it is thoroughly kneaded by hand and is
allowed to undergo fermentation, which takes ordinarily from ten to
fourteen days in winter and six to eight days in summer. When the
fermentation is complete, cream and salt are added and the mixture is
heated slowly and stirred until homogeneous, when it is put into molds
and allowed to ripen for eight days longer. A cheese ordinarily weighs
about three-and-a-half pounds. It is not essentially different from
other forms of cooked cheese.

Beli Sir _see_ Domaci.

Bellelay, Tete de Moine, or Monk's Head
_Switzerland_

Soft, buttery, semisharp spread. Sweet milk is coagulated with rennet
in twenty to thirty minutes, the curd cut fairly fine and cooked not
so firm as Emmentaler, but firmer than Limburger. After being pressed,
the cheeses are wrapped in bark for a couple of weeks until they can
stand alone. Since no eyes are desired in the cheeses, they are
ripened in a moist cellar at a lowish temperature. They take a year to
ripen and will keep three or four years. The diameter is seven inches,
the weight nine to fifteen pounds. The monk's head after cutting is
kept wrapped in a napkin soaked in white wine and the soft, creamy
spread is scraped out to "butter" bread and snacks that go with more
white wine. Such combinations of old wine and old cheese suggest
monkish influence, which began here in the fifteenth century with the
jolly friars of the Canton of Bern. There it is still made exclusively
and not exported, for there's never quite enough to go around.

Bel Paese
_Italy_

_See under_ Foreign Greats, Chapter 3. _Also see_ Mel Fino, a blend,
and Bel Paese types--French Boudanne and German Saint Stefano. The
American imitation is not nearly so good as the Italian original.

Bel Paesino
_U.S.A._

A play on the Bel Paese name and fame. Weight one pound and diminutive
in every other way.

Bergkaese _see_ Allgaeuer.

Bergquara
_Sweden_

Semihard, fat, resembles Dutch Gouda. Tangy, pleasant taste. Gets
sharper with age, as they all do. Molded in cylinders of fifteen to
forty pounds. Popular in Sweden since the eighteenth century.

Berkeley
_England_

Named after its home town in Gloucester, England.

Berliner Kuhkaese
_Berlin, Germany_

Cow cheese, pet-named turkey cock cheese by Berlin students. Typical
German hand cheese, soft; aromatic with caraway seeds, and that's
about the only difference between it and Alt Kuhkaese, without caraway.

Bernarde, Formag