♪♪ [Kohlsdorf] The rolling hills of southern Iowa's Van Buren County are part and parcel of an award-winning globetrotting food with humble origins.

♪♪ [Rufus "Junior" Musser IV] We live in a unique part of the world that does contribute to our finished products.

In the cheese world, we like to talk about terroir, which is a French word that means general area, the bacteria.

It's in the environment.

It's on the grass and in the feed that the cows were eating and that affects flavor.

[Rufus "Junior" Musser IV] Cheese gets made in the other building and comes out here for aging.

[Kohlsdorf] Rufus Musser IV, or Junior as he is known, is a family owner of Milton Creamery, which sources milk from five local Amish and Mennonite dairies.

Straight off the farm right there.

[Kohlsdorf] All within 25 miles of their plant to create several renowned varieties of cheddar cheese.

[Rufus "Junior" Musser IV] You've got all your different products here, Prairie Breeze, Garden Vegetable, Cheddar, Tomato Garlic, Black Pepper, Caramelized Onion, 4 Alarm, Old Style Cheddar.

[Rufus "Junior" Musser IV] So, what aging does, it allows the flavors to develop.

♪♪ [Rufus "Junior" Musser IV] We're basically chefs with big kettles.

It's really neat how you just take a simple vat full of milk and six hours later you've got 900, 1000 pounds of cheese.

There's a lot involved in cheesemaking.

There's art, there's science, there's passion involved.

[Kohlsdorf] In addition to their flagship Prairie Breeze variety, Milton Creamery is known for a Midwest staple, cheese curds.

Junior says it takes about 100 pounds of milk to make just ten pounds of cheese.

[Rufus "Junior" Musser IV] Anybody can make cheese, but not everybody can make the same cheese so that the end product comes out very consistently.

All milk comes in, we pasteurize it, it goes in the cheese vat, we add our starter cultures, let milk coagulate and we'll cut the curd, we'll rake the curds back, drain the whey off and then we'll start cutting it into slabs and start flipping and stacking those slabs on top of each other, which is called the cheddaring process.

Cheddaring is a noun and a verb.

[Kohlsdorf] Bursting onto the scene nearly two decades ago, Milton Creamery took farmer's markets by storm.

They have since expanded, won several domestic and international awards, and become a household name in the region.

[Rufus "Junior" Musser IV] We have a fan base.

Customers love it.

We just had a person email us saying that she is convinced that we are using narcotics to make the cheese because it is this addictive.

(laughs) [Kohlsdorf] Milton Creamery products can be found in all 50 states.

And Junior says new cheese offerings are on the horizon.

In the meantime, he suggests some pairings to maximize palates and relationships.

[Rufus "Junior" Musser IV] If I'm doing a burger, I'll either look at a 4 Alarm or a Caramelized Onion or the Morning Harvest.

Or if I'm doing say scalloped potatoes, I'll put Caramelized Onion in there.

A salad you've got to have Prairie Breeze.

Food brings families together.

♪♪