Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1901-10-31
Facts for Our Farmers.
MILK FLAVOR.

some of the good points made:
Good flavor sells milk, cream. but
ter and cheese; poor flavor condemns
them. Flavor is that indescribable
something which in dairy products
appeals pleasantly to our senses, but
often passes Gnnoticed because so
familiar, in poor products it is equally
indescribable, but more often charac-
erixed in vigorous language, when
'frowzy" butter, "garlicky' milk,
bitter" cream or strong cheese pre-
sent their offensive doors and tastes.
The ordinary customer calls flavor
the taste" of the article which tickles
his palate, but the expert knows mat
the nerves of smell play the larger
part, and he depends for his Judgment
largely upon trained noise Hence
we see the butter judge or cheese
scorer pass the trier beneath his nos
trils with deep-drawyn breath and
meditative study of the aroma which
arises. Smells, however, cannot be
measured in degrees or separated into
their elements by the spectroscope;
therefore we have to depend upon
general terms, often differing with
the different experts, in our discus
sion Of flavor; yet we have some we'll
marked classes which serve as basis
for reference.
We can separate the faulty favors
into classes by their origin. The min
ute particles thrown off by dairy pro
ducts, whose impact upon tongue or
nostriis give rise to taste or smell,
may come, % from compounds in the
food of the COW or developed in her
body, (2) from matters other than
germs, taken up by the milk while it
stands in poorly-ventilated stables or
rooms reeking with foul smells or (3)
from substances which are the direct
or indirect result of the activity of
living organisms in the milk.
Odors of the first class will be most
noticeable while the milk is warm
from the COW and vii! not increase
with time. They are really far less
common than dairymen generally be-
lieye and may be avoided almost en-
tirely by careful feeding. Garlic, turn
Ups cabbage and such fragrant edibles
will, of course, faint the. milk if they
are fed within a few hours before
milking; but when fed soon after the
cows are MIXED. The volatile oils to
which these odors are due will gener-
ally disappear from the animals sys-
tenn before the next morning or even
ing.
Too often doors of the second class
are assigned to the first, and the old
COW takes the blame for mans faults
as milk very readily ID quickly takes
ur smells and tal from it's sur.
rcundings. When Tia, owner delivers
milk TO the factory and is told that it
Smells bad" he forgets that he or his
men let it stand in the unclean stable
to draw in the "cowy" or worse doors,
while the cows are being fed and
some other chores attended to, or that
they poured it into pals that lacked
a little of perfect sweetness; and he
Immediately says: ''I've got to stop
feeding silage. The cows ate some
cabbage trimmings last night" or
someone forgot to close the rye-field
gate"
Odors of these two classes, due to
volatile compounds in the milk. are
of most Importance in the milk and
cream trade, as the faults largely dis
appear in making butter and cheese.
Thorough aeration is often helpful in
the removal of such 6avors.
doors of the third class, except in
some very rare cases where the udder
itself is the seat of colonies of
bacteria, are not observed in freshly
drawn milk. The bacteria. molds and
yeast which cause them must have 2
chance to develop and to set up
chemical changes in the milk; and
this rarely occurs to any great extent
within twelve hours from the time the
milk is drawn. A high temperature
HDNCVtT, 10 ldNOIdult W 6tOWtn vi
these low forms of plant life; so In
warm weather milk faults are com
cheese making, also the heat often
used to ripen the cream and the high
temperature at which the milk is
held in setting" and cooking the
curd, furnish conditions very favora
BILE to the germs present and they
develop with great rapidity. In their
growth part of the milk is used for
food and in it's breaking down into
simpler compounds the aromatic sub
stances which make flavor good OF
bad, except that due to the fat and to
odors absorbed by the milk are held
TO be the result of bacterial action
the fundamental fiavors of cheese are
probably due to chemical decGmposi.
tion, started by unorganized ferments
known as engines; Joined with which
are other flavors marking the individ
ual cheese, which are probably due tc
bacteria; and it has recently been
found that in some cases yeasts have
been the cause of bad flavor.
This peculiar smell, as though the
milk had set in a close room with a
barrel of not-too-fresh fish was
brought TO the attention of the bacter