A nice bit of mould...... (Stilton)

Member Name: hypno06

Product:	Stilton
Date:	10/05/09 (99 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Strong, full of taste, you don't need much.

Disadvantages: None that I can think of!

The thought of eating mouldy cheese, or mouldy anything for that fact, is enough to put most of us off - can you imagine rooting through the fridge, finding something lurking at the back with a furry blue/green coat attached to it, and then presenting it to your guests as a final course at a dinner party? Nope, me neither - into the bin it would go, before anyone noticed how slummy I have allowed myself to get.

So, by rights, stilton, should be something that we are drawn AWAY from eating, surely?

Wrong - stilton and all its blue mouldiness is wonderful and well worth investigating if you have not already done so.

Stilton is an English cheese made ONLY in Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire - cheese that looks similar and is produced anywhere else is just not Stilton. In fact, there are only six, yes six, dairies in the world that are licensed to make Stilton cheese - that really does give you an idea of how specialised this cheese is!

It is a mid texture cheese - quite hard, yet creamy crumbly. Not as crumbly as Wensleydale, but not a cheese you could easily slice like Cheddar. It is made from cows milk that is produced locally, so if you are looking for food that has low "food miles" involved in its production, this could be one for you!

The blue mould spores are added at the first stage of production, but when the "cheese" is about 6 weeks old, fine needles are inserted, which introduces air into the block of cheese which then activates the spores to produce the veins of blue mould that make this cheese so distinctive.

Stilton is a strong tasting cheese - I would certainly give it 4 out of 5 on the strength chart. As a result, you don't need too much of it to give you a wonderful flavour in your cooking, or as an addition to a salad.

Cheese is, usually, quite high in saturated fats, and Stilton is no exception with 23g of saturated fat per 100g, but because it is such a highly flavoured cheese, I find that I use less than I would of other cheeses, which I reckon offsets the fat - half the quantity of cheese = half the fat and calories without any loss of taste.....simple.

Personally, I like to have a small amount of cheese added to a salad. Salads can often be a bit boring, but crumbling and sprinkling some Stilton over your baby leaves gives it a real "kick" and livens up your leaves no end.

I also like to use this cheese when cooking - my two favourites are to put a little on top of pork chops towards the end of grilling - again, a nice "kick" to an otherwise fairly plain dish. Serve with new potatoes and green vegetables for a fab alternative to the Sunday roast. My other, very different favourite, is to chop up and cook some big field mushrooms in a little butter, then melt in some stilton and serve over a jacket potato that has been slowly cooking in the oven. The mushroom and cheese mixture is very grey and very gooey, and doesn't look particularly appetising, but has wonderful flavour and works really well with the fluffiness of the potato middle. Yum!!

Stilton is not just being produced with the blue mould - it is also left as a "plain" cheese which then has apricots or cranberries added - I have tried both these varieties, and thoroughly enjoyed them as an addition to the cheese board, but for me they pale into comparison against their older sibling.

Stilton is easily found in the chiller cabinets of most supermarkets, and is no more expensive than any other cheese, especially when you consider that you don't need a lot of it in any one go, so it lasts a long (ish) time. If you want a bargain, head to the chiller cabinets just after Christmas - there is invariably a mass of cheese going cheap after Christmas, and you can pick up some delicious wedges of dairy delight at knockdown prices - and the great thing is that Stilton can be frozen very successfully, so you can stock up and just take it out of the freezer when you need!

If you want to find out more facts about Stilton - how it is made, what the rules are for it being categorised as true stilton, and most importantly some wonderful recipes for you to experiment with, then go to www.stiltoncheese.com a very good website put together by the Stilton producers.

Summary: Now, about the other mouldy specimens in my fridge.........