter and less dense than any of the others with a hedonistic melting quality. Smooth and salty with lovely layers of complex flavours. Good balance between the rich cheese and the bite of the blue. Stunningly good cheese.

Long Clawson Stilton ****

Plenty of finely-marbled blue right out to the edge. The blue is the least intense colour, being actually more a pale green. Not particularly crumbly. The nose is buttery but also has an interesting complexity. There’s a nice richness to it and a nutty note too.  This has a dense and buttery texture and is the most chewy of the cheeses. There is lovely depth of blue flavour and good balance with the salt, which is quite restrained. Good length, with just a hint of ammonia on the finish.

Quenby Hall Stilton *

Probably the lightest colour cheese, with sparse but coarse blue veining throughout. Appears to be a more solid, drier cheese. The nose is simple – butter and with the same smoked processed quality noted in the first cheese. The cheese is the most dense and is easily the worst flavour. It tastes like processed smoked cheese and is lacking any depth or complexity. Hollow mid-palate. Poor.

This was a very interesting comparison. There is a huge gulf between the top and bottom cheeses. The Stichelton stands out for its complexity, richness, balance and length, probably as a consequence of not pasteurising. I was shocked at how badly Colston Bassett did – this has been my Stilton of choice for several years. Of course cheese will vary both with age and how it’s kept, but on the day the best of the PDO Stiltons was easily the Long Clawson, which ran the Stichelton a close second.

It’s early days for Stichelton and for Randolph Hodgeson’s fight with the PDO authorities. I suspect his cheese is going to have to be consistently excellent for some years before anything changes. I wish him well though, and so should anyone who values real flavour and quality over novelty and industrial gimmickry.

Andy Leslie, March 2007