Stichelton is an English blue cheese. It is similar to Blue Stilton cheese, except that it does not use pasteurised milk or factory-produced rennet. The name comes from a form of the name of Stilton village in the 1086 Domesday Book (Stichiltone/Sticiltone), as the name Stilton cannot legally be used for the cheese.[1][2]
Randolph Hodgson of Neal's Yard Dairy and American Joe Schneider produce Stichelton in small batches in a dairy at Cuckney on the northern edge of Sherwood Forest, Nottinghamshire. They use raw milk, rennet from calves' stomachs and hand-ladling and smoothing.[1]
It was named one of the five best cheeses in the world by French chef Anne-Sophie Pic. [1] In 2022, Dan Saladino featured it as one of three cheese, along with Salers (France) and Mishavine (Albania), in a book entitled, Eating to Extinction: The World's Rarest Foods and Why We Need to Save Them.[3]
History
editAlthough most Stilton cheeses have been made with pasteurised milk for many years, until 1989 the Colston Bassett dairy did make one Stilton with unpasteurised milk. However, following an outbreak of food poisoning incorrectly linked to the dairy[4] and subsequently revealed to be unfounded,[5] they decided to end production of the unpasteurised cheese. In 1996, this decision was permanently enshrined when Stilton was awarded Protected Designation of Origin status by the EU, with one of the criteria being the use of pasteurised cows milk.[6]
Stichelton is produced by a partnership including Randolph Hodgson who owns the specialist cheese retailer Neal's Yard Dairy,[7] and Joe Schneider, an American who had been a cheesemaker in the Netherlands and the UK. In late 2004 Schneider and Hodgson discussed the possibility of recreating an unpasteurised Stilton-style cheese. They eventually found premises in which to start their dairy, on the Welbeck Abbey Estate near Worksop in Nottinghamshire.
As the name Stilton could not be used, the new cheese was named Stichelton, which its makers say was based on the original name of the village of Stilton (the spelling Stichelton appears in the 13th-century Lincoln Rolls). The first Stichelton cheese was produced in October 2006.[8]
Manufacture
editStichelton is made in a dairy, from the unpasteurised milk of Friesian-Holstein cows at Collinthwaite Farm, on the Welbeck Estate in Nottinghamshire. ForbesLife magazine described it as a "sumptuous cheese that sets a full-flavored, succulent, complex chain of sensations going in your mouth: fruity and salty, buttery, and earthy, sharp and creamy. Robin Hood never had it so good."[1]
The starter culture for the cheese is known as MT36, the original culture used in the pre-1989 unpasteurised Stiltons, and is different from the culture that is used in modern pasteurised ones.[9] A sample of MT36 was obtained from the original producer by Hodgson's colleague, and subsequently kept alive for fifteen years until the start of Stichelton production.[10]
See also
edit
References
edit- ^ a b c Richard Nalley "The Eye," Stichelton Cheese, October 2008, Forbes Life
- ^ Palmer, Ned (2019). A cheesemonger's history of the British Isles. London: Profile Books. ISBN 978-1-78816-118-3.
- ^ Saladino, Dan (2022). Eating to extinction: the world's rarest foods and why we need to save them. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ISBN 9780374605322.
- ^ Maguire, H. C. F.; M. Boyle; M. J. Lewis; J. Pankhurst; A. A. Wieneke; M. Jacob; J. Bruce; M. O'Mahony (1991). "A large outbreak of food poisoning of unknown aetiology associated with Stilton cheese". Epidemiology and Infection. 106 (3): 497–505. doi:10.1017/S0950268800067558. PMC 2271875. PMID 2050204.
- ^ Levy, Paul (18 December 2007). "Rhapsody in blue". The Guardian.
- ^ "White Stilton cheese ; Blue Stilton cheese PDO". Agriculture and Rural Development. European Commission. Retrieved 26 January 2013.
- ^ "Neal's Yard Dairy ; Background and Products". 26 January 2018.
- ^ "Stilton or Stichelton? - Articles - JancisRobinson.com". www.jancisrobinson.com.
- ^ Khosrova, Elaine (2009). "Success by Degrees" (PDF). Culture Magazine. 2 (1): 58–61. Retrieved 26 January 2013.
- ^ Singley, Nora (12 July 2019). "The Cheesemonger: Stichelton". Kitchn.
- Prince, Rose (1 December 2007). "War of the Cheeses" (PDF). Telegraph Magazine. Retrieved 28 September 2008.
- "Stichelton Dairy". Retrieved 28 September 2008.