Applewood
June 7, 2009
Country and region of origin: England, Sommerset
Milk: Pasteurized Cow’s Milk
Age: 60 Days
Rind: None – Paste is rubbed with Paprika
Creamery: Ilchester Creamery
Creamery website: Ilchester Website
Properties: Semi-soft cheddar, flavored with smoke flavoring. This one is very popular with flavored cheese afficionados.
Uses: Will likely be devoured off your cheese plate. Ilchester offers that it’s good in grilled sandwiches and mashed potatoes. They also suggest using it in cheese sauces – and risotto (!).
Wine Pairings: Ilchester suggests a Shiraz or a Merlot.
Production Notes: This cheese was, once, actually a smoked cheese. They switched from smoking the cheese to using smoke flavoring at least 6 or 7 years ago, however. Most consumers don’t seem to mind one bit. This is still a very pretty cheese on the cheese plate. Nutrition Data
Testimonials:
Abbeydale
May 19, 2008
Country and region of origin:England – Sommerset
Milk: Pasteurized cow’s milk
Age: 4 months
Rind: none
Creamery: Ilchester
Creamery website: Ilchester Website
Properties: It’s a fine, pleasant Cotswold – Double Cheshire with chives and onions. Unlike a lot of them it isn’t rubbery.
Uses: Munching, sandwiches, cooking. Cheddar straws would be lovely with this cheese.
Wine Pairings: The ilchester site doesn’t pair Abbeydale with wine and I’m not sure I would, either. A good, strong beer would be totally natural though.
Production Notes: Ilchester uses vegetarian rennet in their Abbeydale.Nutrition Information
Testimonials:
Well… our customers like it. This is one of those cheeses that people love and that cheese writers make a show of disdaining. The Cheese Primer (amazingly) doesn’t even mention Cotswold, not even in passing.
Shropshire Blue
February 15, 2008
Country and region of origin: England – Nottingham, Nottinghamshire
Milk: Pasteurized Cow’s Milk
Age: 2 – 3 Months
Rind: Edible natural rind
Creamery: Cropwell Bishop
Creamery website: Cropwell Bishop Stilton
Properties: This cheese comes in cylinders about 7 inches in diameter and 10 inches tall. Shropshire Blue is, essentially, an orange Stilton. It’s made for the most part by the same creameries that make Stilton, but is slightly younger. It is not quite unique as an orange blue, but orange blues are rare enough that it makes a startling presentation at table. Shropshire Blue is denser than Stilton and tangier.
Uses: As with Stilton, Shropshire Blue cooks well and pairs well with fruit.
Wine Pairings: As with Stilton, it goes nicely with any full-flavored red. Really big Ports and Sherries work very well.
Production Notes:This is a younger Stilton, colored with annatto. Most sources date the creation of Shropshire Blue in the early 1970s – in Inverness, Scotland. It was made there by a former Stilton cheesemaker. When his creamery closed, Shropshire Blue was taken up by many of the same creameries that still make Stilton in England. Shropshire Blue is made with non-animal rennet. It’s vegetarian.
Testimonials:
Max McCalman – Cheese: A Connoisseur’s Guide to the World’s Best:
In comparison to Stilton, Shropshire Blue is closer textured, more fudgy and most, warm flavored, less meaty, and slightly more tangy.
Steven Jenkins – Cheese Primer
Its rustic qualities make it delicious to eat and gorgeous to behold… Shropshire Blue offers all of Stilton’s virtues and then some.
Stilton
February 14, 2008
Country and region of origin: England – Nottingham, Nottinghamshire
Milk: Pasteurized Cow’s Milk
Age: 2 – 3 months
Rind: Edible, natural
Creamery: Cropwell Bishop
Creamery website: www.cropwellbishopstilton.com
Properties: About 10″ tall and 8 1/2″ in diameter, Stilton is a hefty wheel with a brownish-red mold rind and a creamy, richly veined paste.
Uses: You know how people are always talking about how wonderful cheeses are with fruit? Stilton is perfect with fruit (apples and pears, for instance). Stilton is also a fine cooking cheese – making a big impact in savory tarts and quiches, in sauces or in pastries. Try melting a bit of Stilton on a well-aged steak fresh off the grill.
Wine Pairings: Any big red wine. Port and sherry are classic pairings.
Production notes: The process for making Stilton is protected by British legislation (Stilton being the only cheese for which this is true). The standards are exacting and so there are only a handful of creameries making it. Quoting from the Stilton Cheese Makers website:
Only cheese produced in the three counties of Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire and made according to a strict code may be called Stilton. There are just six dairies licensed to make Stilton. They are subject to regular audit by an independent inspection agency accredited to European Standard EN 45011.
- To be called Stilton, each cheese must:
- Be made only in the three counties from local milk which is pasteurized before use
- Be made only in a traditional cylindrical shape
- Be allowed to form its own crust or coat
- Be un-pressed
- Have delicate blue veins radiating from the centre
- Have a taste profile typical of Stilton.
Stilton is innoculated using penicillium roqueforti.
Testimonials:
Steven Jenkins – Cheese Primer:
The flavor of a great Stilton cheese is full, rich, and creamy, as complex as that of any other great blue. It reveals layers and folds of the flavors of honey, leather, tobacco, and molasses…. Stilton’s aroma is huge and spicy at room temperature… Many lovers of Stilton voraciously devour the natural crust.
Max McCallman – Cheese: A Connoisseur’s Guide to the World’s Best:
It would be hard to argue with the assertion that Stilton is Great Britain’s number one cheese… It’s style may not be as ancient as other traditional blues, but a good Stilton remains one of the most requested cheeses on the planet.
