;^y8 SCIENCE and practice of cheese-making 



pared with mild-flavored cheese. The pungent flavors 

 are due to ammonia compounds. 



(4) As to the material source of flavoring com- 

 pounds in cheese, it is quite probable that they come 

 from the changing of paracasein into simpler com- 

 pounds, especially such compounds as amino acids and 

 ammonia. 



(5) Fat was formerly regarded as the sole source 

 of flavor in cheese, and in butter also. It is true that 

 when fat in cheese decomposes, it may form a variety 

 of flavoring substances, such, for example, as butyric 

 acid, the characteristic flavor of rancid cheese and 

 butter; but such flavors are offensive. Fat in ched- 

 dar cheese does not appear to undergo any appreciable 

 change in the early stages of cheese-ripening, espe- 

 cially when cheese is ripened under proper conditions 

 of temperature. The decomposition of fat which gives 

 rise to the small white specks sometimes observed in 

 cheese ripened at low temperature does not affect the 

 flavor in any way. 



(6) What is the probable cause of formation of 

 cheese-flavoring compounds? It is well-known that 

 the action of certain bacteria is responsible for many 

 of the bad flavors of cheese. Up to the present time, 

 we are unable to find any satisfactory cause other than 

 micro-organisms for the real, desirable cheese flavor; 

 because, in the absence of living organisms or of the 

 enzyms secreted by them, we get no flavor. 



