- Tête de Moine
Tête de Moine is a
Swiss cheese . Its name, which means "Monk's Head", is derived from its invention and initially production by the monks of the abbey of Bellelay, located in the community ofSaicourt , district ofMoutier , in the mountaineous zone of theBernese Jura , the French-speaking area ofcanton of Bern .The cheese is eaten in an unusual way: it must be carefully scraped with a knife in order to develop its scented flavours.
Tête de Moine is currently produced by fewer than 10
cheese dairies of the mountain area ofPorrentruy ,Moutier ,Courtelary andDistrict of Franches-Montagnes .The monks started to manufacture this cheese more than eight centuries ago. Writings from 1292 attest that the cheese of the abbots of Bellelay had acquired such a reputation that it was used to pay the royalties of the stockbreeders to the farms' owners, to regulate litigations, being offered as presents to the prince-bishops of
Basel or even as currency. The cheese was named Tête de Moine two centuries ago by soldiers ofFrench Revolution , who, having expelled the monks, discovered cheese coins stored at the bottom of the large cellars. They adopted the manner of scraping cheese to consume it with thetonsure of a monk.The cheese contains
cow milk vintage and entirety, i.e. a cheese with half-cooked or half-hard pressed paste. Its average weight is 850 grams, but some can go up to 2,5 kg. It is characterized by a cylindrical form of which the height accounts for 70 to 100% of the diameter. It is excellent with dry white wine, after being matured for a minimum of 2.5 months on small plank of spruce.Since May 2001, it has enjoyed an "
Appellation d'origine contrôlée " (AOC). Exported throughout the world, it is the name card of the cheese-making tradition ofSwiss Jura .In 1982 the
girolle was invented, an apparatus which makes it possible to make “rivet washers of Tête de Moine” by turning a scraper on an axle planted in the center of the cheese. This apparatus gave an additional impulse to the consumption of this cheese.ee also
*
Bellelay Abbey External links
* [http://www.tetedemoine.ch/en/ official Site of the Tête de Moine]
* [http://www.jurabernois.ch official Site of the Bernese Jura Tourism]
* [http://www.be.ch official Site of the Canton of Bern]
* [http://www.berneinvest.com official Site of the economic promotion of the Canton of Bern]
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