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A small village home to a great cheese
Tête de Moine AOP is a very old cheese from the village of Bellelay. It is not only unique in its taste, but also in its cylindrical shape, which is enjoyed in very fine rosettes.
There is an art to tasting a Tête de Moine AOP. This cheese is not cut into pieces but scraped, in the past with a knife and today with a “Girolle®”, a clever tool specifically designed for scraping Tête de Moine.
Tête de Moine AOP is a high quality product, produced according to traditional methods in village cheese dairies. The cheesemakers use high-quality raw milk from pastures rich in mountain herbs. The cheeses are then matured for at least 75 days on spruce boards and are brushed and turned regularly.
Several sites invite you to discover Tête de Moine, its history and its production. At the Maison de la Tête de Moine AOP, on request, you can watch the cheese being made in the old-fashioned way, as it was in the days of the monks, in a large copper vat. In addition, the cheese dairies in Le Noirmont, St-Imier and Saignelégier offer the opportunity to discover the modern production of Tête de Moine AOP during an individual or guided tour. The Tête de Moine festival, which takes place every year in Bellelay at the beginning of May, is also a unique opportunity to get to know this unusual cheese, which is a strong symbol of the region.
Additional information
Plan your visits
Maison de la Tête de Moine, 1, Le Domaine, Bellelay, Saicourt, Arrondissement administratif du Jura bernois, Région administrative du Jura bernois, Bern/Berne, 2713, Schweiz/Suisse/Svizzera/Svizra
What is Tête de Moine AOP?
A little history
Both the cheese and the place can look back on a long history through the ages. Bellelay is home to a monastery founded as early as 1136. Legend has it that the provost of the nearby abbey of Moutier-Grandval was hunting wild boar in the vast Jura forests. Having finally reached his prey, the provost could not find his way back. He begged God and promised to build a monastery where the animal had died if he could reach Moutier. When he arrived back home, he kept his promise and had the abbey built, which would be called Bellelay (beautiful sow, female of the boar).
It seems that the monks of Bellelay were already making cheese at the end of the 12th century, and that they used it to pay their annual rent in kind. This continued for centuries until they were driven out of their monastery at the very end of the 18th century. The first mention of the name Tête de Moine in official documents also dates from this period. However, the production of the famous cheese did not end with the disappearance of the monks of Bellelay; in fact, the cheese dairies located on the domains of the former abbey perpetuated the tradition and even offered the famous Tête de Moine a prize at the universal competition in Paris in 1856.
The history of Tête de Moine cheese will reach another major milestone in its already long history: the invention of the Girolle® in 1981 will revolutionize the way it is eaten. A family man from the Jura region of Switzerland found it slow and impractical to cut the cheese and invented a rotary knife that made it easy to cut rosettes of cheese. From then on, Tête de Moine cheese could no longer be without its Girolle®!
If there is one thing missing from this story, it is the origin of the name Tête de Moine. There are two versions of this story: one says that since the cheese looks like a monk’s haircut, the name was a natural fit. The other version says that, for each monk, the abbey used to store a certain amount of cheese, so that amount was a monk’s head.
Production of Tête de Moine AOP
It all starts with the milk production, which must be as natural as possible. The cows are mainly grazed in the summer and fed hay in the winter. The use of animal meal, hormones and genetically modified organisms is strictly forbidden, which allows an exceptional quality of milk.
The milk is delivered at least once a day to the various cheese dairies in the region. It is processed as quickly as possible, no more than 24 hours after milking, in order to preserve all its taste qualities.
It is then transformed in copper vats. It is stirred to reach a homogeneous temperature and then heated to a maximum of 38°C. Lactic acid bacteria are added to allow the acidification of the milk: this is called maturation of the milk. Once the desired maturation is reached, rennet is added to cause the milk to curdle. 30 minutes later, the coagulation of the milk is complete.
The coagulated mass is then cut with a curd cutter to separate the curd (solid) from the whey (liquid). The curd is heated between 46°C and 53°C and stirred.
The cheese mass is placed in perforated moulds larger than the size of the Tête de Moine, as the curds still contain a lot of water. The cheese is pressed and turned until the whey is completely drained. The cheese is then marked with the number of its dairy and the date of production to guarantee its traceability. It is impossible to confuse a genuine Tête de Moine AOP with a counterfeit copy!
The wheels of Tête de Moine AOP are then immersed in a brine for at least 12 hours: this is the salting process. The salt is absorbed by the cheese, which loses water. The rind begins to form and the maturing process can begin.
The maturing process lasts at least 75 days for the young cheeses. The cheese is matured on spruce boards in a damp cellar at a temperature of between 13 and 14°C, in the controlled designation area. The master cheesemaker flips them over and brushes them regularly with a mixture of salted water and selected ferments to allow the smear to form on the rind. Colourings and chemical additives are prohibited.
A quality test is carried out once a month to check that the AOP specifications are met. The experts judge the quality of the cheeses according to four criteria: the external appearance, the openings in the cheese, the texture of the cheese and its smell and taste. Cheeses that do not meet these criteria cannot be marketed as Tête de Moine AOP.
Watch the film on the making of Tête de Moine AOP to see all the steps.
Let’s eat!
Tête de Moine AOP can be enjoyed in various forms: raw, cooked, with sweet and savoury dishes. There is even a Tête de Moine AOP Fondue for those who would like a change from the traditional Gruyère, Vacherin or half and half fondue.
The Interprofessional Association of Tête de Moine offers many recipes for this delicious cheese. Make your choice… and enjoy!
Important dates to remember
1192: There is evidence that cheese was already being made by the monks of Bellelay Abbey.
1570: The first written mention of the name “Bellelay cheese” appears in a letter.
1793-94: The name “Tête de Moine” appears for the first time.
18th century: The monks are expelled from their monastery, but cheese production continues in the region’s dairies.
1856, 1859, 1860: Tête de Moine receives awards at the Concours Universel in Paris, the Exposition Agricole de la Suisse Romande and the Exposition de l’Agriculture in Bern.
1978: The Association of Tête de Moine Producers is founded in March. Its aim is to promote the production of Tête de Moine AOP in its region of origin, to improve the quality of the product, to increase its reputation in Switzerland and abroad and to take all measures to protect the designation of origin Tête de Moine, Bellelay cheese AOP.
1981: The Girolle® is invented. It makes it easy to scrape the Tête de Moine and obtain “rosettes”. The success of this device changed the cheese-making process somewhat, and the cheese now has a straight cylindrical shape instead of a curved one.
1997: The Tête de Moine Interprofession is founded on 18 September in Bellelay with the aim of applying for registration as a registered designation of origin. It brings together milk producers, cheese makers and ripeners.
2001: The application for the appellation contrôlée is accepted and Tête de Moine becomes Tête de Moine AOP.
2002: In May, the farmers who supply the milk used to make Tête de Moine AOP join the Association of Tête de Moine Milk Producers.
2016: The 1st Tête de Moine Festival is held from 29 April to 1st May in Bellelay. The aim of the event is to combine tradition, authenticity and modernity at the place of origin of the cheese.
2021: Tête de Moine AOP celebrates its 20th anniversary. To mark the occasion, the Interprofession is publishing a book: L’Univers de la Tête de Moine. The Tête de Moine industry takes over the activities of the Maison de la Tête de Moine in Bellelay. For the first time in its history, sales of Tête de Moine AOP exceed the 3,000 ton mark.
Regional actors
