Stilton is in our veins – no-one else can make it

MP REJECTS PLEA BY VILLAGE TO BE ALLOWED TO MAKE THE BLUE CHEESE

has a home and is going nowhere, Rutland and Melton’s MP has told campaigners in Cambridgeshire.

Alicia Kearns spoke out after North West Cambridgeshire MP Shailesh Vara called for stilton to be allowed to be made in the village of that name, in his constituency.

By law, stilton can only be made in Leicestershire, Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire.

Ms Kearns said: “I understand the passion of the residents of Stilton, and I respect Shailesh Vara MP for championing his constituents, but there is no evidence they have historically made what we call stilton cheese.

“I would encourage the village of Stilton to follow the only recipes for cheese that can be traced back to their village – a hard, yellow cheese – and create their own cheese, with its own name.”

Six dairies in the world are licensed under Protected Designation of Origin rules to make the cheese: Long Clawson Dairy, Colston Bassett, Cropwell Bishop Creamery, Hartington Creamery, Tuxford & Tebbutt Creamery and Webster’s Dairy.

It is believed to have been first made in Little Dalby, near Melton.

Ms Kearns said cheese was almost certainly made in the village of Stilton in the early 1700s, but it in no way resembled what we call stilton.

In the 1720s, Professor Richard Bradley, from Cambridge University, published a recipe for stilton cheese he had been sent.

It involves the boiling of the cheese in whey and pressing – which

a hard, sterilised cheese. Daniel Defoe, visiting the village in 1724, also described a hard cheese and the Rev John Lawrence, writing in 1726, mentions a yellowish cheese, “nothing mouldy.”

Ms Kearns said: “This is most certainly not stilton, which is a creamy cheese with lots of cracks so that its blue veins can develop.

“Indeed, in its legal definition, stilSTILTON ton cheese is ‘manufactured with no applied pressure.’”

A trademark was granted in 1996 to the Stilton Cheese Makers’ Association, limiting production to the three counties of Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire.

“It is the High Court, not the EU, which stipulates where stilton can be made,” Ms Kearns said.

“The EU also launched a Progives tected Food Name scheme (PFN) and asked the UK to contribute names to the scheme.

“Stilton was added despite already having a trademark. The EU scheme does not replace a trademark.”

During the Brexit transition period, all EU rules, including those on geographical protection, will continue to apply. These rules will then be transferred into British law.