By Kimberly J. Decker, Contributing Editor
Set a glass of chocolaty-sweet milk next to a ripe wheel of Epoisses—a cheese so aggressive that even the French have banned it from public transit—and you may wonder how such dissimilar foods could claim the same parent: milk. Pull yogurt, ice cream and that distant relation alfredo sauce into the family picture and the message is clear: dairy is one diverse clan.
Given that diversity, product developers hoping for a universal strategy for flavoring dairy might as well quit. “Every ingredient can have a different impact on the delivery of flavor within a dairy system," says Scott Harris, segment director, Givaudan, Cincinnati. “You have to employ varying approaches to offset those elements that can mute flavors, as well as those that can enhance characteristics within a system and deliver flavor to the palate." By tapping the wisdom of flavor experts, your entire dairy lineup can come out tasting like one big, happy family.
Dairy’s flavor foundation
Diverse though dairy may be, the category’s foods and beverages share commonalities that form a sort of flavor foundation. According to MaryAnne Drake, Ph.D., professor, sensory analysis and flavor chemistry, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, and sensory lab director at the university’s Southeast Dairy Foods Research Center, the “basic building blocks" of that foundation are the milk’s fat, lactose and proteins.
