A new find mooching about Borough Market yesterday, a blue cheese that looked like Stilton, smelled like Stilton and tasted like bloody good Stilton. Even the name sounded suspicously like Stilton. But it wasn't Stilton, it was Stichelton. Confused? I was.
A little research was required.
Like Stilton, Stichelton is a mature blue veined cow's milk cheese from Nottinghamshire, and is the brainchild of Joe Schneider and Randolph Hodgson. Now Mr H is the man behind Neal's Yard Dairy and a man who knows his curds from his whey - so it should be no suprise this is a fine cheese. But why the funny name? Why isn't this just another good old fashioned English Stilton?
The answer is GOFE Stilton has to be made from pasteurised milk. All well and good but a state of affairs that left a big unanswered question. How good would unpasteurised Stilton be? Here's where Joe and Randolph come in - because that is exactly what Stichelton is, an unpasteurised Stilton.
And, boy, it is good. Deceptively creamy and mild up front, the guts and tang creeping up on you as you eat it. A delicious, wonderfully balanced blue. Even the name isn't the awful piece of marketing I originally feared, but an old English name for the village of Stilton.
Tasted blind, I have every faith that I would not be able to tell the difference between it and Cropwell Bishop's finest, but who cares? It tasted superb, especially washed down with a bottle of Reinhold Haart's Piesporter Domherr Riesling Spatelese 2005.
A fine end to a Saturday, even if I was too tired to stay up and see the Hammers on Match of the Day.
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