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Cheese from Bernese Jura, Franches-Montagnes and Porrentruy districts, Moutier district and Saulcy

Tête de Moine AOPTête de Moine, Fromage de Bellelay

Tête de Moine is a small, tall, semi-hard cheese of raw cow milk made in copper vats in the Swiss Jura. The curd is heated to 46–53 °C, pressed and brined, then the rind is smeared with Brevibacterium linens on spruce boards for at least 75 days. It is scraped into thin rosettes with a girolle instead of being cut.

Fully documentedCheese2.5 monthsAOP (Switzerland, protected since 19 January 2001)Family: Washed-rind (smear-ripened) cheese family (Munster and Époisses as templates)

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedThe specification sets no batch size for dairies; farmhouse Tête de Moine is limited to 500 l of milk a day in a copper vat of at most 500 l. It gives no culture or rennet doses.
Raw cow milkFrom cows fed no silage of any kind; bactofugation and ultrafiltration are not allowed[tdm-cdc]
Farm starter culturesMade from mother cultures recommended for Tête de Moine, plus the proof-of-origin culture[tdm-cdc][ludin2016]
Rennet[tdm-cdc]
Salt brineThe cheese holds at most 25 g of salt per kg[tdm-cdc]
Brevibacterium linens with water or salted waterFor the smear on the rind[tdm-cdc]
StarterFarm starters or cultures made from recommended mother cultures, plus a proof-of-origin culture; rennet; smear bacteria on the rind

Total time across the recorded steps: 2.5 months

Start
Drag the bar or press Play
8–18 °C

What changes: Starting material: raw cow milk, delivered once or twice a day

Step 1 of 8
Deliver and hold the raw milk
Time
18–24 h
Set
Temperature
8–18 °C
Set
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactic acid bacteria
Brevibacterium linens

Output: raw cheese milk.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

Not documented for this step.

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

At a glance

Tête de Moine is a small, tall, semi-hard cheese of raw cow milk made in copper vats in the Swiss Jura. The curd is heated to 46–53 °C, pressed and brined, then the rind is smeared with Brevibacterium linens on spruce boards for at least 75 days. It is scraped into thin rosettes with a girolle instead of being cut. Made in 8 steps over 2.5 months. The longest step, ripen for at least 75 days, takes at least 2.5 months (Office fédéral de l'agriculture (OFAG) 2026). Salt is up to 2.5 % (Office fédéral de l'agriculture (OFAG) 2026). Lactic starter cultures from mother cultures recommended for Tête de Moine and Agroscope proof-of-origin lactic acid bacteria culture do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main stepat least 2.5 monthsSet[tdm-cdc]Ripen for at least 75 days
Temperature8–18 °CSet[tdm-cdc]Deliver and hold the raw milk
Saltup to 2.5 %Set[tdm-cdc]Brine the wheels

What makes this one different

Most washed-rind cheeses are soft. Tête de Moine is a raw-milk, semi-hard cheese whose curd is heated to 46–53 °C and pressed, and it ripens for at least 75 days. Its AOP also protects the rosette; the cheese is scraped with a girolle, not sliced.

Milk
Raw cow milk, never heated above 40 °C, from cows fed no silage
Ripening
At least 75 days on spruce boards
Size
10–15 cm across, 0.7–2 kg, height 70–100 % of the diameter
Fat
510–540 g/kg fat in dry matter

Related ferments

Variants

  • Tête de Moine fermièreFarm-made from the farm's own organic whole milk, April to October only, at most 500 l a day in a wood-fired copper vat; curd heated to 44–53 °C and drawn off in cloths; ripened at least 100 days.
  • Tête de Moine RESERVE and EXTRARipened at least 4 and at least 6 months.

Safety

The milk is raw and is never heated above 40 °C; the curd is then heated to 46–53 °C. A lab model of Tête de Moine-type cheese found that Staphylococcus aureus can still form enterotoxin at 52–56 °C scalding, depending on the strain.

Hazards the sources name: Staphylococcus aureus (enterotoxin formed in a lab model of Tête de Moine-type cheese at 52–56 °C scalding).

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

The Bellelay monastery was founded in 1136, and in 1192 its monks were first named in connection with cheese, paying annual rent on properties with cheese made in the abbey. The oldest description of the Bellelay cheese dates from 1628. The monks were evicted in 1797, during the French Revolution, but the cheese went on being made in the dairies of the former abbey. 'Tête de Moine' as a name has been used since about 1790. Registered as a Swiss AOP by the Federal Office for Agriculture on 19 January 2001 and amended several times since, most recently on 31 March 2026. The word rosette is protected together with the name.

  1. [tdm-cdc] Office fédéral de l'agriculture (OFAG), Cahier des charges Tête de Moine, Fromage de Bellelay AOP, as amended to 31 March 2026spec
  2. [ludin2016] Lüdin P., von Ah U., Rollier D., Roetschi A., Eugster E. 2016, Lactic acid bacteria as markers for the authentication of Swiss cheeses, Chimia 70(5):349, doi:10.2533/chimia.2016.349paper
  3. [schwendimann2020] Schwendimann L., Berger T., Graber H.U., Meier S., Hummerjohann J., Jakob E. 2020, Effect of scalding temperature on growth of Staphylococcus aureus and formation of staphylococcal enterotoxin during the production of Alpine cheese in a laboratory cheesemaking model, Journal of Food Protection, doi:10.4315/JFP-19-600paper
  4. [tdm-history] Interprofession Tête de Moine, History (Tête de Moine AOP, Fromage de Bellelay)web