#14 - Cropwell Bishop traditional Stilton (calf rennet)

#14  Cropwell Bishop traditional (calf rennet) Stilton

On our couple of days off from the dairy we drove over to Zouch, Nottinghamshire to stay at Andrew’s uncle & aunt’s little holiday home.  The main aim of our trip was to visit Melton Mowbray and some Stilton factories.  We tried a couple of the smaller factories (there are only 5 left that still make proper PDO Stilton) but unfortunately we couldn’t look through any of them due to health & safety regulations – which is perfectly understandable.  So we purchased a large chunk of Stilton from the small shop at the factory in Cropwell Bishop (at a very reasonable cost) and took this with us for a picnic lunch along with a large Melton Mowbray pork pie and some cherries (see picture!). 

The cheese we purchased was made with calf rennet – the traditional way.  It appears that a lot of Stilton produced now is made with non-animal rennet for vegetarians.  It would be interesting to compare the flavour of the two cheeses some time.  Our piece of cheese had nice even blue mould distribution in thin veins throughout the centre.  It looked medium in age – the paste was still creamy without the darkness/brown that seems to develop inside the rind on examples we have seen.  The mouthfeel was firm but nice and creamy, and the flavour was well-balanced.  I usually find Stilton to be a little bitter, no matter what the age, but we found this to have very little bitterness – which was in balance with the rest of the flavours and saltiness.  There was a savoury, slightly nutty flavour in the background.   A very nice piece of cheese. 

Lunch.  Om nom.  

#13 - Strathdon Blue

This cow’s milk blue cheese comes from Ross-shire in Scotland, but we purchased it from Cartmel Cheeses in Cumbria.   The sample we tried appeared to have quite a mixed rind with blue, green and white moulds, as well as some yeast/bacteria development.  The rind was quite thick, covering about 5mm of creamy, almost liquid, broken down cheese.  The paste in the centre was still quite light coloured, and had an appearance somewhat like Roquefort – with large mechanical openness that may have been enhanced by some gas development.  The mould in the centre was very light green in colour and was developed to a lower level than the outer rind would suggest.  The mouthfeel was generally creamy although slightly chalky with an acidic taste in the centre.  The flavour was of reasonably young mould – it had not developed the savoury, complex blue mould punch we were expecting.  Overall we thought this example was over-ripe on the outside compared to the centre.  We forgot to take a photo of this cheese!

We have tried more recent examples of this cheese from the same shop, and these were more consistently ripened throughout and with a more balanced flavour.