Stilton

Stilton is a British cheese tradition, forever linked in the public mind with port and walnuts on the table and, for many, the best moment of a Christmas dinner. It is produced all year round, with manufacture in Leicestershire, Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire centred on Melton Mowbray. Stilton has never been made in Stilton, which is in Huntingdonshire, the connection coming from its early supply to the town’s Bell Inn from a cheese-maker at Quemby Hall in Leicestershire.

A good Stilton is a rich unpressed cows’-milk cheese, ivory in colour and marbled with blue veins which are caused by penicillin bacteria. Its rind is brown and slightly wrinkled, and may have white patches (you can also buy white Stilton). When young, the cheese is relatively mild, becoming more forceful with age, a mature, strong-tasting mouthful, complex and tangy on the tongue and fully justifying Stilton’s proud claim to be the ‘king of English cheeses’.