CAUSES OF RIPENING CHANGES 375 



we are justified in believing that the chemical changes 

 of cheese-ripening are the result of several different 

 kinds of fermentative agents, the precise relations of 

 each of which to the details of the ripening process 

 have not been satisfactorily worked out yet. 



CHEESE FLAVORS 



In connection with the ripening of cheese, the ques- 

 tion of cheese flavor is, of course, one of paramount 

 importance. What do we know about the origin of 

 cheese flavor, the particular substance or compound 

 that the flavor comes from, and the method of its 

 formation ? Very little, in detail. When we speak 

 or think of flavors in cheese, we too commonly view 

 them in a vague, misty and mysterious way. As a 

 matter of fact, flavors are realities, and sometimes 

 very striking ones, and they come from real things. 

 Every flavor represents one or more specific chemical 

 compounds. Some one chemical compound, or, it 

 may be, some mixture of two or more definite 

 chemical compounds, is entirely responsible for 

 each and every flavor found in cheese, or, for that 

 matter, anywhere else, whether pleasant or other- 

 wise. 



The study of the problem of cheese flavors has 

 received less attention than that of the chemical 

 changes in cheese proteins, though the two questions 

 are probably closely related. The questions that 

 present themselves in connection with the normal 

 flavors of American cheddar cheese are: (i) What 

 are they? (2) Where do they come from? (3) 

 What produces them or what is the manner of their 

 formation ? 



