Blue Stilton is considered the king of English cheeses

DW (English)

Stilton cheese has protected status. Only cheese made in three English shires using local, pasteurized milk can bear the name. We take a look at how this historic cheese is made.

Transcript

00:00 It's a mouldy sight, but an English delight.

00:03 Blue Stilton consider the king of English cheeses.

00:07 Beautiful, full flavoured yet creamy.

00:12 Did you know that Stilton, just like champagne, can only be produced in one

00:16 specific region?

00:17 Lovely and creamy, buttery, perfect.

00:20 So how's it made? And why is the mould

00:24 so important? We travel to England

00:27 to find out. Would you like to try some?

00:31 Stilton can only be produced in the three

00:36 English counties of Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire.

00:40 And only six cheese dairies produce Stilton.

00:43 We went to Derbyshire to try some. Cows graze around Hartington Creamery,

00:48 the smallest Stilton producer. Diana Alcock is a female Stilton maker in

00:54 what's traditionally a boys club.

00:56 She's been perfecting the recipe for 10 years.

01:00 We've got traditional Friesian cross cows, which

01:04 are perfect for making the type of milk

01:08 that we need. So it needs to be quite strict fat and protein

01:12 compositional factors.

01:16 First Diana adds rennet and blue mould starter cultures to the pasteurised milk.

01:25 It's really important that at this stage we're

01:28 very gentle with the milk. Stilton

01:33 as a whole, you need to be really gentle at every step of the process so

01:38 it all needs treating like a baby.

01:42 The next day it looks like this. Diana checks the acidity of the curd.

01:48 When it's just right, she seasons it with salt.

01:51 The curd is then ground.

01:56 It's the only step in the process not done by hand.

02:00 It has to be a milled curd

02:03 and we're looking for a walnut size piece.

02:08 If you look here, we've got all

02:12 different sizes of curd,

02:15 which is exactly what we're looking for.

02:21 The ground curd is filled into the traditional Stilton forms

02:25 and stored for four days until enough liquid has been released.

02:29 After removing the containers, Diana smooths out

02:36 every single cheese wheel to make it airtight.

02:39 What we want to do

02:44 is seal all the holes on the outside

02:47 so that we can control the growth of blue mould.

02:51 If it's left open, then oxygen will get in

02:55 and start the blue mould growth, but we don't want that. We don't want that

02:59 until further down the process.

03:03 The cheeses are then transferred to the maturing room

03:06 where they are regularly turned.

03:12 What we don't want is for all the moisture in effect to sink down to the bottom of the cheese.

03:16 If it was this way round for a long time, all the moisture would go down to the bottom

03:21 and you'd end up with

03:22 what we call an elephant's foot in the trade.

03:26 After four weeks of maturing

03:30 and once more after six weeks, the cheeses

03:34 are pierced to introduce some airflow.

03:42 At this stage, what we want to do is to allow the oxygen

03:46 into the cheese to start the growth of the mould.

03:50 The growth of the mould spores then breaks down the curd

03:54 so that it goes from quite a crumbly,

03:58 almost a dry texture to begin with,

04:02 to the creamy, buttery taste with the blue veins

04:05 running throughout it.

04:08 Eight weeks later, the time has finally come for Diana's all-important taste test.

04:13 The blue is running throughout.

04:18 It's starting to develop a nice

04:21 creamy colour and the back of the iron, we've got a nice

04:25 buttery feel. There's no

04:29 off flavours and it's quite sweet and

04:33 nutty, the smell. And then try.

04:37 So I'm getting all those lovely blue cheese notes, there's no bitterness,

04:40 lovely and creamy, buttery, perfect.

04:44 Around 8,000 tons of Stilton are produced

04:48 every year and sold around the world.

04:52 In England, Stilton reigns supreme

04:56 as king of the cheeses.

04:58 [MUSIC PLAYING]

05:01 (upbeat music)

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