Blue Stilton Cheese AOP (~750g) (Cow) - Les Freres Marchand

Area: Nottingham, United Kingdom
Milk: Pasteurized cow’s milk
Type: blue veined cheese
Weight: 7,5 kg
Fat: 29 %

Maturing time: 4 to 6 months

Tasting advice
Can be enjoyed simply with bread with seeds
Wine-pairing
Matches perfectly with a Porto, a Monbazillac, or a Sauternes.

Appearance: brownish/greenish dry crust
Texture: supple texture
Sense of smell: blue cheese mold smell
Taste: honeyed, spicy

History
In the 18th century, Stilton was a stopover town for stagecoaches traveling between London and York. While the horses were being changed, travelers were eating in one of the inns of the city.
Blue Stilton's pioneer was Cooper Thornhill, resident of Stilton, who fell in love with this blue cheese by visiting a farm in 1730 in the city. It was he who first offered the travelers a chewy, creamy, blue veined cheese that, therefore, took the name of the city.
The village of Stilton is located on a major route of the British Stagecoach circuit, and cheese awareness spread throughout Great Britain.

Fabrication
To produce the Stilton, Billy pours the fresh pasteurized milk into a tub in which he adds milk rennet and "penicillium roqueforti" (blue mold).
Once the milk is curdled, the cheese maker removes the whey and dries the paste overnight. The next morning, the dough is cut into pieces and then put in a mill.
It pours about 11 kg of this paste into cylindrical molds and mixes the cheese for five to six days so that it loses most of its water.
The cheese is then salted with dry salt and refined from 4 months to 6 months.
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