Stilton Cheese

Stilton has held protected designation status since 1996, and the rules require pasteurised local milk, a cylindrical shape, no pressing, a natural crust and blue veining from Penicillium roqueforti, made only in Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire. The village of Stilton is in Cambridgeshire and therefore cannot legally make it, which is a genuine oddity: the village sold the cheese from its coaching inns on the Great North Road in the eighteenth century, and the name attached to the point of sale rather than the point of production. The cheese made there historically was probably a different, unpasteurised cheese; a version called Stichelton is now made to that older recipe and cannot use the Stilton name because it is raw milk. Six dairies hold licences.

What you actually see

• The six licensed dairies - the only producers legally allowed the name.
• The excluded village - Stilton itself banned from making it by the designation.
• The natural crust - unpressed cylinders left to form their own rind.
• Stichelton - the raw-milk version that cannot use the protected name.

When to go

Year-round; production peaks toward Christmas, when the great majority of the year's cheese is sold. Some dairies run visitor centres and tours, mostly on weekdays.

Honest expectations

It is strong and salty and not to everyone's taste. Port pairing is convention rather than rule. The old practice of scooping from the middle wastes the cheese and is discouraged by makers, who advise slicing across the wedge instead.

Nearby

Melton Mowbray and its pork pies are at the centre of the area; the Vale of Belvoir lies north.