Stichelton: Raw-Milk Stilton
The story of Stichelton is the story of a couple of brave entrepreneurs trying to reclaim a tradition of English cheesemaking that went the way of so many other traditional foodways. In 1989, England suffered an outbreak of gastrointestinal illnesses that was blamed on raw-milk Stilton, a cow's milk blue cheese made in the counties of Derbyshire, Leicestershire, and Nottinghamshire. Subsequently, Stilton cheesemakers decided to switch to using pasteurized milk, and in 1996 the European Commission granted the cheese the status of “protected designation of origin” (PDO). From that moment, if a cheesemaker wanted to create a raw-milk Stilton, he would be legally obliged not to use that name.
