Author Topic: Taste of Stilton question  (Read 16748 times)

Offline Aris

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Taste of Stilton question
« on: September 28, 2009, 11:05:36 AM »
What does REAL Stilton taste like? I think the Stilton i bought is rotten and over ripened. The one i bought taste like soap and it has the texture of soap or candle. The texture is very crumbly and very dry. It also taste like a very pungent human urine, very overpowering. The blue flavor is quite evident though but the urine taste overpowers it. It was very unpleasant to eat. What really bothers me is it cost 5 dollars per 100 grams.

Sailor Con Queso

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Re: Taste of Stilton question
« Reply #1 on: September 28, 2009, 02:13:33 PM »
Sounds like a bad cheese - nothing like real Stilton. Return it and get your money back.

zenith1

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Re: Taste of Stilton question
« Reply #2 on: September 28, 2009, 08:07:34 PM »
well I worked in a medical lab for a lot of years and I know back in the day they would taste urine to test for sugar. But I can honestly say I do not know what urine tastes like.( thank God for modern chemistry) ;D  But if it has an ammonia like smell I would say that it was not good.

asturiandream

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Re: Taste of Stilton question
« Reply #3 on: September 28, 2009, 11:51:00 PM »
Real Stilton was made from raw milk and our specialist cheese supplier shop sold the last surviving traditional stilton using raw milk.
Ill informed paranoia about listeria was all the rage in the 80's due to a listeria problem in French artisan cheeses.
Sweeping regulations were drafted and there were many casualties one of which was an old man who produced the last stilton of it's kind.
He was given the option of using pateurised milk but he refused and closed down his dairy rather than change the ancient family recipe.
This stilton was vastly superior to any other stilton being produced in the small area of stilton.
The cost to the customer was double that of the competition but he still could not keep up with orders.
Why double ?
The answer lay in the intense straw colour with subtle flavours of the creamiest but solid of flavours only this cheese could give the smell of green pastures without any hint of of blue overkilling the flavours.
Wax lyrical I may, but it was a sad day for small commercial producers who once again are victims of an over regulated short sited approach by governments who do not fully understand how important our traditional ancient recipes are.
I for one believe I do not need a nanny state to make my own well informed decisions for me.
I am aware of the sweeping regulations the USA has imposed on it's own traditional cheesemakers.
Keep the old recipes alive and make your own informed decision as to the safety of anything you ingest.
This was not meant to be a political point but Europe is getting very fed up with over regulation and has already lost countless varieties it's now up to the small producer to prove safe production is possible for 99.9 % of cheese.

Sailor Con Queso

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Re: Taste of Stilton question
« Reply #4 on: September 29, 2009, 12:22:31 AM »
Great points Bryan. Couldn't agree more. We are all fighting archaic, uninformed raw milk regulations. So no Stiltons are being made with raw milk anymore? Sad.  :'(

What part of Spain are you in?

Some of us are looking for a recipe for Queso Castellano and also Zamorano. Any insight would be appreciated.

Offline Aris

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Re: Taste of Stilton question
« Reply #5 on: September 29, 2009, 04:08:38 AM »
well I worked in a medical lab for a lot of years and I know back in the day they would taste urine to test for sugar. But I can honestly say I do not know what urine tastes like.( thank God for modern chemistry) ;D  But if it has an ammonia like smell I would say that it was not good.
I dont know the smell of ammonia. Can you please explain to me what it smells like? Does it smell like urine? The cheese that i bought doesn't litterally taste like human urine but when you eat a piece of it, you start to smell a very intense smell of human urine. Very similar to the smell of fertilizer powder.

masopa

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Re: Taste of Stilton question
« Reply #6 on: September 29, 2009, 12:07:03 PM »
Real Stilton was made from raw milk and our specialist cheese supplier shop sold the last surviving traditional stilton using raw milk.
Ill informed paranoia about listeria was all the rage in the 80's due to a listeria problem in French artisan cheeses.
Sweeping regulations were drafted and there were many casualties one of which was an old man who produced the last stilton of it's kind.
He was given the option of using pateurised milk but he refused and closed down his dairy rather than change the ancient family recipe.
This stilton was vastly superior to any other stilton being produced in the small area of stilton.
The cost to the customer was double that of the competition but he still could not keep up with orders.
Why double ?
The answer lay in the intense straw colour with subtle flavours of the creamiest but solid of flavours only this cheese could give the smell of green pastures without any hint of of blue overkilling the flavours.
Wax lyrical I may, but it was a sad day for small commercial producers who once again are victims of an over regulated short sited approach by governments who do not fully understand how important our traditional ancient recipes are.
I for one believe I do not need a nanny state to make my own well informed decisions for me.
I am aware of the sweeping regulations the USA has imposed on it's own traditional cheesemakers.
Keep the old recipes alive and make your own informed decision as to the safety of anything you ingest.
This was not meant to be a political point but Europe is getting very fed up with over regulation and has already lost countless varieties it's now up to the small producer to prove safe production is possible for 99.9 % of cheese.

Interesting post - I agree completely with your point on over-regulation.  I'm not sure the six Stilton dairies would agree with you, but that is their perogative!  Equally, I think you might find some small producers making excellent cheese throughout England who aren't allowed to call their cheese Stilton but is, perhaps, closer to what you're describing.  Sadly, of course, none of these cheeses are Stilton any more - just Stilton-like blue cheeses.

asturiandream

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Re: Taste of Stilton question
« Reply #7 on: September 29, 2009, 03:04:35 PM »
Information on Spanish Queso Zamorano the link is to numerous small producers most have a website all in Spanish but easily negotiable

http://nutricion-alimentacion.paginas-amarillas.es/Quesos_en_Zamora-loc1279x49.htm

No recipes as yet, the locals not too keen on sharing their trade/family.
secrets.
At the moment we are living on the Costa Tropical or Costa Granada as it is also known as.
The village we live in is called La Herradura (The Horseshoe) named after the shape of our bay. It is very Spanish and very beautiful as we are protected by numerous mountain ranges.
We ski in the Sierra Nevada mountains and within the hour we can be on the beach.
We are in the process of selling our land and property here and moving north to Asturias hence the name asturiandream.

Another link below for difficult to find cheesemakers, they make for good browsing.

http://www.flesko.es/directorio/varios/gastronomia/quesos-queserias.php

Tea

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Re: Taste of Stilton question
« Reply #8 on: September 29, 2009, 08:21:09 PM »
Aris fertilizer powder it is.  Cleaning fluid also.  When I make milk soaps the ammonia smell is over powering for the first week or so, then is disipates.  I find when I also make brie/cam the same smell is there while it is ripening.  If properly made this smell/taste will disapear eventually.
HTH

Offline Aris

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Re: Taste of Stilton question
« Reply #9 on: September 30, 2009, 06:32:31 AM »
Yesterday i tried to return some of the cheese and tried to get a refund. But they didnt want to because the sales person said their cheese is in good condition and she argues it tastes like that because of the mold. She let me try a piece of their Stilton wheel which was newly opened and hasnt been used and it taste just like the one that i bought being displayed on their Cheese case. She said the newly opened Stilton wheel will expire on October, is it possible its becoming rotten because its nearing its expiration date and the one that i bought on the cheese case is already rotten?

I dont remember tasting ammonia on the store bought blue cheese that i buy at the supermarket. I also tried their Gorgonzola and Blue cheese, none have ammonia taste and they were moist while their Stilton is very dry. I guess i just have to get used to the ammonia taste because i dont want throw it away because it was very expensive. I've already eaten half of the cheese and i dont feel sick at all after 2 days. Maybe their Stilton is just different and ammonia is one of the flavors of the cheese.

masopa

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Re: Taste of Stilton question
« Reply #10 on: September 30, 2009, 09:38:28 AM »
The ammonia taste is a strange one - I wouldn't be overly surprised at an ammonia smell with camembert for example, but not Stilton.  I must confess to not knowing what ammonia tastes like though - I've never had the... erm... stomach to taste it!