Featured Cheese - May 2019

Based in Southeast Iowa, Milton Creamery was started in 2006 as a joint venture by the Musser Family and local Amish dairy farmers. Today the creamery is solely owned and operated by the Musser Family with the addition of a couple of outside employees. Soon after opening, 17 year old Galen Musser submitted his take on cheddar, Prairie Breeze, and won Best of Class in the Open Hard category at the U.S. Cheese Championship which is one of many awards. Sweeter than most cheddars, this well aged cheddar is loaded with flavor with the added crunch of calcium crystals developed during the aging process.

Although cheesemaker Jesse Werner is making quite a few outstanding cheeses, we simply had to share their flagship cheese with you. It’s aged for 12 months and hand dipped in a bright red wax as the early settlers did. The cheddar flavor is an outstanding balance of sweetness and savory flavors. Many cheddars today are being made sweeter and sweeter, but this cheese is a step away from that trend.

Üsi Minnie presents a rich, dense, creamy paste. It’s not hard to conjure images of the field that Minnie grazed in to produce this bold and flavorful cheese as it evokes deep roasted nutty and buttery flavors, balanced nicely with big floral, herbal and grassy notes. A touch of lactic bite and spice on the finish round it out nicely. Overall, a really unique and flavorful Alpine cheese.

First things first. Be sure to remove the crust and grey layer underneath before eating this cheese. Supple is a great word to describe Abondance’s creamy, rich, ivory-hued paste. Its aroma is prominent and flavor intensely fruity, buttery, nutty (hazelnut), and slightly floral. Think of Alpine cows grazing at 3000-6000 feet above sea level on mountain flowers and grasses. We found a nice balance of sweetness to acidity.