Brös

thumb|upright 0.8|Bruss from Liguria (Mendatica) packed in a plastic bowl thumb|upright 0.8|Bruss on a Triora bread slice Brös (also Bros, Bross, Brus or Bruss) is a Piedmontese and Ligurian preparation of cheese and grappa which, in former centuries, was typical of the peasant cuisine of the Upper Langa and West Liguria. Its pungent flavour gave rise to the proverb “Only love is stronger than Brös”. It has been conjectured that its name derives from Bresse.

==History== The antiquity of this speciality is unknown, although it was probably well-established before the beginning of the nineteenth century when Vittorio di Sant’Albino described it in his Piedmontese-Italian dictionary. The original motivation was the avoidance of waste: pieces of stale, hard and/or mouldy cheese were mixed with homemade grappa (the distillate of the pomace remaining from winemaking) plus, perhaps, butter and spices, and left to ferment in an earthenware container until the mixture acquired a creamy texture. At this point it was covered and could be treated as a preserve.