Swiss cheese "Tete de Mouans": history, taste characteristics and rules of filing

Now the cheese "Tet de Muan" has become a kind of symbol of Switzerland, especially the mountains of Jura. This elite product has an interesting history and no less entertaining name. After all, Tête de Moine is translated from French as "Monk's Head". Not a very appetizing name for cheese, is it? But those who have at least once tried this sour-milk product with a piquant, slightly sweetish taste, will become its adherent forever. The Swiss are great inventors in the way of serving cheeses. Some varieties they make exclusively for fondue, others should be put in heat and scrape off melted pieces, like shawarma. In this article, we will reveal the subtleties of the Tete de Mouans cheese. What is the use of this product?

A bit of history

Cheese "Tet de Muan" is older than the Swiss Confederation for a whole hundred years. In 1136, the abbey of Belle was founded in the Jura mountains. And the monks of this monastery, in addition to prayers and vigils, were engaged in cattle breeding and cheese making. The first written mention of Tête de Moine dates back to 1192. However, the cheese was then named after the abbey - "Belle". The monastery was a large landowner, and tenant farmers paid for the use of pastures with livestock products. Cheese "Belle" was made from the most fat unpasteurized milk. Nada for him used only the summer and only from those cows that grazed on the juicy alpine meadows of Jura. The quality of the cheese was so excellent that its heads for a long time served as a monetary equivalent.

How "Belle" became "Tet de Muan"

And where did this strange name come from - "Monk's head"? The new name was given to the cheese by the soldiers of the French Revolution at the end of the eighteenth century. In an anticlerical rush they drove monks out of the monasteries and expropriated their lands. This fate and the abbey of Belle did not pass. They say that the revolutionaries found in the monastery cellars cheeses, which, according to ancient tradition, were made in the size and shape of a human head. And when the soldiers learned how to properly eat the cheese "Tet de Muan", they had an association of scraping the surface with the cutting of monastic tonsure. The abbey has emptied, but the art of making Belle did not disappear. The cheese "The Head of a Monk" was promoted by a farmer Hofstetter, who in 1856 presented his product at the World Agricultural Competition in Paris. He won many awards. And not only thanks to the unmatched taste qualities. The form of submission very surprised the French, avid to the whole original. What is it?

Knife for cheese "Tet de Muan"

As we recall, the form of filing the product reminded the French soldiers of the monk's tonsure. Unlike most cheeses, "Tet de Muan" is not cut into pieces, does not tinder and does not melt. The surface of the head is scraped, and so that neat translucent "roses" are obtained. Previously, to get such a cheese bud, used a usual sharp knife. This required skill, almost mastery. A real breakthrough was made in 1982 by a mechanic from the canton of Jura Nicolas Crevoesier. He created a fat for the cheese "Tet de Muan", a special knife with which accurate people can cut any "rosy". The French word Girolle translates as "chanterelle". A knife is a pin with a perpendicular rotating handle-blade. Such a genius simple device spurred interest in the cheese "Monk's head".

Taste qualities

This product is rather fatty, because it is made from whole milk of summer milk. Brew this cheese exclusively in copper vats. And the abomasum is of animal origin - veal. The taste characteristics also depend on aging. Cheese "Tet de Muan", the recipe of which has not changed for more than eight hundred years, has been ripening for at least two and a half months in cool cellars on spruce boards. Each head is regularly turned over and washed with a strong brine solution. As a result, the cheese is covered with a brown crust, and the "head" itself remains dense, yellow, homogeneous. Taste of "Tet de Muan" piquant and gentle at the same time. It is sweet, velvety and sharp. The fragrance of the product is discreet. The taste is best revealed with a very thin cut.

How to serve Tete de Mouans cheese

Reviews recommend enjoying this delicacy in the company of good friends and accompanied by white wine - dry or semisweet. A solid head of cheese "Tet de Muan" is placed on a wooden plank. Exactly in the middle of it is inserted a pin of the giraffe. One turn with the handle-blade - and on the surface of the cheese remains the finest shavings. Each eater puts it on his plate. You can use the "Head of a monk" and in the process of making complex snacks or canapes, but only as an ornament. With the help of a giraffe - a knife, which is quite often available with the Tete de Mouans cheese, - making "buds" will be an easy task.

This delicacy

Only ten products from Switzerland have a certificate attesting to the authenticity of origin (AOC). And the cheese "Tet de Muan" is one of them. It is produced in only ten enterprises located in a small area of Porrentrui (Bernese Jura Mountains). Cows should graze exclusively on local alpine meadows and eat fresh summer grass. Cheese is still kept on spruce boards in cool basements. No dyes and flavors are allowed. Therefore, the price of cheese is quite high - about three and a half thousand rubles for a head weighing eight hundred and fifty grams.