Cheese of the Week – Mon 4 July

Apley Farm Shop’s Cheese of the week for this week (4 July) is Colston Bassett Stilton at £2.25 per 100g. Lora sent me these details in between her preparations for our big cheese launch on Saturday 23 July.

Place of origin:  Nottinghamshire

Strength:  4 star

Smell: Creamy “mouldy” you should be able to pick up the distinctive blue vein smell.

Appearance: White/ creamy coloured with blue veins and a natural formed crust. Needle marks are present around outer crust.

Description: Crumbly natural needle marks, creamy to taste and has a distinctive after taste. Colston Bassett is one of the smallest dairies in the United Kingdom. They make their pasteurized cow’s milk Stilton the traditional way using hand-ladled curd and animal rennet, not to be found at any other Stilton maker. Thus, the texture of Colston Bassett Stilton is more luscious, creamy and full-bodied and the flavour, more complex and deeper than any other cheese produced with vegetable rennet.

It has a close, creamy texture with pale, ivory paste that edges onto amber as it gets close to the rind and a homogeneous distribution of blue coloured veins. The wrinkly rind is slightly sticky, orange-brown in colour, speckled with patches of white mould. Flavour-wise, Colston Bassett Stilton is earthy and lactic, balanced by the richness of blue mould and butter. When young, it tends to be slightly tangy, but this will disappear as the cheese matures.

Stilton is a trademarked word, a cheese can only be called stilton if it is produced in one of the three counties (Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire or Leicestershire) can only be produced in cylindrical shape and must be pressed.

Goes well with: Red wine, Sloe Motion port, add in with salads or makes a fantastic blue cheese sauce. Stokes fig chutney, ox springs Parma ham, Hobsons Old Henry.

Awards: Supreme champion 2014 at international cheese awards.

Notes: pasteurised suitable for vegetarians