Aged Rutland Red

This world renowned dairy was founded by Thomas Hoe Stevenson who, following his fathers footsteps, became an expert cheese maker.In the late 1800s and early 1900s, Thomas Hoe Stevenson along with his two sisters were making Stilton cheeses on Mount Pleasant Farm near to Melton Mowbray. He was one of the founding fathers of the Long Clawson Dairy who now specialise in making several types of cheese. One of their most famous being this Aged Rutland Red and the other their Mature Blue Stilton. 

Aged Rutland Red is made to a time honoured way of cheese making where the milk is heated to a level of pasteurisation. This involves heating the milk to a temperature of 71.7 degrees Centigrade for a period 15 – 25 seconds long. Vegetarian rennet is added to promote coagulation in the milk, thus forming the curds and the whey. This whey, a byproduct, is drained away leaving the curds that are then cut and left to drain before being ladled into the circular moulds and pressed to extract more moisture from the cheese. These cheeses are then left to mature for up to 6 months. This process makes Aged Rutland Red the only pasteurised cheese to be made in Leicestershire. 

Aged Rutland Red’s distinctive colour is caused by the addition of Annatto, an orange red food colouring derived from seeds of the Achiote tree, found in the Tropics of Brazil and Mexico and discovered by Spanish and Portuguese travellers in the early 1600s.  The Dutch cheese makers in the mid 1600s started to add Annatto to their cheeses to boost the colour and create a more uniformed coloured cheese. This idea was quickly followed by the English cheese makers who realised that by colouring their cheeses it gave the appearance of a richer and more flavoursome cheese masking the fact that at certain times of the year the quality of the milk was poor. 

Aged Rutland Red has a wonderfully rich and nutty taste formed in part by the excellent locally sourced cows milk used to make the cheese. The six month maturation period the cheese undergoes also helps develop this fabulous taste whilst promoting the firm and slightly flakey paste or body of the cheese. During this maturing process each cheese is wrapped in cheese cloth and hand buttered, a process of smearing butter around the cheese to increase flavour and add a buttery richness. This results in a slightly sweet and caramelised flavour.