{{Short description|Variety of Stilton cheese using unpasteurised milk}} {{Use dmy dates|date=March 2025}} {{Use British English|date=October 2013}}
thumb|Stichelton at the Borough Market '''Stichelton''' is an English blue cheese. It is similar to Blue Stilton cheese, except that it does not use pasteurised milk or factory-produced rennet. The name comes from a form of the name of Stilton village in the 1086 ''Domesday Book'' (''Stichiltone/Sticiltone''), as the name Stilton cannot legally be used for the cheese.<ref name="taste">Richard Nalley [https://www.forbes.com/forbes-life-magazine/2008/1027/033.html "The Eye,"] Stichelton Cheese, October 2008, Forbes Life</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Palmer |first=Ned |title=A cheesemonger's history of the British Isles |date=2019 |publisher=Profile Books |isbn=978-1-78816-118-3 |location=London}}</ref>
Randolph Hodgson of Neal's Yard Dairy and American Joe Schneider produce Stichelton in small batches in a dairy at Cuckney on the northern edge of Sherwood Forest, Nottinghamshire. They use raw milk, rennet from calves' stomachs and hand-ladling and smoothing.<ref name="taste"/>
It was named one of the five best cheeses in the world by French chef Anne-Sophie Pic. <ref>{{Cite web |title=Anne-Sophie Pic : son classement des 5 meilleurs fromages du monde |url=https://www.lepoint.fr/gastronomie/anne-sophie-pic-son-classement-des-5-meilleurs-fromages-du-monde-21-02-2023-2509419_82.php |access-date=2025-12-28 |website=Le Point.fr |language=fr}}</ref> In 2022, Dan Saladino featured it as one of three cheeses, along with Salers (France) and Mishavinë (Albania), in a book entitled, ''Eating to Extinction: The World's Rarest Foods and Why We Need to Save Them''.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Saladino |first=Dan |title=Eating to extinction: the world's rarest foods and why we need to save them |publisher=Farrar, Straus and Giroux |isbn=9780374605322 |location=New York |publication-date=2022}}</ref>
== History == Although most Stilton cheeses have been made with pasteurised milk for many years, until 1989 the Colston Bassett dairy did make one Stilton with unpasteurised milk. However, following an outbreak of food poisoning incorrectly linked to the dairy<ref>{{cite journal|last=Maguire|first=H. C. F. |author2=M. Boyle |author3=M. J. Lewis |author4=J. Pankhurst |author5=A. A. Wieneke |author6=M. Jacob |author7=J. Bruce |author8=M. O'Mahony|title=A large outbreak of food poisoning of unknown aetiology associated with Stilton cheese|journal=Epidemiology and Infection|year=1991|volume=106|issue=3|pages=497–505|doi=10.1017/S0950268800067558|pmc=2271875 |pmid=2050204}}</ref> and subsequently revealed to be unfounded,<ref>{{Cite news |title=Rhapsody in blue |last=Levy |first=Paul |newspaper=The Guardian |date=18 December 2007 |url= https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2007/dec/18/rhapsodyinblue}}</ref> they decided to end production of the unpasteurised cheese. In 1996, this decision was permanently enshrined when Stilton was awarded Protected Designation of Origin status by the EU, with one of the criteria being the use of pasteurised cows milk.<ref>{{cite web|title=White Stilton cheese; Blue Stilton cheese PDO|url=http://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/quality/door/registeredName.html?denominationId=787|work=Agriculture and Rural Development|publisher=European Commission|accessdate=26 January 2013}}</ref> alt=stichelton cheese close-up image showing blue grain|thumb|Close-up of Stichelton cheese Stichelton is produced by a partnership including Randolph Hodgson who owns the specialist cheese retailer Neal's Yard Dairy,<ref>{{cite web|title=Neal's Yard Dairy; Background and Products|date=26 January 2018 |url=https://britainreviews.co.uk/food-drinks/neal-s-yard-dairy-reviews-experiences-opinions-complaints}}</ref> and Joe Schneider, an American who had been a cheesemaker in the Netherlands and the UK. In late 2004 Schneider and Hodgson discussed the possibility of recreating an unpasteurised Stilton-style cheese. They eventually found premises in which to start their dairy, on the Welbeck Abbey Estate near Worksop in Nottinghamshire.
As the name Stilton could not be used, the new cheese was named Stichelton, which its makers say was based on the original name of the village of Stilton (the spelling ''Stichelton'' appears in the 13th-century Lincoln Rolls). The first Stichelton cheese was produced in October 2006.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.jancisrobinson.com/articles/20071130_1.html|title=Stilton or Stichelton? – Articles – JancisRobinson.com|website=jancisrobinson.com|access-date=15 August 2012|archive-date=31 July 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090731231815/http://www.jancisrobinson.com/articles/20071130_1.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>
== Manufacture ==
Stichelton is made in a dairy, from the unpasteurised milk of Friesian-Holstein cows at Collinthwaite Farm, on the Welbeck Estate in Nottinghamshire. ''ForbesLife'' magazine described it as a "sumptuous cheese that sets a full-flavored, succulent, complex chain of sensations going in your mouth: fruity and salty, buttery, and earthy, sharp and creamy. Robin Hood never had it so good."<ref name="taste"/>
The starter culture for the cheese is known as MT36, the original culture used in the pre-1989 unpasteurised Stiltons, and is different from the culture that is used in modern pasteurised ones.<ref name="culture">{{cite journal|last=Khosrova|first=Elaine|title=Success by Degrees|journal=Culture Magazine|year=2009|volume=2|issue=1|pages=58–61|url=http://www.stichelton.co.uk/presspdf/Culture_Winter09.pdf|accessdate=26 January 2013}}</ref> A sample of MT36 was obtained from the original producer by Hodgson's colleague, and subsequently kept alive for fifteen years until the start of Stichelton production.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Cheesemonger: Stichelton |last=Singley |first=Nora |work=Kitchn |date=12 July 2019 |url= https://www.thekitchn.com/the-cheesemonger-stichelton-46208}}</ref>
==See also== * List of British cheeses {{portal bar|Food|United Kingdom}}
== References == {{Reflist}} *{{cite news | last = Prince | first = Rose | title = War of the Cheeses | publisher = Telegraph Magazine | date = 2007-12-01 | url = http://www.stichelton.co.uk/presspdf/TelegraphMag011207WarOfTheCheeses.pdf | accessdate = 2008-09-28 }} *{{cite web | title = Stichelton Dairy | url=http://www.stichelton.co.uk/index.html | accessdate = 2008-09-28 }}
==External links== *[http://www.stichelton.co.uk Company website]
{{Cheeses of the United Kingdom}} {{Blue cheeses}}
Category:English cheeses Category:Blue cheeses