Why do we eat blue cheese at Christmas?
For many of us, it just wouldn’t be Christmas without blue cheese. So it’s no surprise that during the festive season, we sell more blue cheese than any other kind. In December, it’s rare that a customer leaves our shop without a wedge – or, indeed, a whole wheel – of Stilton.
But why? Read on to learn how blue cheese came to be a Christmas tradition.
Blue cheese is big business at Christmas
If you would like to get an idea of just how seriously people take their Christmas cheese, visit one of our shops on a weekend in December. Chances are, you will see a line out the door. Most of the people who walk in the door will walk out with a piece of Stilton or another blue cheese.
A busy December day at the Covent Garden shop
We probably don’t have to tell you that this annual surge in blue cheese sales isn’t exclusive to Neal’s Yard Dairy. Every year around 25th December, Google searches for “Stilton” in the United Kingdom spike.
If Google search had existed in the late 19th century, it’s quite possible we would see a similar pattern back then. Sources stretching back well over a century reference Stilton for Christmas. In 1889, a Manchester businessman reportedly bought 300 wheels a year as Christmas gifts for clients. In 1897, writer William S. Walsh called Christmas cards “a cheap and unworthy substitute” for “the healthier benevolence” of traditional Christmas gifts, like Stilton.
Interestingly, while Stilton was certainly a popular choice for Christmas cheese, it was far from the only choice. “Christmas cheese! Christmas cheese!” an 1867 ad announced. The Christmas cheeses in question? Cheshire, Double Gloucester, and Derbyshire.
Stilton and seasonality
It’s clear that blue cheese – especially Stilton – is associated with Christmas, and has been for a long time. What is less clear is why.
One oft-offered explanation is seasonality. Today, most dairy farmers milk their cows and make their cheese all year long. In the past, cheese production would have been limited to the warmer months, when milk was plentiful. "Feed [the cows] lots during the summer with that plentiful grass growing from the ground. Then take them inside in winter and feed them much less because they're not being milked, and their metabolic needs are less," our Technical Director, Bronwen Percival, explained in an interview about seasonal cheese.
Stilton, figs, and a tipple
The story goes that Stilton made in late spring and early summer would be ripe just in time for Christmas. Other popular British territorial cheeses, like Cheshire and Lancashire, could mature for much longer, meaning they were less associated with a certain time of year. There is some historical evidence for this explanation. “Those [wheels of Stilton] made in May or June are usually served at Christmas,” Isabella Beeton wrote in The Book of Household Management in 1861.
But she continues: “to be in prime order, [wheels of Stilton] should be kept from 10 to 12 months, or even longer.” How many Victorian households were eating six-month-old Stilton at Christmas, and how many were keeping it until the next summer, or autumn? It’s hard to say. The truth is that then, as now, you could enjoy delicious Stilton year-round.
Celebrating a modern Christmas tradition
Setting aside the reasons why, blue cheese is certainly part of our Christmas tradition now. That is especially true here at Neal’s Yard Dairy. As Jenn Kast wrote in her essay about preparing blue cheese in the run-up to Christmas,
If you were to visit our maturing rooms in our Bermondsey railway arches in late October, you would likely see one of our export sales cheesemongers up a ladder in the Colston Bassett area, selecting the perfect cheeses for American customers. In late November, cheeses are being selected and sorted for our many European customers, and by early December the Domestic Wholesale team is evaluating Blues for our UK trade customers.
That’s all before mid-December, when retail cheesemongers start grading, selling, and wrapping blue cheese for customers in earnest.
The aim of all this effort is to bring you the best possible cheese for your Christmas table. Maybe that will be a wheel of Colston Bassett Stilton with a bottle of port. It could be Pevensey Blue and figs. Perhaps you love blue cheese so much that you’d like a bountiful selection: Beenleigh Blue, Shropshire Blue, and Stichelton. Or maybe, despite your best efforts, you just don’t like blue cheese at all. In that case, pick up some Kirkham’s Lancashire with fruit cake and enjoy it. That, too, is a fine Christmas tradition.