As soon as the clocks change, our mood turns blue. Well, blue and butter yellow, as we consider stocks of Stilton ahead of the festive season. We recently visited Cropwell Bishop Creamery in Nottinghamshire to select our Christmas Stiltons.
What makes a great piece of Stilton?
The Producer
There are now just four Stilton creameries. Hartington Creamery is tiny and only sells locally. By contrast, Long Clawson Dairy is responsible for 80% of all Stilton production, including the packaged portions you find in supermarkets. The remainder is made by two small dairies, Colston Bassett and Cropwell Bishop.
We work with Cropwell Bishop Creamery and one might say they make the cream of the crop.
The Milk
Cropwell Bishop sources their milk from eight farms in the Peak District, and the cows spend at least six months on pasture (the rest of the time they’re fed silage). This is why their Stilton is a rich yellow rather than pale ivory or white like blue cheeses from farms where cows are routinely kept indoors and fed hay. On a make day, the creamery receives around 20,000 litres of milk, which they pasteurise according to the Stilton PDO.
Most of their Stilton is made using vegetarian rennet to appeal to a broad market, but 5% of their production is made with traditional rennet. We choose these cheeses because they tend toward more savoury notes and hold more moisture for a creamier texture.
The Make
Cropwell Bishop uses traditional methods and everything is done by hand. Curds are hand ladled, which gives the cheese a smoother paste. The individual wheels are ‘rubbed up’, whereby cheesemakers smooth out the surface of the cheese using a palette knife to create a protective outer barrier that will form the rind. Once the cheeses are 4-5 weeks old, they are pierced to allow the blue moulds to develop inside, creating the signature veining.
Maturation
Stilton is usually aged at around 10°C and will be moved through cooler or warmer temperatures to slow or hasten maturation as required. Older Stiltons are placed alongside younger cheeses to encourage a biome of blue moulds to thrive as they age.
This slow maturation continues in our cellars. Unlike some supermarket wedges that might have been frozen earlier in the year to meet increased demand in the winter, our Stilton is always cut fresh to order when a wheel is at its peak.
We have selected some cheeses made in mid to late September for our Christmas stock. By December these will be richly savoury, with a texture like cold butter. We can’t wait to share this Stilton with you, and we hope it will find a place on your tables this winter and beyond.