Tête de Moine is a Swiss cheese

Swiss cheese

Swiss cheese is a generic name in North America for several related varieties of cheese which resemble the Swiss Emmental. Some types of Swiss cheese have a distinctive appearance, as the blocks of the cheese are riddled with holes known as "eyes". Swiss cheese has a piquant, but not very sharp,...

. Its name, which means "Monk's Head", is derived from its invention and initial production by the monks of the abbey of Bellelay

Bellelay Abbey

Bellelay Abbey is a former Premonstratensian monastery in the Bernese Jura in Switzerland, now a psychiatric clinic.-History:According to the legend, the monastery was founded in 1136 by Siginand, prior of the abbey of Moutier-Grandval, who got lost in the deep forest of the High Jura while hunting...

, located in the community of Saicourt

Saicourt

Saicourt is a municipality in the Jura bernois administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. It comprises the localities of Le Fuet, Bellelay, La Bottiere and Montbautier. It is located in the French-speaking Bernese Jura ....

, district of Moutier

Moutier

Moutier is a municipality in the Jura bernois administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. It is located in the French-speaking Bernese Jura .-History:...

, in the mountainous zone of the Bernese Jura

Bernese Jura

Bernese Jura is the name for the French-speaking area of the Swiss canton of Bern, and from 2010 one of five administrative divisions of the canton....

, the French-speaking area of the Canton 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

Cheese

Cheese is a generic term for a diverse group of milk-based food products. Cheese is produced throughout the world in wide-ranging flavors, textures, and forms....

 dairies of the Jura Mountains

Jura mountains

The Jura Mountains are a small mountain range located north of the Alps, separating the Rhine and Rhone rivers and forming part of the watershed of each...

 area of Porrentruy

Porrentruy

Porrentruy is a Swiss municipality and seat of the district of the same name located in the canton of Jura.-Geography:The municipality lies on both sides of the Allaine River, in Ajoie at the foot of the Jura Mountains on the north...

, District of Franches-Montagnes, both situated in the Canton of Jura

Canton of Jura

The Republic and Canton of the Jura , also known as the Canton of Jura or Canton Jura, is one of the cantons of Switzerland. It is the newest of the 26 Swiss cantons, located in the northwestern part of Switzerland. The capital is Delémont...

, as well as in Moutier

Moutier

Moutier is a municipality in the Jura bernois administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. It is located in the French-speaking Bernese Jura .-History:...

 and Courtelary

Courtelary

Courtelary is a municipality of the French-speaking Bernese Jura, in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. The town is the capital of the Jura bernois administrative district.-Geography:...

, in the Bernese Jura.

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

Basel

Basel or Basle In the national languages of Switzerland the city is also known as Bâle , Basilea and Basilea is Switzerland's third most populous city with about 166,000 inhabitants. Located where the Swiss, French and German borders meet, Basel also has suburbs in France and Germany...

 or even as currency. The cheese was named Tête de Moine two centuries ago by soldiers of French Revolution

French Revolution

The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...

, 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 the tonsure

Tonsure

Tonsure is the traditional practice of Christian churches of cutting or shaving the hair from the scalp of clerics, monastics, and, in the Eastern Orthodox Church, all baptized members...

 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 g, 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 2½ months on small spruce plank.

Since May 2001, it has enjoyed an "Appellation d'origine contrôlée

Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée

Appellation d’origine contrôlée , which translates as "controlled designation of origin", is the French certification granted to certain French geographical indications for wines, cheeses, butters, and other agricultural products, all under the auspices of the government bureau Institut National...

" (AOC). Exported throughout the world, it is the name card of the cheese-making tradition of Swiss 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.

External links

• Tête de Moine website
• History of Tête de Moine
• Fromages Spielhofer SA, Fromagerie de St-Imier - Tête de Moine - Cheesemaker
• History of the Girolle