Tête de Moine

Tête de Moine

What it is

The canons of Bellelay abbey were making it by the twelfth century, but the tool that now defines it is barely older than the microwave: the girolle, a spindle and blade that shaves a cylinder into ruffled rosettes, was invented by Nicolas Crevoisier in 1981 and patented the following year. Before it the cheese was scraped with a knife and sold within a few valleys; the rosette turned a local wheel into an export.

In the kitchen

The rosette is not decoration: the thin ruffled shaving multiplies the surface meeting the air, and the aroma only appears then — a wedge cut with a knife tastes flat by comparison. Shave it at room temperature and eat it within the hour, because those petals dry out fast.

Goes with

Pear Walnut Cumin Black pepper Apple Rye berries Grape

Same species

Abura-kasu Amourettes (spinal marrow) Spider steak Bastourma Flank steak Beef

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