Short communication: Identification of the aroma compounds responsible for the floral/rose flavor in water-soluble fractions of Manchego cheese.

Water-soluble fractions from Protected Denomination of Origin Manchego cheese, with molecular weight <1,000 Da, were fractionated using gel permeation chromatography and studied using both instrumental and sensorial analysis. In 2 of the fractions, panelists detected a floral, rose-like flavor. Analysis of these fractions by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry after simultaneous distillation extraction with dichloromethane identified 2-phenylethanol and phenylacetaldehyde as the compounds responsible for this flavor.