“The King is Dead” – Neal’s Yard Dairy – Stichelton

The King is Dead.

1086 – the Domesday Book lists three manors in Stichiltone, Cambridgeshire, with an annual rent of £4, and ten other households.

1724 – Daniel Defoe pass’d Stilton, a town famous for cheese, which is call’d our English Parmesan, and is brought to table with the mites, or maggots round it, so thick, that they bring a spoon with them for you to eat the mites with, as you do the cheese.

1936 – the Stilton Cheesemakers’ Association was formed.

1966 – Stilton was granted legal protection via trademark.

1989 – Due to a food poisoning outbreak mistakenly blamed upon Stilton, the last of the Stilton cheesemakers to use unpasteurised milk ceased to do so.

1996 – Stilton received a protected designation of origin from the European Union requiring that Stilton be produced in Derbyshire, Leicestershire or Nottinghamshire. The village of Stilton itself, in bonny Cambridgeshire, is notably excluded.

Today, Randolph Hodgson and Joe Schneider, the bad boys of blue cheese, produce Stichelton in a village near Sherwood Forest using unpasteurised milk. The name comes from the old name for the village of Stilton as written in the Domesday book, and has been carefully chosen by the farmyard firebrands to bolster their white and blue revolution, for, due to the use of unpasteurised milk, the rennet rebels are not allowed to call their cheese Stilton, despite the use of unpasteurised milk being traditional in the recipe. “Only in Britain would we use the same PDO system intended to protect tradition to protect a modern method such pasteurisation” states Randolph.

The pasteurisation provocateurs have petitioned the Stilton Cheesemakers Association (SCMA) to permit them to produce Stilton with unpasteurised milk to no avail. In fact, only six dairies currently hold a license to produce white or blue stilton, forming an impenetrable shadowy cabal.

But why do these milk-mavericks insist on using unpasteurised milk? Randolph spoke of Colston Bassett Stilton upon their decision to cease using unpasteurised milk that “the gentleness used in the making still produced lovely cheese but the extra dimension of flavour and texture was gone.”

So, dear reader, is this a tale of a daring dairy duo’s derring-do, reminiscent of Sherwood legends of yore? Or are these quarrelsome creators of Cambridgeshire crude causing uncalled-for commotion? The answer, as ever, lies in the cheese. To the delight of Gratemycheese readers the world over, my wonderful brother has gifted me a wedge for Christmas, and I can now provide the definitive answer.

Neal’s Yard Stichelton is a lovely cheese, which to the untrained eye or palate may appear indistinguishable from high quality Stilton. Taking my first bites, I forget the drama and the storied history and truly appreciate this excellent cheese. The texture is superb, the flavour of the underlying cheese is glorious and refreshing, and the streaks of blue are divine – as good as I’ve had in any Stilton. It is on this impression, lost in the moment, devoid of context, that I shall base my rating – an outstanding 9.6 out of 10.

But what of the story? I love Stichelton, but I love Stilton too! It is not enough to vindicate the Stilton subversives for me to recommend this cheese. Can I detect “the extra dimension of flavour and texture” which has inspired their passion project? Do I think that their decades long curd-crusade is justified? After much meditation I am happy to confirm that I do.

Hidden in the flavour profile is a cleanness of taste, a scintillating soupçon of sun-dappled grass, an additional dairy delight which combines flawlessly with the mould and elevates it above the cheeses to which I am accustomed. Within the texture, a subtle but subversive snap in the customarily creamy consistency.

It is immediately apparent that Stichelton is made with love, by people who are passionate about the history and customs surrounding the production King of Cheeses. As Anthony Bourdain said: “You have to be a romantic to invest yourself, your money, and your time in cheese”. I dare say that Hodgson and Schneider may be more reverent of the Stilton tradition than several of the dairies approved by the SCMA.

I firmly believe that Stichelton should be, and indeed is, a true Stilton, and I hope that it soon gets the recognition it deserves.

The King is dead. Long live the King!