GJ1964

The Guardian Journal Friday, October 16, 1964, page 16.

PRIDE FLAVOURS NOBLE STILTON

SELECT FEW ITS GUARDIAN
By a Guardian Journal Reporter

THE gentle, lush Leicestershire countryside within a dozen miles of the Nottinghamshire border has written itself into world gastronomic history as the home of Stilton — an aristocrat among British cheeses. Its name is given reverential mention in the best dining places everywhere — yet its reputation today rests with only 13 cheese-producing concerns, making a few thousand cheeses each week. Five are in the Melton Mowbray area, five are cradled in the Vale of Belvoir, another is at Swepstone, and two — part of a group centred in Leicestershire— are in Derbyshire.

Early Stilton history is obscure, but it is said that a Mrs. Orton started it all two or three centuries ago. Mrs. Orton's cheese was named after his mistress, Lady Beaumont.

Sampled at inn

Thirty years later, a Mrs. Paulet, in the village of Wymondham, was producing the cheese.

It literally made its name in the early 18th century, among appreciative Great North Road travellers who sampled the new cheese at The Bell Inn, Stilton— although it was never made there. In the last century it was part of the farming economy in the Melton area. The women made cheese in the summer, and if there was enough milk—butter in the winter. The turn of the century brought moves to farm co-operatives, and the Second World War, with its restriction on cheese manufacture, thinned the ranks of the small, individual Stilton farmers. It is still a comparatively small operator's business, with units using 2,000 or 3,000 gallons of milk a day — only one-tenth of the consumption of combines in other parts of the country.

Woman's job

Cheesemaking has always been a woman's job by tradition, and it still is. It is ideally suited to the village wives who can make cheese at the factory in the morning and spend the rest of the day doing housework. In the tiny Leicestershire villages where it is still produced, they are fiercely proud of their Stilton. " We are a select breed," said 42-year-old Mr. Robert Watson, zone controller of three cheese-making units. Despite his modern title, Mr. Watson's love of the Stilton must equal that of his ancestors, who at one time lived on the next farm to descendants of the revered Mrs. Orton. Mr. Watson himself was born in a house on the premises of which he is manager—the Wilts. United Dairies' factory at Harby, Leicestershire.

Mrs. Orton would have a shock if she saw how Stilton is made today. But she would probably survive it when she saw the craftsmanship that still goes into the work.

Scientific

Hard work it certainly was in the old days. "It also required a lot of conscientiousness and a good deal of skill," says Mr. Watson. " Nowadays, it is more scientific, and I hope it will continue along those lines." In Leicestershire they cosset the cheeses as they would a weaning child — that is 'something no amount of modern technique can change.

A Stilton is prepared in about 12 weeks. It begins life as milk in 400-gallon vats. A " starter " is added, and the milk begins to sour. After this is completed, the whey is drained off and put into moulds, where gravity draining continues. The rest is a story of storage in the right temperature, and of carefully turning the cheese. Every cheese is tested before leaving the factory.

The surrounding pastureland is believed to have given Stilton its distinctive flavour. Even today, although the quality of milk throughout the country is much more even, the better flavoured cheeses are produced from local milk. If a Stilton is stored correctly, it will keep a long time. But it will not stand up to maltreatment.

Mr. Watson has had a standing order for several years to send 50 cheeses a month to Ghana. If you wish to be impertinent, ask a Stilton cheesemaker if port should be added. Mr. Watson's retort: " As port spoils a good Stilton, presumably Stilton spoils a good port."

PICTURES

The Illustrations to this article are to be seen in Harby in Old photographs 1386, and 1387.