Stilton Taste Test

It is tradition in the UK to have a wheel of Stilton, the king of cheese, to tuck into with your Stilton scoop. In 1730, Mr. Cooper Thornhill, owner of the Bell Inn on the Great North Road in the town of Stilton, discovered the distinctive blue cheese while visiting a small farm in Leicestershire, which is northwest England. He liked the cheese so much, he began selling it out of his inn, gaining exclusive rights.  It was soon being delivered throughout London and north of England; all the stagecoach routes having to go through Stilton, Mr. Thornhill was able to promote and sell his cheese, making it famous.

Now, only three countries can make a cheese that is properly labeled a Stilton, a situation similar to Champagne or Bourbon: it can only be made in the registered areas.  But Stilton, though creamy and delicious, is also quite pricey.  And there are other blue cheeses out there, and just like you have Prosecco or Tennessee Whiskey, you can have other creamy blue cheese than Stilton.

So, Will bought us a "Stilton Education."  Purchasing seven cheeses (technically, 6 since one was bought twice, but at the time, we didn't realize it), we laid out all of the cheeses in a row.  We tried to organize the cheese according to price per pound (knowing that proper Stilton is about $30/lb.)

We bought:

• Neals Yard Closten Basset Stilton ($29.99/lb)
• Neals Yard Borough Street Stilton ($17.99/lb)
• Lor des Domes Fourme D'Ambert ($14.99/lb)--this is the one we purchased two samples
• Roth Kase Buttermilk Blue ($11.99/lb)
• Roth Kase Moody Blue Smoked Blue ($12.99/lb)
• Salemville Amish Blue Cheese ($6.99/lb)

I was able to pick out one of the two Stiltons we bought, and was able to get most of the cheeses in the right price order.  Next step, was the taste test.  We opened all the cheeses and each tasted them.  We picked our favorites.  Amazingly it was not the Neals Yard Closten Basset Stilton-- and at $30 a pound, that was a relief.  Will and I both liked the Neals Yard Borough Street Stilton and the Lor des Domes Fourme D'Ambert-- a French blue cheese!

Then came the blind taste test.  On a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being the best, we had to blindly sample a bit of cheese and give it a rating.

The result is that we still preferred the Borough Street Stilton as still the best, but that the French do know what they are doing when it comes to blue cheese as well.  Not to mention that the Lor des Domes Fourme D'Ambert is slightly cheaper-- very important when considering buying a wheel of cheese (which is could range form 2.5 lbs to 6 lbs, depending on how many people we wanna fed at Christmas).  So, the education was completed and the test results as follows: Stilton is still King, but the French cheese is Queen, and the one we will get a wheel of for Christmas.