| An essential component of fresh and heated sweet cream butter flavor is the aroma. This study was conducted to determine which volatile compounds are responsible for the aroma of fresh and heated sweet cream butter. The chemical definition of the aroma was determined by static headspace analysis with GC-Olfactometry (GCO) for key odorant detection and subsequent quantification via purge and trap-GC/MS (SIM). Twenty compounds were concluded to have a detectable odor in fresh butter (hydrogen sulfide, acetaldehyde, dimethyl sulfide, 2,3-butanedione, hexanal, 2-methylbutanal, 3-methylbutanal, 1-hexen-3-one, butanoic acid, dimethyl trisulfide, 1-octen-3-one, hexanoic acid, δ-hexanolactone, nonanal, [Z]-2-nonenal, [E]-2-nonenal, δ-octanolactone, skatole, δ-decanolactone and γ-dodecanolactone), while nineteen were determined to have a detectable odor in heated butter (hydrogen sulfide, methanethiol, acetaldehyde, 2,3-butanedione, 1-hexen-3-one, butanoic acid, 3-methylbutanoic acid, 2-heptanone, methional, dimethyl trisulfide, 1-octen-3-one, hexanoic acid, furaneol, δ-hexanolactone, nonanal, [E]-2-nonenal, δ-octanolactone, skatole, δ-decanolactone). The fresh butter samples (reference) were obtained directly from a butter manufacturing plant. Aroma recombination studies followed by sensory analysis indicated that our fresh aroma model was significantly different from the reference and a commercial fresh butter but ranked the same (similarity) as the aroma of a commercial margarine or an unsalted fresh butter. For our heated butter model, the aroma ranked the same as a commercial butter (heated) but was significantly different from the reference (heated butter). A commercial unsalted butter (heated) and a heated butter aroma model of Budin (1998) also ranked significantly lower than our heated butter model. |
