Stilton substitute

Best substitute

Gorgonzola

Use the same amount as the stilton you are replacing

Best for broccoli and Stilton soup

Close match

Gorgonzola is the best all-round swap at 1:1, using the firmer piccante for a cheeseboard or crumbling into salad and the softer, creamier dolce for soups and sauces. Danish blue also works but is saltier and sharper, so use about three quarters of the weight and taste before adding any salt to the dish. Roquefort is excellent and intense, made from sheep's milk, so use roughly two thirds. For broccoli and Stilton soup or a sauce for steak, a mild creamy blue such as Dolcelatte, Saint Agur or Cambozola melts more smoothly than Stilton itself does.

Other stilton substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Danish blue (Danablu)
Different taste
About 3:4, so use three quarters as much
Firm, white, heavily veined Danish cow's-milk blue.
What changes
Best for
salad dressings, blue cheese dip, burgers, sauce for steak, melting into mash
Prep. Add it before any salt in the recipe, then taste the finished dish and season only if it needs it.
The cheapest and most available substitute and a perfectly good one, provided you account for its intensity. Danish blue is markedly saltier than Stilton and its flavour is sharper and more metallic, with a bitter edge that Stilton does not have, so a soup or sauce made one for one can taste harsh and oversalted. Using three quarters of the weight brings it into line. Texture is close, firm and crumbly, though it is a little wetter and pastier and does not give the same clean crumble on a board. Where it excels is anywhere strong flavour is wanted in small amounts, such as dressings and dips.
3Roquefort
Taste and texture differ
About 2:3, so use two thirds as much
French sheep's-milk blue, moist, crumbly and intensely flavoured.
What changes
Best for
cheeseboards, salad dressings, sauce for steak, pear and chicory salad, small quantities where intensity is wanted
Prep. Chill well and cut with a wire or a hot knife, as it drags on a blade. Crumble by hand rather than grating.
A superb cheese and a very good swap, but it is not a quiet one. Sheep's milk makes it richer and gives it a distinctive tangy, almost lanolin sweetness underneath, and it is both saltier and far more pungent than Stilton, so used one for one it will take over a dish. It is also considerably moister, so it smears rather than crumbling neatly and will not give you the dry, chalky-buttery crumbles that scatter so well over a salad. In a soup it melts well. Use two thirds of the weight, hold back the salt, and expect the finished dish to taste more assertively blue.
4Dolcelatte, Saint Agur or Cambozola
Taste and texture differ
Use the same amount plus a pinch of salt
Mild, high-fat, creamy blue cheeses with soft paste and gentle veining.
What changes
Best for
broccoli and Stilton soup, pasta sauces, sauce for steak, stuffing chicken or mushrooms, spreading on toast, cooking for people who dislike strong blue
Prep. Cut into cubes and stir into the hot liquid off the heat; they will dissolve almost immediately.
The right choice specifically for cooking, and worth reaching for deliberately rather than as a fallback. These are made much richer and milder than Stilton, so they melt into a genuinely silky sauce without the graininess or oiliness that a firm blue can produce, and the flavour is rounder, sweeter and creamier with much less funk. The trade-off is that a dish will taste noticeably gentler and less savoury, so a broccoli soup made with Dolcelatte can lack the salty backbone that makes the Stilton version so good. Add a decent pinch of salt and a grind of white pepper, and consider a small amount of grated Parmesan for savoury depth.
5White Stilton, Wensleydale or crumbly Lancashire plus a small amount of any blue
Different taste
3 parts crumbly cheese to 1 part blue, 1:1 overall
A mild fresh-tasting crumbly cheese carrying a little blue for flavour.
What changes
Best for
cheeseboards for mixed company, salads, crumbling over vegetables, when the only blue you have is very strong
Prep. Crumble both cold and toss together lightly, so the blue stays in distinct flecks rather than smearing through.
A useful trick rather than a true substitute. Stilton is doing two jobs, providing a firm crumbly white paste and providing blue-mould pungency, and you can split those between two cheeses. Three parts of a crumbly cheese such as White Stilton, Wensleydale or Lancashire gives the texture and mild lactic tang, and one part of whatever blue you have supplies the funk without dominating. The result is milder and less complex than real Stilton, and the veining is patchy rather than even, but it works well scattered over a salad or roast vegetables and it is a good use for a small end of strong blue.
6Mature cheddar with lemon (when no blue cheese is available)
Taste and texture differ
Use the same amount plus a squeeze of lemon juice
A well-aged sharp cheddar standing in where no blue cheese can be got at all.
What changes
Best for
broccoli soup, cheese sauce, leek and cheese bakes, children or guests who will not eat blue cheese
Prep. Grate it and add off the heat, stirring until melted, then finish with lemon juice and a grind of pepper.
The honest answer here is that this is not a substitute for Stilton, and it is worth saying so rather than pretending. Nothing without blue mould has that pungent, faintly ammoniacal, savoury depth, and no combination of seasonings creates it. What a strong mature cheddar can do is provide salt, fat and sharp savoury flavour, so a broccoli and cheddar soup is a good soup; it simply is not broccoli and Stilton soup. A squeeze of lemon juice or a teaspoon of white wine vinegar at the end restores some of the tang that the blue would have supplied, and a small spoonful of Dijon mustard adds a little complexity.

What is Stilton?

Stilton is Blue Stilton is a protected English cow's-milk blue cheese, made only in Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire, with a firm, crumbly-yet-buttery paste, blue-green veining and a savoury, mellow, distinctly salty tang rather than a sharp bite.

Cooking tips

Never boil a blue cheese sauce or soup. Stilton and every substitute for it will split into grainy curds and a slick of fat if the liquid simmers after the cheese goes in. Take the pan off the heat, then stir the crumbled cheese in and let the residual warmth melt it. If a soup needs to be reheated later, do it gently and stop well short of a simmer.
Season last. Stilton is a salty cheese and Danish blue and Roquefort are saltier still, so a recipe that tells you to salt the leeks or the broccoli early will often end up over-seasoned once the cheese arrives. Salt lightly at the start, add the cheese, then taste and correct at the end.
Crumble it cold and by hand. Stilton and its firmer substitutes turn to paste when they warm up and will clog a grater. Ten minutes in the freezer, then breaking the cheese apart with your fingers, gives you the loose dry crumbles that sit properly on a salad or a steak rather than a smear.
The rind is edible and useful. A Stilton rind, or that of any firm blue, carries a lot of savoury flavour and can be simmered in a soup or a stock and fished out before serving, much as you would use a Parmesan rind. It is a good way to get real depth into a soup while using less of the expensive cheese in the bowl.
Blue cheese freezes better than most cheeses if you are only cooking with it. The texture goes crumblier and it will no longer be board-worthy, but for soups, sauces and dressings it is unaffected, so an end of Stilton after Christmas can be broken into pieces, frozen, and dropped straight into a pan later.

Frequently asked questions

What is the closest cheese to Stilton?

Gorgonzola, and specifically the aged piccante style, which is firm, crumbly and savoury in much the same way. It has a slightly sharper, more peppery bite and is a little less buttery than Stilton, but on a cheeseboard or crumbled into a salad it is the nearest thing you can buy. Gorgonzola dolce is the same cheese in a younger, softer, sweeter form, and although it is a poor lookalike on a board, it is arguably better than Stilton in a soup or pan sauce because it melts smoothly instead of going grainy. Both swap in at the same weight.

Can I use Danish blue instead of Stilton?

Yes, with one adjustment. Danish blue is considerably saltier and sharper than Stilton, with a slightly metallic, bitter edge that Stilton lacks, so used one for one it tends to dominate and can make a soup taste harsh and over-salted. Use about three quarters of the weight the recipe asks for, hold back the salt until you have tasted the finished dish, and accept that the result will read as more aggressively blue. Texturally it is close enough, though a bit wetter and pastier, so it does not crumble as cleanly on a cheeseboard.

What is the Stilton doing in broccoli and Stilton soup?

Three separate jobs, which is why the choice of replacement matters. It provides salt, and a lot of it, which is what makes an otherwise green and slightly bitter soup taste seasoned and complete. It provides fat, which gives the soup body and a rounded mouthfeel without needing much cream. And it provides pungency, the savoury funk that keeps the broccoli from tasting flat. A mild creamy blue covers the fat and some of the salt but not the funk, so add a pinch more salt; a mature cheddar covers salt and fat but none of the funk at all, which is why that soup tastes good but different.

Can I just leave the Stilton out?

It depends entirely on what it is doing. In a salad, a steak topping or on a cheeseboard it is the main event and leaving it out means making a different dish. In a soup or sauce it is providing salt, fat and savoury depth, so if you omit it you need to replace all three: add a knob of butter or a splash of cream for the fat, salt properly, and add something savoury such as a spoonful of Dijon mustard, a little grated Parmesan or a dash of Worcestershire sauce. The soup will be pleasant and mild rather than characterful.

What is the difference between Stilton and generic blue cheese?

Stilton is a specific protected cheese, made from pasteurised cow's milk in only three English counties and aged for around nine to twelve weeks, which gives it a firm crumbly paste, an even blue-green veining and a savoury flavour that is salty and pungent but noticeably mellow and buttery rather than sharp. Generic blue cheese covers everything from mild creamy Cambozola to fierce salty Danablu and sheep's-milk Roquefort, so the substitution advice depends on which one you actually have. If a recipe simply says blue cheese and you have Stilton, you are fine; if it says Stilton and you have a strong salty blue, reduce the quantity.

Related substitutes

More cheese substitutes

Stilton substitute

Other stilton substitutes

2Danish blue (Danablu)

3Roquefort

4Dolcelatte, Saint Agur or Cambozola

5White Stilton, Wensleydale or crumbly Lancashire plus a small amount of any blue

6Mature cheddar with lemon (when no blue cheese is available)