The volatile compounds associated with tallowy and painty flavours in butterfat

Summary From butterfat with tallowy and painty flavours, the same range of carbonyl compounds was obtained as from fishy flavoured butterfat or washed cream. They consisted of the C5–10 n-alkanals, the C5–10 alk-2-enals, hepta-2, 4-dienal and a compound with a metallic flavour. Heptan-2-one, present only in small amounts in washed cream, was also isolated. Three factors distinguished the tallowy and painty from the fish-oil flavoured butterfat. There was a relative increase in n-heptanal, n-octanal, n-nonanal, heptan-2-one, hept-2-enal and non-2-enal in the tallowy butterfat and a relative increase in n-pentanal and the C5–10 alk-2-enals in the painty butterfat. Secondly, the ‘metallic’ compound was present in such small relative amounts in both the tallowy and painty flavoured butterfats as to have no effect on the flavour. Thirdly, the total weight of volatile carbonyl compounds was about 10 times greater in the tallowy and 100 times greater in the painty butterfat than in the fish-oil flavoured butterfat.