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Tête de Moine (Monk’s Head) raw milk cheese – shaved, curled or cubed.
Tête de Moine, Swiss raw milk cheese with a long tradition. The Tête de Moine was invented and initially produced more than eight centuries ago by the monks of the abbey of Bellelay, located in the community of Saicourt, district of Moutier, in the mountainous zone of the Bernese Jura, the French-speaking area of the Canton of Bern.
Traditionally, the cheese is prepared for eating in an unusual way: the cheese loaf is carefully scraped with a knife to produce thin shavings, which is said to help develop scented flavours by allowing oxygen to reach more of the surface. Tête de Moine, literally as “Monk’s Head”. The name was first documented in the records of Mont-Terrible, a Department established by the French when they annexed the region from 1793 to 1799 at the time of the French Revolution.
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. It is made from raw cow’s milk and is characterized by a cylindrical form. It is excellent with dry white wine, after being matured for a minimum of 2½ months on small spruce plank.
All half wheels will come vacuum sealed bags (up to 60 days best before date). Full wheels will come in cheese paper (up to 30 days best before date). If you would like 2 half wheels instead of 1 full wheel, please simply increase the amount on the check-out/cart page. The price will be different to a full wheel due to the required cutting and repacking.
How much does one rosette weigh?
For portioning you sometimes may want to know how many rosettes you get of a half or full wheel of Tête de Moine. The answer, as so often, is it depends. It depends on how fresh the cheese is and with what tool you shape the rosettes with. Assuming you have an original Girolle and fresh stock, a typical rosette will be around 15 to 20g each. For calculating the total amount of rosettes per wheel/half wheel you will need to discount the rind. Overall we calculated you should get about 37 rosettes of 20g from a fresh, full wheel of Tête de Moine shaped on a Girollle.
Must-have Accessory
As jus thighlighted above, the best way to cut/shape the Tête de Moine is by putting it on an orginal Girolle. You can find these Girolle shapers in our shop as well. Or if you prefer, go with the ‘all-in’ solution and get the gift pack ‘Pirouette‘ consisting of a half-wheel Tête de Moine and a reusable plastic cutter.
How the cheese gets to you
At Alpine Express, we send all our cheeses in eco-friendly, insulated cardboard boxes, carefully cushioned with recycled packing paper and kept chilled with food-grade gel ice packs. We use the fastest service available — most often Star Track Express — so your cheese arrives in peak condition. You can check estimated delivery times using Star Track’s estimated transit time tool, though we may occasionally select another trusted courier to ensure the quickest, most reliable service.
Unless otherwise noted, we ship cheese boxes each Monday, with an order cut-off of 8 pm (Sydney time) the night before. As soon as your order is on its way, you’ll receive a tracking number so you can follow your cheese’s journey from our door to yours.
Do you have any other questions? Check our FAQs for additional information or write to us via our contact form.
