Port and Stilton

Anything to do with Port.
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LittleParrott
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Port and Stilton

Post by LittleParrott »

I am working on a project as part of my Wine Business degree at Plumpton College and I would be very grateful if you could point me towards any literature reference that you are aware of that partners Stilton and Port historically?

I am researching their relationship and trying to ascertain exactly how they came to be linked so closely. If I can establish that the pairing has stood the test of time, I would like to explore how successful it is considered to be today so I would be grateful for any views you may have on whether or not they are a suitable match. Are they the perfect pair in your opinion and, if they are, what makes them so and what style of Port would you pair with Stilton given the choice and why? If not, what has led them to be associated in literature and elsewhere? Any information would be very helpful but also your personal views as someone who is well established in Port appreciation.

Lastly, if you are aware of any paintings that show Stilton and Port being served together that too would be very useful to me.
LGTrotter
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Re: Port and Stilton

Post by LGTrotter »

I will open the bidding with 1930 from 'Labels' by Evelyn Waugh culled from this very forum;
LGTrotter wrote:Waugh's Parthenon.

"It is not 'snow-white' as I have seen it described by quite responsible observers, but a singularly beautiful tone in very pale pinkish brown; the nearest parallel to it of Nature that I can think of is that of the milder parts of a Stilton cheese into which port has been poured."

From Waugh's book 'Labels'.
There will be earlier and more (hopefully).
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jdaw1
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Re: Port and Stilton

Post by jdaw1 »

By email you have been sent eighteen references I have to Stilton, all of which are post-WW2.
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DRT
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Re: Port and Stilton

Post by DRT »

jdaw1 wrote:By email you have been sent eighteen references I have to Stilton, all of which are post-WW2.
Can you please send the email to me? I am planning on checking through the books I own at the weekend so it would be useful to know if any of those supplied are from those books.
"The first duty of Port is to be red"
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PhilW
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Re: Port and Stilton

Post by PhilW »

I'll make a start on the paintings question; the two artists who I know have painted port and stilton are Roy Hodrien and Raymond Campbell, both in the second half of the 20th century - you see a lot of the latter's work on ebay for some reason, but I expect google will find both with ease, and potentially others.

Port and stilton can certainly work as a combination, but as blue stilton can be extremely pungent and overwhelm the wine, I would not usually do this myself, except perhaps with a very young LBV or ruby reserve, and definitely not with a vintage port. Even then, I would generally prefer a milder blue such as Castello blue, which I find can go very well without overwhelming.
Glenn E.
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Re: Port and Stilton

Post by Glenn E. »

LittleParrott wrote:Are they the perfect pair in your opinion
No, but especially no for blue Stilton. I find that Port pairs better with white cheddar (especially English Coastal cheddar), comte, gouda, queijo da serra/serra da estrela, manchego, swiss/gruyere/emmental, or other milder/nuttier cheeses. Tawny Port in particular pairs better with these cheeses, to the point that it seems to me that the English got it completely wrong - wrong Port with the wrong cheese.
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DRT
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Re: Port and Stilton

Post by DRT »

Lizzy,

I own a fairly large collection of books about wine and port, including nineteen books on gastronomy that are listed on my website http://www.booksaboutport.com/category/gastronomy/

You could perhaps use that list to access books in your college or local library? If there are any on the list that are of particular interest that you cannot find access to please let me know and I will have a browse through them to see if I can find any helpful references.

Derek
"The first duty of Port is to be red"
Ernest H. Cockburn
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richmills
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Re: Port and Stilton

Post by richmills »

No references for you I'm afraid, just an opinion on Port and Stilton. I love the pairing of a sweet Port and a tangy blue cheese. The cheese has to have a real tangy bite to it though for it to work well for me, which can be some Stiltons but not all by any means.

Cheers, Rich.
LGTrotter
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Re: Port and Stilton

Post by LGTrotter »

More opinion.

I think that food pairings come and go in fashion, this being one that is currently on the wane. But port and the salty/fatty taste of stilton is by no means despicable. I think that the other stuff I tend to put on the table with port and stilton cuts through the cheese, the most usual being walnuts, digestives, and apples. It is true it is something I do as much out of habit as gastronomic delight, but tradition is sometimes worth going with. It does tend to be with family and at Christmas with vintage port. For preference I like English cheddars and some of the hard english cheeses which I find in local farmers markets. Mimolette is one of the non UK cheeses I love with port and almost any old wine.
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Alex Bridgeman
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Re: Port and Stilton

Post by Alex Bridgeman »

I don't eat stilton with port, I find the combination detracts from both. Similarly to Glenn I prefer a hard white cheese, which includes white stilton.

However, for Christmas last year I was given a Fortnum & Mason baby stilton which had been fed with ruby port. I've no idea how long the process took, but the combination was delicious with the sweetness of the port complimenting the saltiness of the stilton. I do recall that it was a blue stilton, but there were very few veins in the cheese.

I do wonder whether the tradition of "port with stilton" dates back to a time when there was a lot of white stilton being eaten and that it is a modern myth that pairs port with blue stilton.
Top Ports in 2023: Taylor 1896 Colheita, b. 2021. A perfect Port.

2024: Niepoort 1900 Colheita, b.1971. A near perfect Port.
Glenn E.
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Re: Port and Stilton

Post by Glenn E. »

AHB wrote:I do wonder whether the tradition of "port with stilton" dates back to a time when there was a lot of white stilton being eaten and that it is a modern myth that pairs port with blue stilton.
Additionally, I wonder if the Port of old was also somewhat different than what we drink today? Some of us have been lucky enough to taste Port from the early 1800s, but the demarcation was in 1756. It's also difficult to say what an 1815 Ferreira might have tasted like when it was newly bottled, though from what I've heard it has held up nicely for the last 200 years.

I do agree about white Stilton, though - it is a much better pairing for Port than blue Stilton. Still not as good (to my taste) as a nice white cheddar, but at least acceptable. That Port-fed baby Stilton sounds delicious, too. :)
Glenn Elliott
LGTrotter
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Re: Port and Stilton

Post by LGTrotter »

Glenn E. wrote:
AHB wrote:I do wonder whether the tradition of "port with stilton" dates back to a time when there was a lot of white stilton being eaten and that it is a modern myth that pairs port with blue stilton.
Additionally, I wonder if the Port of old was also somewhat different than what we drink today?
Quite, I understand that there was a tendency to drink port much younger than most port is drunk these days, 12 years being considered a good age. Maybe this is the reason that stilton was considered a good match as young vintage port is a better match for stilton than the more delicate flavours of older port.
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DRT
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Re: Port and Stilton

Post by DRT »

I came across a reference today in a book by Andre L. Simon from the 1950s where he was advising against the practice of adding port to Stilton in an attempt to save it when dried out. ALS was quite old by then so I wonder of the connection stems from that practice rather than port being a drink to accompany the cheese?

I will dig the book out and post the quote tomorrow.

I browsed through 15 pre-WWII volumes of Wine and Food Quarterly and found no references to port and Stilton being served together.
"The first duty of Port is to be red"
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Andy Velebil
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Re: Port and Stilton

Post by Andy Velebil »

DRT wrote:I came across a reference today in a book by Andre L. Simon from the 1950s where he was advising against the practice of adding port to Stilton in an attempt to save it when dried out. ALS was quite old by then so I wonder of the connection stems from that practice rather than port being a drink to accompany the cheese?

I will dig the book out and post the quote tomorrow.

I browsed through 15 pre-WWII volumes of Wine and Food Quarterly and found no references to port and Stilton being served together.
Interesting that there are no references to consuming the pair together prior to WW2 found thus far. Would that mean the "tradition" is not as old as originally thought or talked about? And I am very curious if it indeed started as a means to try to prolong the life of the cheese and not in the sense that is now talked about.
Andy Velebil
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Re: Port and Stilton

Post by Andy Velebil »

Glenn E. wrote:
AHB wrote:I do wonder whether the tradition of "port with stilton" dates back to a time when there was a lot of white stilton being eaten and that it is a modern myth that pairs port with blue stilton.
Additionally, I wonder if the Port of old was also somewhat different than what we drink today? Some of us have been lucky enough to taste Port from the early 1800s, but the demarcation was in 1756. It's also difficult to say what an 1815 Ferreira might have tasted like when it was newly bottled, though from what I've heard it has held up nicely for the last 200 years.

I do agree about white Stilton, though - it is a much better pairing for Port than blue Stilton. Still not as good (to my taste) as a nice white cheddar, but at least acceptable. That Port-fed baby Stilton sounds delicious, too. :)
From everything I've read, been told, or experienced in drinking really old Ports is there was a very different method to making it than what is considered "modern" VP. My understanding is Port was essentially a dry wine with spirit added later to stabilize it. Then gradually increasing the percentage of "brandy", and then roughly around the mid 1810's was when it finally started to change into more like we know it today (halting fermentation mid way through). So the early days it wasn't 20-ish % ABV. While I can't prove it, conventional wisdom would dictate that some (many?) producers would be reluctant to change how they made Port until either forced by law, market demands, or some other external force. One would probably expect that change to take a decade or more to be widely implemented. So probably safe to say that "modern" Port is probably a product of the mid 1800's. I would suspect the Phylloxera epidemic of the late 1800's also had an influence on some changes as well, beyond grafted rootstock that is.

Given that, it would make perfect sense that the whole Stilton and Port thing was not the same things as it is today.
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