Stilton vs Stichelton

by Austin Coe Butler

“Stilton is a quintessentially British cheese,” wrote Ned Palmer, which makes it all the more hilarious that an arguably more traditional form of Stilton known as Stichelton is made by an American, Joe Schneider. Why is this? Schneider legally cannot call his Stichelton Stilton because it is made with raw milk.

In 1996 the Stilton Cheese Makers Association registered a protected designation of origin (PDO) for Stilton and in the process specified that it must be made with pasteurized milk. This took place in the context of a number of food scares involving listeria monocytogenes and Mad Cow Disease that shook the British public. Overnight, Stilton makers who still made Stilton with raw milk had to either install a pasteurizer or get out of the game. (A curious aside: this new PDO designated that Stilton could only be produced in the counties of Derbyshire, Leicestershire, and Nottinghamshire, which means that Stilton can no longer be made in Stilton!) Since Schneider legally could not call his cheese Stilton, he settled on the old Anglo-Saxon name for the town—Stichelton. Schneider, I believe, would like to be welcomed back into the fold. When he’s not at the dairy, he can be found protesting in front of Parliament with a placard proclaiming, “I Can’t Believe It’s Not STILTON.”

What’s the difference between Stilton and Stichelton? We sell Colston-Bassett Dairy’s Stilton, which is the premier Stilton. It is made delicately by hand and matured several extra months before being pierced to allow the blue mold to bloom resulting in a well-balanced paste. (If you’ve ever had metallic, tinny, and bitter blue cheese, it’s because there’s too much blue mold in it.) Colston Bassett Dairy’s Stilton has brilliant indigo marbling and an ivory paste with notes of sweet cream, a tingle of spice, and sometimes a bubblegum or cotton candy sweetness hiding in there. Stichelton by its nature is wilder, almost feral at times. It’s bright buttermilk tang is accompanied with savory notes of malt, brewer’s yeast, baffling complex. Each wheel has some new flavor squirreled away in it. But for all its volatile and surprising flavors, it has the characteristic crumble and luxurious creaminess of Stilton.

Talking and writing about food can be exhausting, though, and there’s no better way to understand the difference that to taste it. Taste the difference side-by-side. On this dreary, drizzly weekend, go full English and have a few pints of Samuel Smith’s Nut Brown Ale alongside these two fine English blues.

The Pairing: Wrangeback + The Chook

by Sophia Stern

We only have one Swedish cheese in our case, which makes it pretty easy when customers say “I had this one cheese… it was so good…it’s from Sweden”. Bingo, it’s Wrångebäck. This Alpine-esque cheese is a fan-favorite. It features an addictively creamy texture and a buttery, umami flavor similar to Gruyère and Comté. Wrångebäck is balanced with a bright, acidic quality, making for a smooth finish. A sparkling red is the perfect pairing to handle this this beefy, creamy, bold Swedish cheese. We’ve chosen The Chook Sparkling Shiraz from Australia as a semi-sweet and spicy balance to this rich, savory cheese. 

Wrångebäck isn’t just delicious, it’s Sweden’s oldest and most historic cheese. Officially, Wrångebäck dates to 1830, but some version likely goes back to 1225, when the farm it’s made on now was established by monks. Known today as Almnäs Bruk, the farm is located on the western coast of Lake Vättern, the second largest lake in Sweden. Production of Wrangeback thrived from the 1800’s to the mid 20th century. However, World War II halted the making of artisan cheese in Europe. A move towards industrialization reallocated the milk from Almnäs Bruk for commercial use. It wasn’t until 2008, when the fourth generation family owner decided to restart making Wrångebäck. With the help of 82-year old cheesemaker, Hans Stiller, the original recipe and methods of Wrångebäck were reinstated to Almnäs Bruk. 

Today, Almnäs Bruk is a thriving farm and historic estate with extraordinary respect towards the land. The diverse landscapes are maintained with attention to the species that call the farm home. Grasses are allowed to grow tall so the birds can nest and thrive. The cows eat feed made from the land they live and graze on. The cattle breeds are varied and unique, some rare and saved from extinction by the Almnäs Bruk team. They enjoy changing landscapes, from open pastures to ancient forests. The cheesemakers preserve their hard-won terroir by thermalizing the milk, instead of pasteurizing, saving the microorganisms that make Wrångebäck so unique and delicious. 

Enter The Chook, a sparkling Shiraz from south Australia. This New World wine is full-bodied, showing off the ripeness and intensity for which Australia's Shiraz’s are known. Notes of dark berries, tobacco, and cola bounce around this bottle. It’s standard to pair alpine-style cheeses with reds, but since Wrångebäck is so rich, so dense, so creamy, The Chook's bubbles offer a relief. The sweetness in the wine eases the beefier, savory qualities of cheese, making Wrångebäck extra addictive. This pairing screams to be featured around a BBQ. The wine is fun and cola-like, while the cheese is perfect alongside some grilled meats or ideal melted on a burger.

Meet Your Monger: Carol Ann

How long have you worked for F44, and how has your role changed over the years? 

Ten years this May! I worked behind the counter at both the St Paul & Minneapolis shops, ran the St Paul Cheese Shop from 2013-2019 and now I am in charge of catering and gifts. Oh, I also met my now husband at France 44.

What does your life look like when you’re not crushing it at F44?

I spend a lot of time in the pool, and soon the lake. Open water swimming is my favorite. 

Name the best meal you’ve had recently (besides one you’ve made yourself…) 

PS Steak. Besides the food being amazing, the atmosphere and service were fantastic. It was one of the best dining experiences I've had, up there with Corner Table and the Bachelor Farmer (pour two out). 

Give us a brief glimpse into the life of a Catering & Gifts Director…

I return inquiries for gift boxes & catering, process any orders that have come in online, set up deliveries, communicate with the kitchen staff, and work the cheese counter on busier days. St Paul Cheese Shop is known for some pretty crushing lunch time business, so I like to relive my glory days of slinging sandwiches and selling cheese. 

How do you take your coffee? 😎

First coffee of the day black. If I need something sweet, latte with coconut milk and hazelnut syrup.

Meet Your Monger: Maura

Describe your current position and your day to day role at f44? 

My current title is Operations Manager, but all that really means is that I’m usually the most organized person in the room. I was the Cheese Buyer for three years, but now I work with our team of four monger-buyers to try and make sure the cheese case stays full, but not too full. On any given day I’ll be making signage, entering invoices, visiting our St. Paul shops, and generally moving cheese from one location to another! 

What cheese do you have in your fridge right now? 

Not to be a cheesemonger cliché, but a better question would be what cheese don’t I have in my fridge right now. Cheesemongers (we’re just like you!) are definitely guilty of letting stray bits languish in the crisper drawer for too long, at least I am. Drunk Monk is my ride or die snacking cheese. I always have a good supply of Cravero Parmigiano Reggiano for fresh grating. I’ve been really enjoying Veronica Pedraza’s goat cheeses from Blakesville Creamery lately. And I’d be remiss without a good chunk of Pleasant Ridge Reserve in my fridge; it’s perfect for any occasion, and I find it holds up to refrigeration remarkably well. 

What’s your favorite season of Top Chef? 

I tend to remember the people rather than the locations. I’m a sucker for the Voltaggio brothers. Brooke Williamson is a marvel. The All Stars seasons always make for good television. I miss the days of Hugh Acheson though; his zingers live rent free in my head now. 

What’s your current favorite retail item in the shop? 

Easily the Amour de Cerise. They’re these French cherry gummies coated in hazelnut praline and chocolate. I don’t even especially like cherries or chocolate, but I would eat these candies until I became ill for sure. The Inna Fresno Chili Jam is a staff-wide favorite for good reason. Despite the moniker, it’s not spicy at all, by any standard. As a native Minnesotan I genetically resist anything pepper-based, but once I tried it with soft cheese it became an absolute obsession. It has all the fruity notes of chilis without any of the heat, and it’s just the right amount of sweetness to balance out virtually any cheese.

Cheese Profile: Lincolnshire Poacher

by Austin Coe Butler

Lincolnshire Poacher represents everything I love most about the contemporary cheese world. Grounded in tradition, but with an exciting, contemporary twist, Poacher blends two discrete and storied styles–Alpine, like Comté and Gruyère, and West Country Cheddar–into a surprising original. The name Lincolnshire Poacher refers to an English folk song called “The Lincolnshire Poacher,” which sings of the joys of poaching and cheekily evading the magistrates, gamekeepers, and wardens of the world. It is the unofficial anthem of Lincolnshire County, and there’s something renegade and revelrous in this cheese as well. It’s a cheddar but shirks the regulatory trappings of a West Country Cheddar to take its place as a contradictory “new traditional” cheese.

            Brothers Simon and Tim Jones are “cheese farmers,” in the parlance of Bronwen and Francis Percival, cheesemakers who keep and tend to the animals whose milk the cheese from, or, as Simon Jones says simply, “We grow the grass, milk the cows, and make the cheese.” Like so many great cheeses, it begins with the land. Made at Ulceby Grange Farm, in Alford, Lincolnshire, the farm had been in the family since 1917, but it wasn’t until the 90s that Simon Jones began to make cheese from the dairy cows his father cared for.  Geologically, Lincolnshire County has not been ripe for dairying. The loamy and clay soils make it difficult to grow pasture and graze cows. However, the Ulceby Grange Farm sits atop the Lincolnshire Wolds, a range of low, open hills or “wolds,” that is fortuitously composed of limestone and chalk, revealing a rich, red soil that is perfect for growing lush pasture and grazing dairy cows. Their herd of Holstein-Friesian and Ayrshire cows dine on spring grass and sweet clover, then, in the autumn and winter, a silage of spring beans, winter wheat, grass, and maize all grown on the farm, which allows them to produce rich, fatty, and sweet milk.

            This milk is then set into curd and cooked, cut, and stirred at a higher temperature and to a finer texture than a traditional English cheese—a distinctly Alpine technique. The curd is then cheddared, milled, and hand-salted before being pressed for 36 hours. The truckles of Poacher are then aged on wooden slats, and once a month they are turned by the Jones’s cheese turning robot, Florence. Like an Alpine, this cheese develops a natural rind that is ruddy and speckled like granite.

            All of these steps have a big impact on flavor. Cooking curd at a higher temperature and finer texture expels a lot of whey, resulting in a drier cheese that benefits from a long maturation. Truckles of Poacher are aged for a minimum of twelve months, and can go up to three years, which your standard regulation West Country Cheddar couldn’t stand. The result is a paste that is dense yet open, delightfully craggy–like a Cheddar you can see the individual curds, but like Comté of Gruyère those curds are dense, waxy, and creamy. The flavor is nutty, complex, and bursting with juicy tropical fruits like pineapple.

            When Poacher was first sold, it was so popular that the local shops had to ration it in 1/4 lb. slices to customers! Luckily, we’ve got enough Poacher to send you home with an honest chunk. Stop by the shop today to try Lincolnshire Poacher and you might be singing your own lyrics to the tune of “The Lincolnshire Poacher” about the joys of eating this rascally cheese.

The Pairing: Cabezuela + Mauny Cremant de Loire Brut

by Sophia Stern

It’s rare we get a pairing right on the first try. We tend to go back and forth between several bottles before finally settling on what hits just right. But now and then, we open our first pick, take a sip and a bite, and it’s perfect. Thus is the story of this week’s pairing. We’re featuring La Cabezuela Tradicional Semi Curado and Château de Mauny Crémant de Loire Brut, a delightful duo that helps each other shine. 

Like many stories we feature on this blog, Cabezuela begins with people in search of something meaningful and long-lasting. In 1991, couple Juan Luis Royulea and Yolanda Campos Gaspar decided to leave their communication and journalism careers for something different. They bought and effectively rescued Quesos La Cabezuela, an old creamery in the Guadarrama mountains outside of Madrid. To revamp the creamery, Juan and Yolanda turned their attention to the native breed of goats living in the area. The hearty, rugged Guadarrama goats were approaching extinction, but by exclusively using Guadarrama goat milk from local shepherds, the Cabezuela creamery revitalized the goat population, preserving the traditions and history of the land. 

Though the creamery makes a handful of cheeses that reflect the land and preserve the local history, we’re highlighting the Tradicional Semi Curado, which we just call “Cabezuela”.  This style of cheese, semi-firm and super creamy on the palate, dates back to at least 1750, when the Guadarrama goats were originally used for cheesemaking. Continuing the cheesemaking traditions into present day, the goats still graze on the mountainside pastures, eating thyme, acorns, heather and diverse grasses which impart a herbal and distinctly unique terroir into their milk. Guadarrama goats only produce 2 liters of their milk a day, about half as much as other goat breeds. The uniqueness of the land and the limited milk supply make Cabezuela a cheese we’re truly lucky to see in our case. 

Château de Mauny Crémant de Loire Brut is the ideal wine to handle this cheese. Hand-picked in the Loire Valley, this 80% Chenin Blanc, 20% Chardonnay sparkling beauty is bright and refreshing. The clean bubbles of the Crémant break through the richness of the Cabezuela and the floral, peachy notes balance the funkier qualities of the goat milk. On the flip side, the savory notes in the cheese bring out an intrigue in the Crémant which otherwise reads only crisp and floral. This pairing satisfies and shines. Most importantly, the cheese is a delicious reminder of the connections between quality food and tradition, and how they are revived by each other. Enjoy this pairing knowing the food you eat preserves history. Or with honey. Whatever you prefer. 

Meet Your Chef: Victoria

What does your day-to-day role look like at France44?

-I split my time between coming up with and getting our weekly specials on the shelves, building catering orders, supporting all of our food production departments (cooks, butchers, bakers, and candlestick makers, alike), and working with the future Events team to plan and create new menus and programs for the concept.  I also drink a lot of coffee and sample a lot of tasty tasty France 44 food.

What restaurant(s) have you been to recently that really got you jazzed?

- I'm a ride or die Parkway Pizza fan. I get pretty jazzed about picking up a pizza in the way home every other week.

Outside of work, how do you like to spend your time?

- I'm a pretty hardcore gardener, which I lovingly dedicate most of my time to. I'm also a rock climber, a baker, and have year-round ice cream and boba dates with my favorite France44 alum.

How do you take your coffee?

- If I'm eating breakfast, I take my coffee black.  If I'm drinking breakfast, I'll take an oatmilk latte with caramel--might as well satiate the caffeine fiend and the sugar tooth with one hit.

It’s almost spring! What has gotten you through this MN winter and MN winter 2.0?

- n/a haha

What excites you most about our new event space?

- I'm thrilled to be working with the team we've put together for this space, and can't wait to see our plans and ideas to make this blank canvas into a concept that can bring our community even closer over hand-picked and crafted food and drink.

The Pairing: Mt.Tam + Domaine l'Idyle Cruet

by Sophia Stern

Just north of San Francisco, cows graze on grassy cliffsides overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Mount Tamalpais looms in the distance. Beautiful Red Woods and Cypress trees grow nearby. Here, Cowgirl Creamery creates some of the countries most famous cheeses, including the beloved Mt Tam. For some of you, Mt Tam is a familiar favorite. If you aren’t acquainted, this soft little cheese is a delicious, triple-cream made with cow’s milk in the North Bay. Fluffy, buttery, and so delicious, Mt Tam will please your entire Easter crew. This batch of Mt Tam is young and delicate, so for the pairing we’ve gone with the easiest-going white we could think of: light and delicious Domaine de l'Idylle Savoie Cruet from France. This wine lets the Mt Tam shine and goes beautifully with all the asparagus, quiche, and spring things around your Easter table. 

Cowgirl Creamery began with college friends Sue Conley and Peggy Smith. They’d been introduced to the California food scene on a trip to the Bay in 1976 when food revolutions like Farm-to-table and the Back-to-the-land movement were taking off. After several decades in prestigious food careers, Sue and Peggy came back together to create Tomales Bay Foods, a foods business championing Californian agriculture and local food traditions. Their business featured a small cheese making operation that bore Mt Tam and other iconic cheeses before becoming the most well known aspect of their business. Made with pasteurized milk from cows foraging on the costal pastures, Mt Tam is earthy, slightly salty, and so decadent. It’s a reflection of the unique landscape of the northern California coast. Although they have many cheeses, Mt Tam is definitely the most iconic and with good reason. It’s buttery and rich, while still being pretty easygoing and fresh as spring air. 

To let the Mt Tam shine, we’ve gone with the Domaine de l'Idylle Savoie Cruet. Made of 100% Jacquère, a typical Savoyard grape variety, this wine has a light floral aroma and subtle notes of pear and citrus. Grown in some of the best clay and limestone soils in all of Savoie, sunny days and cool nights create this mature and crisp wine that’s easy on the palate. This bottle offers the Mt Tam just enough acidity and fruit to make the cheese all the more craveable. Although delicious enough, Mt Tam also shines with sweet, sour and spicy spreads. Our favorite is the American Spoon Sour Cherry Preserve, but honey or jam do the trick. If you like it spicy, pick up a hot jam or our one of our new chili crisp products and dab it on. However you enjoy your Mt Tam, we hope this week’s pairing will bring you spring feelings for Easter weekend, even if the weather does not. 

Cheese Profile: Mt Tam

by Austin Coe Butler

            Cowgirl Creamery’s Mt. Tam is one of the most iconic and awarded triple crèmes made in the United States. If you’ve had only one artisanal cheese made in the United States, this was probably it. And there’s good reason why. It’s flavor and texture are remarkable, which has led to numerous gold medals at the American Cheese Society and Good Food Awards. Mt. Tam is also the result of pioneering and radical practices.

            Cowgirl Creamery was founded by Sue Conley and Peg Smith who met as college students at the University of Tennessee in the 70s. They were heavily involved in the social and political movements of that time, and after a road-trip to the Bay Area they decided to relocate to Berkeley and work at establishments of California cuisine like the Obrero Hotel and Chez Panisse. (At this same time, Laura Chenel was producing chèvre for Alice Waters at Chez Panisse.) Conley and Smith befriended dairy farmer Ellen Straus, and when they started producing cheese in an old hay barn in Point Reyes, they were dedicated to using local, organic, single source milk from the pasture grazed cows of the Straus Family Creamery.

            Just as American winemakers were moving to emphasize the terroir of the Sonoma or Napa Valley, Cowgirl Creamery was also emphasizing the locality, place, and terroir of West Marin County. Even after the company moved the majority of their production to Petaluma, they still create their washed-rind Red Hawk in Point Reyes owing to the dense fog, sea spray, and unique microbial and yeast communities in the air that give Red Hawk’s rind its signature color and flavor that varies with the seasons. They still use the same brine they’ve washed that cheese with for the past fifteen years.

            Mt. Tam was, and still is, revelatory for American consumers who had only ever had bland, bodega brie. Here was a brie-style cheese that was being made according to the highest standards in the United States and not being mass produced abroad for import to a country with stringent pasteurization laws. While many think of it as a brie, it’s a unique creation of its own. During the cheesemaking process, Mt. Tam’s curd is washed. This washing process, common to goudas, removes lactic acid and makes for sweeter cheese and gives Mt. Tam its sweet cream notes. After the curd has been formed into molds and the young cheeses have drained overnight, they are brined in a salt-water and whey solution. Its stout shape and added height gives the cheese a fudgy core that most flat, disc-shaped brie-style cheeses never achieve. You’ll find all the classic bloomy-rind, brie flavors like button mushrooms and a rich, buttery cream-line, but with added complexity. For that reason, it’s incomparably accessible and versatile.

            There’s no wrong way to serve this cheese–with a dollop of bright apricot jam, alongside fresh fruit, cured meats, or olives. Slice the top off, broil it, and drizzle it with spicy chili crisp. Any way you choose to enjoy it, it deserves its place on your Easter cheese board as a true American original.

Cheesemaker Profile: Landmark Creamery

by Austin Coe Butler

Sheep’s milk is uncommon. To start, sheep are notoriously stubborn. They only produce milk for three to four months after lambing in the winter or spring. It isn’t possible to milk them most of the year like goats or year round like cows. They also produce a small amount of milk. Proportional to their size, sheep produce less milk than cows, water buffalo, and even goats. But what sheep’s milk lacks in volume it makes up for in fat. The “fat globules” (that’s a technical term) are larger than the fat globules of cow's or goat’s milk, which give sheep cheeses their buttery characteristics. As these fatty acids break down, they produce the characteristic tangy, spicy notes of Roquefort, Pecorino, and Manchego. There’s another reason why sheep’s milk cheeses are uncommon in the US–sheep are uncommon!

Notice that those last three cheeses (Roquefort, Pecorino, and Manchego) are all European. In the US, we don’t have the tradition of sheep’s milk or meat. I mentioned briefly in my piece on Vermont Shepherd’s Verano, the first artisanal sheep cheese in the US, that sheep’s milk cheeses just aren’t a thing in the US. And that has to do with something that goes to heart of cheesemaking: genetics.

American sheep have been bred for one purpose: fiber. Wool was placed on the Pentagon’s list of strategic materials in 1954 because military uniforms were made from wool. As a result, massive government subsidies compelled shepherds to breed for wool, and even though the military declassified wool as a strategic material in the 60s, many states still subsidize the production of wool. Additionally, American sheep genetics were limited because of outbreaks of Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (Mad Cow Disease). In our intra-Covid world, we are anxiously attuned to the microscopic, the microbial, but prior to this, many of us were enjoying the gentle comforts of a “post-Pasteurian world." The BSE outbreaks of the 80s and 90s shook animal agriculture. Especially in the UK, hundreds of people fell violently ill from Mad Cow Disease and 178 died, leading to the immediate restrictions on animal products like meat, dairy, and genetic material. British beef was banned in some countries as late as 2019.

Enter the Annas of Landmark Creamery.

Anna Landmark and Anna Thomas Bates met at a potluck over a decade ago and before they knew it they were conspiring a creamery under the influence of some Old Fashions. Landmark is the cheesemaker while Bates manages sales, marketing, and everything in between. Landmark Creamery’s milk comes from a herd of sheep that are a mixed breed of Lacaune and East Friesian sheep crossed with Assaf, an Israeli hybrid. Only a few years ago new Lacaune genetics (the sheep used to make Roquefort) we imported into the US. The arrival of new sheep genetics to the US market really is a game changer, and we are in the midst of an exciting and dynamic period of sheep’s milk cheesemaking.

Running a small creamery is hazardous, to say the least. ATB has joked that starting a small creamery has been like the pictures of Obama before and after his presidency, referring to the grey hairs they’ve gained along the way. In addition to all the investment and fundraising that go into starting a new business and the time and effort that go into making cheeses that almost all take six months to age, there was an incident when their cold storage facility threw away their cheese, valued at over $20,000! Such things can shutter a small company, but the cheese community rallied behind them. Landmark Creamery is the product of family, friendships, and community support.

Landmark Creamy now has a provisions shop in Belleville, WI, where you can shop all their delightful cheeses. They make a number of sheep's milk cheeses, and this week we’re thrilled to carry three: Anabasque, Rebel Miel, and their sheep’s milk Taleggio (so new it doesn’t have a name yet). Anabasque is an homage to the cheeses of the Basque Country, like Ossau-Iraty. It has a walnut nuttiness to it and a bright, espellete fruitiness. The Taleggio we have now is remarkably gooey and luxurious. You can taste and feel the extra fat sheep’s milk has (remember those large “fat globules” I mentioned?). Rebel Miel is washed in a Paint It Black beer that gives the rind a flinty, chocolaty flavor and leaves the paste spring, bright, and complex.

Come see how this uncommon milk makes beautiful cheese!