Aroma Extract Dilution Analysis of Aged Cheddar Cheese

Volatile compounds were isolated from 3‐yr‐old Cheddar cheese by molecular distillation. They were analyzed by aroma extract dilution analysis, a combination of gas chromatography and olfactometry that reveals the aroma volatiles with the highest odor potency (the highest ratio of concentration to odor threshold). The identified compounds with highest odor potency were listed in order of elution on a DB‐wax capillary column. Their potencies and retention indices (in parentheses) were: ethyl acetate (3, 882), 2‐methylbutanal and 3‐methylbutanal (81, 899), diacetyl (3, 960), α‐pinene (3, 989) ethyl butyrate (243, 1018), ethyl caproate (81, 1218), l‐octen‐3‐one (9, 1284), acetic acid (27, 1418), methional (9, 1428), propionic acid (81,1517), butyric acid (729, 1616), valeric acid (27, 1736), caproic acid (81, 1845) capric acid (9, 2198) and lauric acid (9, 2580).