Well, technically not Stilton country as I grew up in Lincolnshire which, although in the East Midlands, is not one of the three counties permitted to make Stilton.
I am already underway with my first cheese which is, unsurprisingly, a blue stilton. I will post some pics in the relevant forum area in due course.
As for now, I've been living in the West of Scotland for over 6 years but there are still some great cheeses around these parts as well as certain other attractions (whisky!)
welcome to the forum masopa! You certainly are jumping right in by starting with a Stilton. Most start with something a little less daunting like the soft cheeses. How about a Caboc . I tasted it once and found it really nice. I think it has oats in it if I recall correctly. Anyway welcome once again.
Welcome.
Hello and welcome to the forum, quite a few people here have made Stilton! In the blue board there's quite a bit of info, have fun!
Welcome masopa! I have been searching for information on Scottish farmhouse cheeses with little info available. You may be the ticket.
Stilton is not considered a beginner's cheese, but I find it easier than a lot of others. It also doesn't usually require very much equipment. I do a pressed Stilton that makes a fabulous grating cheese.
Thanks for the welcome, folks.
I've been doing a bit of digging for a while (during which time I was waiting for my rennet to be delivered!) and jumped to the, perhaps foolish, conclusion that Stilton might be a middle-of-the-road cheese in terms of difficulty. Therefore, I thought I'd learn more from trying to make that than I might with a neufchatel or similar, but stood a higher chance of having something that might turn out non-poisonous and possibly even edible than a camembert or parmesan etc.
Certainly the cheese looked pretty good after I'd taken it out of the mould after a week, although only limited blueing. It then fell over (my fault!) so I had to remould, although think I managed to do this with only slight disruption to the existing structure as it fell into two fairly neat pieces. I suspect I might get a lot of blueing across what was the fault line...
I will wait a few more days and perhaps post a picture or two in the blue forum.
Regarding Scottish cheeses, I find the biggest problem is locating them - even for me living here. There is an excellent cheesemonger in Edinburgh (the other side of the country), Iain Mellis, so under the premise of research I shall have to increase the frequency of my visits and report back on any particularly interesting cheeses!
Cheers
Paul