Shropshire Blue is a cow's milk cheese made in the United Kingdom.
Shropshire Blue is a cow's milk cheese made in the United Kingdom.
The cheese was first made in the 1970s at the Castle Stuart dairy in Inverness, Scotland by Andy Williamson, a cheesemaker who had trained in the making of Stilton cheese in Nottinghamshire. The cheese was first known as 'Inverness-shire Blue' or 'Blue Stuart', but was eventually marketed as 'Shropshire Blue', a name chosen to help increase its popularity, despite it having no link to the county of Shropshire. [1]
An alternative claim to the first production of the cheese, from the Shropshire-based company Westry Roberts, suggests that the cheese originated in the county that it bears the name of in the 1970s; [2] an archived article from 1977 would appear to back up this claim. [3]
A variant, called Ludlow Blue, is now also being made in the county of Shropshire in a small artisan dairy. Ludlow Blue uses carotene as a colouring agent rather than annatto, which makes the colour more yellow. [4]
Shropshire Blue is a blue cheese made from pasteurised cows' milk and uses vegetable rennet. The orange colour comes from the addition of annatto, a natural food colouring. Penicillium roqueforti produces the veining.
The cheese has a deep orange-brown, natural rind and matures for a period of 10–12 weeks with a fat content of about 48 per cent. Made in a similar way to Stilton, it is a soft cheese with a sharp, strong flavour and a slightly tangy aroma. It is slightly sour but sharper than Stilton and generally creamier.
Cheddar cheese is a natural cheese that is relatively hard, off-white, and sometimes sharp-tasting. It originates from the English village of Cheddar in Somerset.
Monterey Jack, sometimes shortened to Jack, is a Californian white, semi-hard cheese made using cow's milk, with a mild flavor and slight sweetness. It has been called "an American original" and "as a vestige of Spanish rule in the early nineteenth century, derives from a Franciscan monastic style of farmer's cheese."
Stilton is an English cheese, produced in two varieties: Blue, which has Penicillium roqueforti added to generate a characteristic smell and taste, and White, which does not. Both have been granted the status of a protected designation of origin (PDO) by the European Commission, requiring that only such cheese produced in the three counties of Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire may be called Stilton. The cheese takes its name from the village of Stilton, now in Cambridgeshire, where it has long been sold, but cannot be made because it is not in one of the three permitted counties.
Cheshire cheese is a dense and crumbly cheese produced in the English county of Cheshire, and four neighbouring counties, Denbighshire and Flintshire in Wales, and Shropshire and Staffordshire in England.
Annatto is an orange-red condiment and food coloring derived from the seeds of the achiote tree, native to tropical parts of the Americas. It is often used to impart a yellow or orange color to foods, but sometimes also for its flavor and aroma. Its scent is described as "slightly peppery with a hint of nutmeg" and flavor as "slightly nutty, sweet and peppery".
Red Leicester is an English cheese similar to Cheddar cheese, but crumbly in texture. It is typically aged 6 to 12 months. The rind is reddish-orange with a powdery mould on it. Since the 18th century, it has been coloured orange by the addition of annatto extract during manufacture. It is a cow's milk cheese, and is named after the city of Leicester, or the ceremonial county it is located in, Leicestershire.
Cheesemaking is the craft of making cheese. The production of cheese, like many other food preservation processes, allows the nutritional and economic value of a food material, in this case milk, to be preserved in concentrated form. Cheesemaking allows the production of the cheese with diverse flavors and consistencies.
Blue cheese is any of a wide range of cheeses made with the addition of cultures of edible molds, which create blue-green spots or veins through the cheese. Blue cheeses vary in taste from very mild to strong, and from slightly sweet to salty or sharp; in colour from pale to dark; and in consistency from liquid or very soft to firm or hard. They may have a distinctive smell, either from the mold or from various specially cultivated bacteria such as Brevibacterium linens.
Gloucester is a traditional, semi-hard cheese which has been made in Gloucestershire, England, since the 16th century. There are two varieties of the cheese, Single and Double; both are traditionally made from milk from Gloucester cattle. Both types have a natural rind and a hard texture, but Single Gloucester is more crumbly, lighter in texture and lower in fat. Double Gloucester is allowed to age for longer periods than Single, and it has a stronger and more savoury flavour. It is also slightly firmer. The flower known as lady's bedstraw was responsible for the distinctively yellow colour of Double Gloucester cheese.
Buxton Blue is an English blue cheese that is a close relative of Blue Stilton, is made from cow's milk, and is lightly veined with a deep russet colouring. It is usually made in a cylindrical shape.
Muenster or munster is a semi-soft cheese from the United States. It is thought to be an imitation of the Alsatian washed-rind Munster cheese, introduced by German immigrants. It is distinct from the processed dairy food Sweet Muenster Cheese. Its name is not related to the German cities of Münster in Westphalia or in Lower Saxony or the Irish province of Munster, but rather to the city of Munster in Alsace.
Cheese is a dairy product produced in a range of flavors, textures, and forms by coagulation of the milk protein casein. It comprises proteins and fat from milk. During production, milk is usually acidified and either the enzymes of rennet or bacterial enzymes with similar activity are added to cause the casein to coagulate. The solid curds are then separated from the liquid whey and pressed into finished cheese. Some cheeses have aromatic molds on the rind, the outer layer, or throughout.
Norbury Blue is an English blue cheese made in Surrey. It is entirely handmade and the only blue cheese made in the South of England with milk from a closed herd of Friesian cows, fed on GM-free fodder. The cheese was made at the Dairy at Norbury Park Farm until 2018, when production moved to Sherbourne Farm at Albury.
Little Derby is a Derby-style cheese made outside Derbyshire, similar in flavour and texture to Cheddar, but without the annatto colouring used in Derby cheese.
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.
Milk Link was a large dairy company in the United Kingdom. It was the UK's largest dairy cooperative and the UK's largest producer of cheese. In 2012 the company merged with Arla Foods.
Oxford Blue is a variety and brand of blue cheese produced in Burford, Oxfordshire, England in 1995 by French baron Robert Pouget in the tradition of Stilton cheese but with a creamier consistency especially when the cheese was allowed to mature. It is a soft and creamy cheese that has tangy, aromatic and spicy qualities. By 2013, around five tonnes were produced monthly.
