Beaujolais see Chevretons.

Beaumont, or Tome de Beaumont
Savoy, France

A more or less successful imitation of Trappist Tamie, a trade-secret triumph of Savoy.  At its best from October to June.

Beaupre de Roybon
Dauphine, France

A winter specialty made from November to April.

Beckenried
Switzerland

A good mountain cheese from goat milk.

Beer cheese
U.S.A.

While our beer cheese came from Germany and the word is merely a translation of Bierkaese, we use it chiefly for a type of strong Limburger made mostly in Milwaukee.  This fine, aromatic cheese is considered by many as the very best to eat while drinking beer.  But in Germany Bierkaese is more apt to be dissolved in a glass or stein of beer, much as we mix malted powder in milk, and drunk with it, rather than eaten.

Beer-Regis
Dorsetshire, England

This sounds like another beer cheese, but it’s only a mild Cheddar named after its hometown in Dorsetshire.

Beist-Cheese
Scotland

A curiosity of the old days.  “The first milk after a calving, boiled or baked to a thick consistency, the result somewhat resembling new-made cheese, though this is clearly not a true cheese.” (MacNeill)

Belarno
Italy

Hard; goat; creamy dessert cheese.

Belgian Cooked
Belgium

The milk, which has been allowed to curdle spontaneously, is skimmed and allowed to drain.  When dry 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.