New York AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 30 
HIGH TEMPERATURES HASTEN THE FORMATION OF ODORS. 
While under proper conditions the plants found in milk 
should not, and in most cases do not, produce flavors in the milk 
during the first twelve hours after milkiig, the fact remains 
that occasionally milk is so strongly inoculated with germs from 
its surroundings or is held at such high temperatures that the 
production of odors is accomplished in a shorter time. More- 
over when cream is placed at a favorable temperature for ripen- 
ing or milk in the cheese vat is heated for “setting” at 85° F. 
(24° C.) or goes through the so-called “ cooking ” at 98° F. (86.5° 
C.) the conditions are here favorable for a very rapid multipli- 
cation of the already large number of germs present. To sup- 
port this amount of plant life and growth there is a correspond- 
ingly rapid decomposition of the constituents of the milk with 
an accompanying formation of aromatic substances. 
The flavors in butter, both good and bad, are believed to be 
due to bacterial activity, with the exception of the inherent 
flavor of the fat and of a few cases where the odors absorbed 
by the milk are so pronounced as to pass over with the butter- 
fat, or when butter is allowed to absorb odors from its surround- 
ings. 
7 FLAVOR IN CHEESE. 
In cheese, particularly of the Cheddar type, where the ripen- 
ing process extends over a long period, the problem of flavor 
becomes complicated. It has been shown by Babcock and Rus- 
sell, and corroborated by other investigators‘, that cheese con- 
tains chemical ferments capable of slowly producing profound 
changes in the casein which forms a considerable fraction of the 
fresh curd. The compounds which are thus formed undoubtedly 
"Babcock, S. M., and Russell, H. L. Unorganized Ferments of Milk: A 
New Factor in the Ripening of Cheese. Wis. Agr. Exp. Sta., Ann. Rept., 
1897, p. 161. 
*Wreudenreich, E. von. Ueber das in der Milch vohandene unorganisirte 
Ferment, die sogenannte Galaktase. Cent. f. Bakt., II Abt., 6: 332, 1900. 
Jensen, Orla. Studien tiber die Enzyme im Kise, Cent. f. Bakt., II Abt., 
6: 734, 1900. 
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