STRATHDON BLUE

STRATHDON BLUE


MILK
Pasteurised Cows Milk
RENNET
Traditional Animal Rennet
MADE BY
Ruaraidh Stone
REGION
Tain, Ross-shire
SEASON
All year round
APPEARANCE & RIND
Sticky blue-green millstone shaped cheeses with a
wrinkled rind. The interior is a whitish-cream with distinct lines of blueing.
FLAVOUR & TEXTURE
When ripe, this cheese has a soft, yielding texture more like a continental blue than a Stilton. The flavours are milky and savoury – sometimes quite salty – alleviated by the blue.
Until recently, Ruaridh (pronounced Rory)’s family were best known for a simple, traditional Caboc allegedly made from a recipe of family ancestor Mariota de Ile, daughter of The MacDonald, Lord of the Isles. In the past 3 or 4 years however, in his converted brewery by the sea (now a cheese dairy), he's begun making a blue cheese he calls Strathdon Blue.
Milk is bought from a local six-herd cooperative, which includes one herd of Ayrshires and the rest are Holstein-Friesians. Ayrshires are a traditional Scottish dairy breed and reputedly produce excellent milk for cheesemaking and Ruaraidh believes that this adds a touch or richness to the cheese.
The recipe is still in progress as Ruaraidh likes to experiment. He has changed rennet and ways of salting, to name but two things, and the cheese has developed over the couple of years in which we’ve sold it from a crumbly cheese to one that is rich, full and creamy.